Note 291 — Chapter XVIII · ON THE COMMERCE OF THE SEA OF AZOF.

This is confirmed by Tegoborski. “The thing,” he says, “which struck me the most during my short stay at Nijni Novgorod in 1852 was the simplicity, and I might almost say the apparent carelessness, with which commercial affairs were ordinarily carried on without the agency of brokers (courtiers). Considering that there were sales to the amount of 10,000,000l. in the short space of three or four weeks, I was surprised to see the Exchange almost always deserted. Many important affairs were concluded without any formality, on the simple word of the parties, in the cafés and restaurants. This method of conducting business is generally in use in Russia, and constitutes a characteristic trait of our commerce. Few persons are aware that at Moscow there is much more business done at the restaurant of the Troitsk (troitski troetir) than at the Exchange. Sometimes, no doubt, a merchant becomes embarrassed and unable to fulfil his engagements, but it is rare that any man of tolerable credit frees himself in regular bad faith from a bargain concluded without the formalities which would render it legally binding.”—Études, vol. iii., p. 287.