Representatives of bourgeois elite in Bessarabia: Greek merchant Pantelei Sinadino (1830-1850)

In this article, the authors put in discussion the issue of Bessarabian bourgeois elite, having as its representative the Greek merchant Pantelei Sinadino presented in archival sources as a Turkish citizen, who since 1829 owned in Chişinău a real estate valued at 50 thousand rubles and was enlisted in the class of first guild merchants in Chisinau. Commercial capital owned by P. Sinadino reached in 1830s about 2 million rubles and was formed not only through trade and usury. He also owned various commercial and industrial enterprises. In 1836 P. Sinadino owned a wool washhouse in the Visterniceni (or Râşcani) estate located not far from Chişinău, which washed 30,000 poods of wool per year. It was bringing an income of 7,000 rubles. Despite the fact that P. Sinadino had a great commercial capital, in 1840, following the abolition of trade privileges granted by Guild Regulation of September 26, 1830, he moved to the class of second guild merchants. In this category, with a few interruptions, he remained in the following years. This proves once again that the commercial bourgeoisie sought different ways to enjoy all the privileges granted by the tsarist government, trying to evade duties. So, a merchant could go to a lower guild, and then, after providing new benefits, get back in the first guild. P. Sinadino increased his capital through the exploitation of small producers, having rented in 1840 a number of localities with huge areas of land - Şerpeni, Pugăceni, Dubasarii Vechi, Corjova, Bilacheva, etc. According to documentary evidence, the peasants of these villages were subjected to various long-lasting and hard drudgeries as well as public corporal punishments. The case of Greek merchant P. Sinadino shows that foreign bourgeoisie found in Bessarabia extensive field for trading and thanks to privileges granted by Russian government received a real opportunity to accumulate huge commercial capital and to monopolize not only the most important branches of domestic and foreign trade, but also industry, usury, etc. It was a serious obstacle in the process of formation of national commercial bourgeoisie in Bessarabia.