Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2014 number

The paper gives a detailed analysis of monographs by historian P.N. Pavlov (1921-1974) “Fur trade in Siberia in the XVII century” and “Trade colonization of Siberia in the XVII century”, published in Krasnoyarsk in 1972 and 1974. Pavlov’s contribution to studying the development of fur trade in Siberia is noted. Much attention is paid to the historical sources Pavlov used in his research, first of all to the books of Siberian custom houses which were the main primary sources for studying this specific subject. The author describes techniques applied by Pavlov for processing these historical sources; cites the scholar’s conclusions about completeness and reliability of information contained in custom-houses’ books. The statistics received by Pavlov in the course of studying the custom-houses’ books and other sources (on the price of Siberian furs, share of various animals’ fur production in the total output; share of furs in the state budget) are listed. Pavlov’s contribution to research of technological and economic aspects fur trade is considered. Historian’s conclusions about the process of peasant and trade colonization of Siberia, “yasak” policy, state’s attitude to the private fur trade, relationships between the Russian fur traders and local population, practices of using the hunting areas are described. Pavlov’s views on the territorial origins of fur traders, evolution of small commodity production and large business and on the essence of “pokruta” in the Siberian fur trade are presented.