Kyakhta – the capital of the Tea Road, a place worth remembering while enjoying a cup of tea.
Everyone talks about the Silk Road, but Siberia had its own great route – the Tea Road. And its heart was Kyakhta, a small town on the border with Mongolia. I recently came across a fascinating article about it, and I'd like to share the main points.
Kyakhta was founded in 1727 as a border outpost, but very quickly it became the main trading gateway of the empire. Almost all of Russia's trade with China passed through it, and above all, tea. By the mid-18th century, 67% of Russia's trade with Asian countries passed through Kyakhta, and in its best years, the town brought the state treasury 8-9% of all its income. According to calculations by Karl Marx, by the mid-19th century, 1,750,000 boxes of tea were sold in Kyakhta each year.
Why was Kyakhta tea valued more than English tea? The main reason was the overland transportation. British ships transported tea across the ocean, and it often got damp in the holds and absorbed unpleasant odors. Kyakhta tea was transported almost entirely by land – it was praised in Europe for its pure taste and beautiful infusion, and it was also cheaper than the tea of the East India Company. There was even a special marking to protect it from being mixed with inferior English tea.
The Kyakhta merchants – Trapeznikov, Medvednikov, Basnin, Molchanov, Lushnikov, Sabashnikov, Starcev, and others – amassed huge fortunes, but they left behind more than just mansions and Worth dresses. With their money, schools, a women's gymnasium, a secondary school, the first public library, and the first Trans-Baikal newspaper, "Kyakhtinskiy Listok," were established. The merchant Alexei Starcev donated his mansion to the branch of the Russian Geographical Society, which led to the creation of the Kyakhta Local History Museum, the oldest museum in Siberia.
The decline came at the end of the 19th century: the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and then the Trans-Siberian Railway, which bypassed Kyakhta, diverted tea to other routes. Today, it is a modest border town, but I like the thought that concludes the article: the next time you brew a cup of tea, remember Kyakhta.
Source: Sibirsky. News.
Kyakhta was founded in 1727 as a border outpost, but very quickly it became the main trading gateway of the empire. Almost all of Russia's trade with China passed through it, and above all, tea. By the mid-18th century, 67% of Russia's trade with Asian countries passed through Kyakhta, and in its best years, the town brought the state treasury 8-9% of all its income. According to calculations by Karl Marx, by the mid-19th century, 1,750,000 boxes of tea were sold in Kyakhta each year.
Why was Kyakhta tea valued more than English tea? The main reason was the overland transportation. British ships transported tea across the ocean, and it often got damp in the holds and absorbed unpleasant odors. Kyakhta tea was transported almost entirely by land – it was praised in Europe for its pure taste and beautiful infusion, and it was also cheaper than the tea of the East India Company. There was even a special marking to protect it from being mixed with inferior English tea.
The Kyakhta merchants – Trapeznikov, Medvednikov, Basnin, Molchanov, Lushnikov, Sabashnikov, Starcev, and others – amassed huge fortunes, but they left behind more than just mansions and Worth dresses. With their money, schools, a women's gymnasium, a secondary school, the first public library, and the first Trans-Baikal newspaper, "Kyakhtinskiy Listok," were established. The merchant Alexei Starcev donated his mansion to the branch of the Russian Geographical Society, which led to the creation of the Kyakhta Local History Museum, the oldest museum in Siberia.
The decline came at the end of the 19th century: the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and then the Trans-Siberian Railway, which bypassed Kyakhta, diverted tea to other routes. Today, it is a modest border town, but I like the thought that concludes the article: the next time you brew a cup of tea, remember Kyakhta.
Source: Sibirsky. News.
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