Iranian merchants at the fairs in the Volga region in the second half of the XIX century

The article is devoted to the problems of trade and economic cooperation between the Russian Empire and Iran in the second half of the XIX century. Special attention is paid to the peculiarities of the participation of Iranian traders at the leading fairs of the Volga region during the period under study. The author analyzes the social composition of merchants, the volume of Iranian exports to Russia, the range of Iranian goods, prices, supply channels of goods, etc. He also reveals the role of Iranian merchants in the transit of goods from neighboring countries of the East: Iraq, Afghanistan, India, the Ottoman Empire, etc., and examines issues of Anglo-Russian trade and economic rivalry in Iran. The article is based on extensive statistical material extracted both from archival documents and from published pre-revolutionary sources in Russian, English, German, and French.