Economic and cultural interactions between Russian and Central Asian merchants in the Orenburg region in the pre-reform period

The article contains an analysis of the main directions of interaction between Russian and Central Asian merchants in the Orenburg region from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century. The author reveals the volumes of mutual trade, the difficulties in implementing trade relations, and the causes of the unequal positions of Russian and Central Asian merchants. He also points out the features of the policy of Orenburg administrators in relation to this sphere, and describes the cultural characteristics of the local merchants, which imposed a specific imprint on the implementation of trade interaction in the Orenburg region.