Lena River In the upper reaches of the mountains, the Vitim River runs along its entire length - the river is fast, not too deep, and full of dangerous shoals and rocks. Their main means of transport remained wooden barges like the Cossack Plow (next frame) - this was how mail was transported until the 20th century.
But for gold mines, it's clearly yesterday: if the metal itself could fit in them, then everyone who wanted to mine it, especially tools, equipment, household items, wouldn't be able to. In the coniferous forest , after hearing that there was gold, a group of bandits couldn't help but attack. The wooden plow was definitely too easy prey for them.
Historical photos from open source
So, as early as 1861, the first steamboat sailed down the river from Verkhorensk - Irkutsk "Saint Tikhon Zadonsky" by merchant Ivan Khaminov The "" was ordered at John Cockerill's Belgian factory in 1858 and part of the steamship was shipped to Siberia . However, Khaminov's main water body is still Lake Baikal , and gold miners obviously need the Lena River more.
In 1863 another Irkutsk merchant, Alexander Trapeznikov, who became Khaminov's rival, ordered the ship Pervenets (later Courier) from the same Cork Krill . In 1846, his father Constantine was the first entrepreneur to visit the local sand mines, discovered two years ago by a lone prospector - not yet in Bodaibo, but on another road behind the mountains of the Olekma Basin. On the Khamolkho River.
However, the Trapeznikov family understood that no businessman in all of Irkutsk could create something of value alone in such a wilderness, so they teamed up with Mikhail Sibiriyako husband, Ivan Bazhanov and several other entrepreneurs joined forces. guild.
In 1864-65, bearded Siberian merchants founded the Vitim-Lena shipping company, the Coastal-Vitim company (from 1885 - industrial company) and the Bodaibo residence on the border of their territory - in our words, the supply base For mines higher up along unnavigable mountain streams.
The following ships were led by the "Prelate Innocent" and built in the latest factory of the Englishman Hector Gullet in Tyumen. These ships were characterized by an unusual but more suitable shape for the local rivers - a slender hull, lowered to the bow and stern. . These were among the most advanced riverboats of their time and remained in service for over a century - the "Innokenty", identical to the "Communist", remained in service until 1961.
Logistics enabled Coastal-Vitim Company to overcome its first competitors - the Lena Gold Industry Association founded in 1855 by Pavel Basnin and Petr Katyshevtsev. But after the bankruptcy, it became food for the larger capitalist predators...
Historical photos from open source
Evzel Gunzburg was the son of a rabbi in Vitebsk . During the Crimean War he was successful in the wine trade and front-line shipping (in addition, Sevastopol was one of the last to leave), after which he became the chief of Petersburg Bankers, in circles where it no longer matters who is a Jew, and who is not a Jew.
In 1872 Evzel Gabrielevich essentially purchased the title of baron from the Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt for some financial services, which was confirmed by Alexander II two years later. By then Gunzburg had been borrowing money from the troubled Lena Gold Society for several years, and finally, in 1873, he used the money to pay off his debt.
Thus the era of the three generations of Gunzburgs, Evzel, Horace and Alfred, began in the Lena mines. Renzo Lotta, of course, also had his own regularly replenished and updated fleet, whose flagship was Siberia's most comfortable passenger ship Alfred (pictured below), launched in 1909 at Solmovo, Nizhny Novgorod.
By 1908, Renzo Lotto had reached world level by establishing the Lena Goldfields multinational joint stock company, which included Alexei Putilov, a South African gold miner or owner of the country's largest St. Petersburg factory. In 1910, international capital finally took over the Siberian mines.
Historical photos from open source
