Persian gulf in Russian regular shipping in the early XX century

The paper examines the scheme for servicing scheduled voyages to the Persian Gulf proposed by the owners of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade. The scheme is analyzed in the context of cross-border cargo and passenger traffic, the activities of the company's board members and government officials, and the domestic situation in Russia and Persia in the early twentieth century. Government support for shipping operations was particularly important, as it provided access to diplomatic services in addition to greater availability of government subsidies and international business contacts. But some aspects of the operations were specific to the regions in which the company operated, including differences between ports and domestic trade demands, between the directions and scales of cargo and passenger traffic, and between the priorities of commercial, geopolitical, and sociocultural (religious) goals of maritime shipping. At the same time, the shipping company achieved notable success in the delivery of Russian industrial products, expanding its activities through efforts to deliver goods that were highly valued in the coastal regions of the Middle East, as well as through the active use of the capabilities of numerous local agencies. At the same time, a number of major events, including the revolution in Russia (1905-1906) and the socio-political upheavals in Persia (1906-1909), seriously affected the volumes of cargo and passenger transportation. Although the empirical material underlying the analysis relates to a specific firm, the business processes and relationships it reflects are generalizable and provide a detailed overview of the transport links between the ports of Russia and the Persian Gulf. The study also notes the rapid growth of transit traffic and the diversification of exports, which reflected the specifics of Russia's cross-border trade relations in the early 1910s. In addition, it emphasizes the importance of public-private partnerships and the relevance of business initiatives for the preparation and implementation of long-term shipping projects.