Yeniseisk

Yeniseisk was founded as an ostrog in 1619 and quickly became the administrative and economic center of Eastern Siberia, from where the movement of Russian explorers to the south and east.

Yenisei stockaded town (first Tungusk) was built in the summer of 1619 by a detachment of Tobol Cossacks led by the boyar's son Peter Albychev and strelets centurion Cherkas Rukin. From 1623 local governors were appointed directly from Moscow.

Initially Yenisei burg was subordinate to the Tobolsk, and since 1629 - Tomsk Division of the Prikaz of the Kazan Palace.

In 1677 Yeniseisk itself became a Razryadny town; all the settlements and springs along the Yenisei, as well as all of Trans-Yenisei Siberia, up to and including the town of Nerchinsk, came under its authority. In 1690 the population of Yeniseisk numbered about 3000 people. The main economic activity was furs extraction. In 1645-1646 the turnover of Yenisei market exceeded 60 thousand rubles. At the beginning of the 17th century the annual tithe duty in the Yenisei customs was about 500 rubles. Uncontrolled extraction of furs by the 1660s led to a reduction in the fur trade. In 1684 there was a decree forbidding sable hunting in the counties which were part of the Yenisei division. Fur trade was transferred to the state monopoly. The freedom of domestic fur trade was restored by the Decree of July 26, 1727. The second most important activity was the fish trade and fishery. The largest fish trader in the north of the Yenisei in the early 18th century was Nikita Vereshchagin, a Yenisei settler.

In 1708, in connection with the creation of provinces and the abolition of districts, Yeniseisk became a district town in the newly formed Siberian province.

From 1724 to 1775 Yeniseisk was the main city of Yenisei province. The city reached its greatest prosperity in the middle of the 18th century, having become a major craft and trade center. In 1743 stone parlours were built. In 1765 in Yeniseysk there were 143 merchants of the first guild and more than 1,200 of the second guild.

Yenisei Fair was the main center of the fur trade in Siberia in the 18th century. Yeniseisk was located between the waterways of Western and Eastern Siberia. The fair was held annually from August 1 to 15. West Siberian merchants brought to the fair manufactory and haberdashery goods, grape wine, etc. East Siberian merchants brought goods for sale Kyahta. Yenisei merchant Matvey Fedorovich Khoroshih, who got rich in the fur trade, becomes the most influential of Yenisei merchants at the beginning of the XIX century. For a long time he remained the only merchant of the first guild in Yeniseisk.