The role of the commercial bourgeoisie in the expansion of trade relations between the Russian Empire and the Principality of Moldova during the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812

The important role in the development and expansion of trade relations between the Principality of Moldova and the Russian Empire belonged to foreign merchants. These traders were the connecting link between the economies of the Russian Empire and the Principality of Moldova. They held key positions in international and domestic trade that was confirmed by D. Cantemir, who wrote that “foreign traders – Turkish, Jewish, Armenian, Greek ones ... seized the entire trade of Moldova, and buy at very low prices flocks of sheep and cattle and sell them in Constantinople and other cities at double or triple price ...“ (Cantemir 1986, 151). But the main cause of the dominance of foreign merchants in the trade was the privileges and protection of the tsarist government. All this contributed to the consolidation of the Greek, Armenian, Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and other foreign merchants in the Romanian principalities.