CHINESE MERCHANTS IN THE TRANSBAIKALIAN REGION: FEATURES OF THE LEGAL STATUS AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY (THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY) — Bulletin of the Buryat Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

DOI 10.31554/2222-9175-2018-32-18-24

CHINESE MERCHANTS IN THE TRANSBAIKALIAN REGION: FEATURES OF THE LEGAL STATUS AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY (THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19^TH CENTURY)

Bashkueva E. Yu.

The article contains the analysis of a legal status and economic activity of the Chinese merchants in the Transbaikalian region in the second half of the 19^th century. The source base of the article is formed by the archival documents of the state archives of the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia. The author studies the question of the legal status of the Chinese merchants in the Transbaikalian region, reconstructing a long process of forcing the Chinese to fill in trade documents, and pay duties in the Russian treasury. The author comes to a conclusion that the Chinese merchants, due to the knacks for commercial activity and a business grasp, managed to virtually monopolize the sphere of trade of the Transbaikalian region. At the same time their activity had ambiguous character for the state.