Intervention of foreign merchants in the life of the Far East

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Paradoxically, the Russians owe their trade ties with the East to the Germans. In the middle of the 19th century, Russia mastered vast territories of the Far East and founded new cities there. In 1856, on the banks of the Amur River, Blagoveshchensk was founded, in 1868 - Khabarovsk, and two years later, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, Vladivostok was founded.

New cities needed supplies of a wide variety of goods. The huge distances separating the new territories from the capital of the Russian Empire complicated logistics and trade links with the central part of the country. Enterprising merchants from neighboring countries, primarily China, helped to fill the niche.

Two Gustavs

German merchants Gustav Kunst and Gustav Albers founded a trading empire, the scale of which is still shaking today. The future business partners met in China. Deciding that the competition for the Chinese market was too great (a huge market share already belonged to the British and French), Kunst and Albers went to the newly founded port of Vladivostok.

They rightly considered that there is practically no competition in Vladivostok, and the new settlement will need goods. In addition, in 1862 the city received the status of a free port, that is, a free port, in which goods are not subject to duties. Thus, in 1864, the main trading division of the Kunst and Albers appeared in Vladivostok.

Successful businessmen were able to predict that the city would begin to expand, therefore, the demand for their goods would increase. Indeed, the city was growing rapidly. Kunst and Albers provided Vladivostok with household goods - food, clothing, jewelry, primarily from China. The goods were sold very quickly, despite the large deliveries and the price level, which was higher than in central Russia.

Business went uphill, and in 1884 German merchants opened the first department store in the center of Vladivostok, the building of which has survived to this day. The beautiful three-story house, designed by the young German architect Georg Junghendel, can be called one of the most recognizable in the city.

Trading house "Kunst and Albers" in Vladivostok - Archival photo

Trading house "Kunst and Albers" in Vladivostok - today - Legion Media

Over time, branches of the company were opened in other cities of the Far East. Quite soon, branches appeared in the Far Eastern Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk, Nikolaevsk-on-Amur and other settlements of the region. The company began expansion into other major cities of the empire. For example, she opened representative offices in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Odessa and Kiev, Warsaw and Riga. However, the interests of the trading corporation were not limited to Russia. Its branches could be found in Japanese Nagasaki, Chinese Harbin and German Hamburg.

Trading house "Kunst and Albers" in Khabarovsk - Archival photo

Trading house "Kunst and Albers" in Khabarovsk - today - Delekasha (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Kunst and Albers were also remembered as benefactors. With their money, for example, a Lutheran church was built, which still remains the oldest religious building in Vladivostok.

The trade empire of Kunst and Albers was headed by Albers' son Vincent Alfred and one of the partners of Kunst and Albers in the trade business Adolf Dattan.

During the First World War, in which Russia and Germany were opponents, a loud article was published in the capital's press. In it, the trading house of Kunst and Albers was accused of espionage. Despite the title of nobility and the respect of local residents, Adolf Dattan was arrested and sent into exile in Siberia. According to one of the versions, his competitors were involved in this, who took advantage of anti-German sentiments during the war for their own purposes.

The management of the "Kunst & Albers" company filmed during the last meeting of the owners in Vladivostok, in 1880. At the table from left to right: Gustav Albers, Gustav Kunst, Adolph Dattan.

Public domain

Dattan was able to return to Vladivostok in 1919. He ran the store until his death in 1924.

In the late 1920s, the trading empire was nationalized by the Bolsheviks. In 1934, GUM, the main department store, was founded in the main building of Kunst and Albers in Vladivostok. It is still known under this name. The Khabarovsk branch of Kunst and Albers also became known as GUM, the historic building is still used for its intended purpose.

A Chinese man with a Russian soul: the story of Typhontai

Ji Fengtai was born in Shandong province in eastern China. He first came to Russia in 1873 as a translator. The city of Khabarovsk, in which he lived for many years, became the main location for his business.

There is no consensus among researchers about whether he was a merchant at the time of his arrival in Russia, or whether his business originated directly in Khabarovsk.

First, the Chinese man opened a trading shop and workshop. As the company grew, he founded a tenement house, a tobacco factory and a mill. The further, the more Tifontai, as the Russians called him in their own way, participated in the public life of Khabarovsk, donating large sums to charity and public needs. He did not forget about his Chinese compatriots, helping them to settle in Russia.

House of the merchant Typhontai in Khabarovsk - Andshel (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Contemporaries note the significant role of the Chinese in supplying the city of Khabarovsk with food. However, some townspeople were embarrassed by this state of affairs, some of them were afraid of the increase in the number of Chinese in the region. The correspondent of the Vladivostok newspaper dated August 11, 1896 in his article criticized the local Chinese service and wrote with annoyance: “This is how dependent on the Chinese are Russian passengers on a Russian steamer!

If the kitchen was kept by a Russian, then I think it would be much cleaner and tidier, since the Russian concept of cleanliness is much higher than the Chinese one. Meanwhile, it seems that on all the ships of the new partnership, the kitchen and the buffet are kept by the Chinese, according to rumors, the figureheads of the almighty Khabarovsk Typhontai, who occupies an honorable place everywhere among the good-natured Russians, and the inhabitants of Khabarovsk are completely dependent on him, since he alone delivers bread from China for food.

The office and shop of the merchant Tifontai in Khabarovsk - Andshel (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Tifontai himself, apparently, fell in love with his second home and supported him in every possible way. In 1886, he participated in negotiations on the border between China and the Russian Empire. Some Chinese researchers believe that Tifontai ended up deceiving the Chinese, who installed the border post in the wrong place. So Russia received more territory than it was supposed to under the treaty.

Tifontai also supplied the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War, spending impressive funds on this. There is no exact estimate, but the Russian government later reimbursed him 500 thousand rubles (according to rough estimates, making an adjustment for the dollar exchange rate and the cost of gold, this amount may be equivalent to about 10 million modern dollars), and even this amount did not cover all Typhontai's expenses. For this support, he received immense respect from Russian soldiers.

Tifontai tried several times to obtain Russian citizenship. Russian officials demanded that he convert to Orthodoxy and cut off his traditional Chinese braid. Tifontai did not want to do this and received refusals. Only in 1893 he still managed to obtain Russian citizenship and a new name: Ji Fengtai became Nikolai Ivanovich Tifontai.

Nikolay Tifontai with orders of the Russian Empire - Public domain

According to some sources, which some historians consider only a legend, in 1891 the future emperor Nicholas II looked into the shop of a Chinese merchant. The merchant did not recognize the heir to the throne, who asked him to choose a good fabric. The future emperor highly appreciated the quality of service, offering Tifontai an official post in gratitude. The Chinese man refused. Then Nikolai awarded him the highest merchant title.

In Khabarovsk, Typhontai had a family, but almost no information about her has survived. It is only known that his children were sent to study in central Russia.

Nikolai Ivanovich Tifontai died in 1910 and was buried in the city of Harbin, according to his will. He was a merchant of the first guild, he had two Russian awards for his participation in supplying the army during the war with Japan and his contribution to the development of Khabarovsk: the Order of Stanislav of the third degree and the Order of Stanislav of the second degree.

The buildings erected for Typhontai's business can still be found in Khabarovsk. These historic houses are reminiscent of the past of a great trade. And about the Chinese, for whom the Far Eastern Khabarovsk has become a second home.

As for the trade business of Tifontai, it existed until about the same time as the business of German merchants. The houses were nationalized.