‘Russian merchant’ legacies in post-Soviet trade with China: Moral economy, economic success and business innovation in Yiwu

Abstract

This article focuses on Russian traders operating in China, particularly in Yiwu, the major commercial hub for the 'small commodity' trade, and explores the idea of the 'Russian merchant' prevalent in Russia today. Rather than examining the new commercial culture from the perspective of global neoliberalism, it deals with Russia's pre-Soviet merchant estate (soslovie) and its present-day political-ideological evocations. While there is no direct cultural-professional continuity between pre-Soviet and post-Soviet merchants, some similarities have come to the fore and have been encouraged by the state and the Church. This is due to the promotion of a particular moral economy wherein the 'Russian merchant' figures as a positive category. Using a case study of a Russian trader in Yiwu, the article illustrates the new ways in which mistrust as well as 'traditional' merchant attributes such as patriotism and patriarchal authority, have been harnessed to create a successful Russian transnational business.

The Unbearable Lightness of Trust: Trade, conviviality, and the life-world of Indian export agents in Yiwu, China

“…The fast development of its expansive markets and trade centres has attracted not only a buoyant global trade, but also a substantial population of foreign residents who work as traders or export agents, either on behalf of clients or for themselves, often for both (Belguidoum and Pliez 2015;Marsden 2017). The 3,000 3 or so Indian agents and traders resident in Yiwu are perhaps less numerous than their African or Central and West Asian counterparts (Bodomo and Ma 2010;Cissé 2015;Marsden and Ibañez-Tirado 2018;Skvirskaja 2018;Anderson 2019b), and do not appear to be as prominent in trade as they are in other Chinese cities (Haitao 2015;Cheuk 2016). Yet they are well established in the commercial life of the city, as testified by the row of hotels, restaurants, and shops in Yiwu's 'little India', close to the Futian market, which caters for the resident Indian population and their Indian clients.…”

“…Further away, near Yiwu's sprawling dry port-from where containers are transported by lorry to Nigbo's sea portthey can access the warehouses of expeditioners, often located in storerooms on the ground floor of residential apartment blocks. Yiwu's orientation towards global trade is inscribed in its urban environment, whereby different neighbourhoods' restaurants, hotels, travel agents, supermarkets, and so on all cater to the particular tastes and needs of diverse bodies of foreign residents and visitors (see Marsden and Ibañez Tirado 2018;Skvirskaja 2018). During various 'buying seasons' which anticipate increased consumer demand associated with festivities-such as Diwali, Eid, Christmas, or Valentine's Day-or annual events such as the beginning of the school year, Yiwu's trading centres and streets are animated by foreign buyers from the world over, lending an apparent cosmopolitan feel to the city.…”

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy

“…It turns out that we are continuing their glorious traditions; we have something to be proud of and should not be ashamed of our great grandfathers! (Oleg Sirota, personal blog) 11 Appealing to the merchant tradition was common among Orthodox entrepreneurs (Fomina 2020) and early Soviet entrepreneurs -shuttle traders and the first members of trade cooperatives (Skvirskaja 2018). Utopian images of Moscow, the city of 'priests and traders', and nostalgic narratives about Russian merchants are a sort of response to the lack of official entrepreneurial culture in the Soviet Union, where the official state ideology condemned profit-seeking and labelled it as speculation (Skvirskaja 2018, 548).…”

Trade ‘outside the law’: Uzbek and Afghan transnational merchants between Yiwu and South-Central Asia

“…4. For a nuanced analysis of trading networks from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Russia, in Yiwu, see Anderson (2018), Pliez (2012) and Skvirskaja (2018). 5.…”