The Route to the White Sea in the 19th Century. Part 2: Commercial Transportation by Land

Abstract

 For centuries, ways have led from the Vyatka region to Arkhangelsk and the White Sea coast. Grain, flour, flaxseed and hemp from the region’s towns, as well as goods from the Volga and Kama regions were exported along these routes every winter. Through dense forests and then on river barges, the cargo was transported to Arkhangelsk. This paper examines the state of roads that ran from the central part of the Vyatka region to the river piers during the19th century. The purpose of this study is to determine how the condition of roads and roadside facilities affected interregional trade in agricultural goods. This topic is considered here in the context of the so-called road tradition of Russia, i.e. conditions, circumstances, and situations that accompanied journeys by land over long distances. Getting with cargo to the northern river piers along cart roads was very difficult, since the way was long and ran through sparsely populated wooded areas. This hampered the economic activity of millions of people: costs were significant while earnings were low. In addition, the transported goods were raw materials or agricultural products with low level of processing. Bad roads stimulated the search for fundamentally different ways of delivering cargo to the White Sea. However, the Perm–Vyatka–Kotlas railway line, which was completed by 1900, came too late: cargo transportation from Vyatka and neighbouring regions had already shifted from the north to the west, i.e. towards Rybinsk and St. Petersburg.