Authors
Jennifer Keating1; 1 University College Dublin, Ireland Discussion
Beyond the celebrated trade fairs (iarmarki) at Nizhnii Novgorod and Irbit, we know comparatively little about the many thousands of small iarmarki that composed the dense mesh of 18,500 such fairs spread across the Russian empire in the late nineteenth century, particularly those east of the Urals. This paper explores late imperial iarmarki from the perspective of a rural market on the Russo-Chinese border in Central Asia. It considers exactly how and why this market, located in the high altitude Karkara valley, became one of the fifty most significant fairs in the entire empire in terms of turnover, and explores the market’s connections both to the broader iarmarki network and to trade circuits beyond the empire, chiefly via the sale of sheep, other livestock and livestock products. At the same time, the paper seeks to understand the fair’s varied local significance for Kazakh and Kyrgyz pastoralists, for scientists and administrators, and for the exercise of political power on the Russo-Chinese border. In doing so, it aims to uncover the ways in which nomadic communities were closely associated with various scales of exchange across the late imperial Russian state, and to consider the fair’s role as a hub of both social and economic life. Ultimately, the paper reflects on why the iarmarki phenomenon – traditionally thought to be in abeyance in this period – may yet have much to reveal to historians who are interested in empire, economic practices and rural life. 
