Купец – это не такая древняя профессия как a hunter, but still quite an old specialty in the field of entrepreneurship, that is, activities aimed at systematically obtaining profits from trade.
Basis of the basics
In Russia, merchants were already in the IX century.In those days, the state's treasury was filled mainly with tribute levied on conquered peoples. The second item of income was trade. She was also the engine of progress. Cities were built mainly along the banks of the rivers that served as trade routes. According to historical information, the Scythians had no other roads at all. Coastal cities became first shopping centers, and then they developed crafts. In ancient Russia, a merchant is not only a merchant. Afanasy Nikitin, a monument to which is installed in Tver, in his homeland, was both a great traveler who walked “for three seas”, and a pioneer, and a diplomat. And the famous legendary merchant of Novgorod Sadko cared and the bottom of the sea.
Trade routes
Thanks to barter and its representativessuch great trade routes were opened to merchants as “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, “the great Silk Road”, which is called the “crossroads of civilizations”, the “Chumy's Way”, the famous “Incense Road” crossing the Arabian Peninsula, and many others. The Russian princes were merchants who were forced to somehow get rid of the surplus of natural tribute or the accumulated money, spending it on overseas wonders. The merchant is also the main informant in those days “Okay, is it overseas or ill?” And what a miracle in the light? ”- they learned only from representatives of this multi-faceted profession.
Peter's reforms affected everyone
Этот вид деятельности был уважаем, купечество was an important class at all times. On the commercial entrepreneurship of the Russian legends composed. Old merchant houses often came to the aid of the state. The richest Stroganovs discovered new lands, built factories, built temples. In some historical studies it is said that Peter I defeated the merchants, as a result of which many types of Russian crafts, loved and supported by merchants, were lost. The king carried out reforms, with the result that the old form of merchant associations "hundreds" was abolished, and the guilds replaced them. It was good or bad, but the merchants did not die.
Rich and good
The merchants developed and gained strength, the bestrepresentatives of this class were served before assigning them the nobility for special services to the fatherland. For example, the Rukovishnikovs. The Moscow dynasty founded a noble family, and Ivan Vasilyevich (1843-1901) rose to the secret adviser. The Novgorod dynasty, the founder of which was a resourceful peasant, already in the third generation began to belong to the upper class. The motto of this family was the words "sacrifice and care." The same can be said about quite a large number of Russian entrepreneurs. This is a special mentality of the domestic merchant. The Russian merchant is in most cases a benefactor and patron. The names of the largest merchants-patrons, the memory left by them, in Russian history occupy a special place. Who does not know the merchant Tretyakov, the founder of the art gallery named after him. Anyone who is even slightly familiar with the history of Russia knows the names and deeds of the best representatives of this class - the Mamontovs and Morozovs (the legendary Savva Morozov), the Naydenovy and Botkin, the Shchukins and the Prokhorovs. A large number of hospitals, charity houses, theaters and libraries of Russia were built at the expense of merchants.
Images of positive and negative
However, in Russian literature the image of a merchant is more likelynegative. In many of Ostrovsky’s plays, the merchant’s environment is ridiculed, and the merchant himself is more a cunning prostitute than an educated, generous man. Kustodiyev merchants and merchants personify what is ridiculed as “merchant taste”. To the negative image add features and reviews of foreigners. In this regard, I would like to note that there are very few Russians, about whom foreigners speak well. Their opinion should not be a sentence. Many famous writers laughed at the merchants. But Kalashnikov at Lermontov is very good. It concentrates the best traits of the merchants - honesty, decency, courage, willingness to give life for the good name of a loved one. There were, of course, in this environment and crooks. And in what environment they are not? And then, merchants, as noted above, was divided into guilds. The "third", with a small capital (500 rubles) could be any irresponsible people. But wealthy Russian merchants who live in public view, thinking about their trademark, were mostly poorly honest and decent, but fanatically honest people. "The word merchant" - not a legend. Of course, not all transactions were concluded only verbally. But this merchant word was held rigidly, otherwise it would not have become a legend in the good sense of the word.
