Small-scale shipping and the maritime commerce of eighteenth-century St. Petersburg

Abstract

The paper discusses the history of eighteenth-century St. Petersburg coastal shipping in the context of the Early Modern European coastal transportation growth. Based on the sources significantly understudied so far, I discuss the spatial and economic aspects of St. Petersburg coastal transportation. Using the conceptual framework of the littoral society and Greater St. Petersburg, I discuss the uncertainty of the very concept of the St. Petersburg coastal fleet. Based on the detailed account of the St. Petersburg coastal fleet prepared in the late eighteenth century, I reveal the commercial strategies used by the St. Petersburg merchants in their competition with their European counterparts. These observations confirm that St. Petersburg became a focal point of an enormous network of water transportation, and the local merchants used the coastal fleet as an efficient instrument of participation in international maritime commerce.