Organizing Solikamsk Coach Station and Coachman Service in Great Perm in 1607

Abstract

Introduction. The city of Solikamsk on the territory of Great Perm was located on the first land road from Moscow to Siberia. This road was built in the late 16th century. The research is devoted to the problem of establishing a permanent coachman service in Solikamsk in 1607. Methods and materials. This issue has not been studied yet. The article is based on documents from Fund no. 21 “Solikamsk Acts” (Archive of St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences): monarch’s decrees, letters from Permian clerks, petitions. We have reconstructed the Solikamsk archive using the method of mutual compliance of documents and their source study analysis. Analysis. In the course of the study we were able to restore the chronology of events, find out the coachman service form of organization, material support, service operation conditions, staff of the Vyatka coach station by name. The paper reveals the mechanisms of managing Great Perm territory, the ways of solving problems of management and transportation. Results. The article reveals the duality of the situation in Great Perm in the early 17th century. On the one hand, we can see functioning of a strictly centralized management system, on the other hand, we observe a strong local government in provinces. Perm’s clerk Prince S.Yu. Vyazemsky had to clearly execute the orders of Moscow and was prevented from making his own decisions. At the same time, key financial issues influencing stable work of coachman service were not originally planned in Moscow. Decisions arrived late. The central government was more concerned with the timely dispatch of tax collections to Moscow. After Solikamsk coach station coachmen dissolution, the problem of transportation on the Siberian road remained.