TEA TRADE IN THE UFA PROVINCE (SECOND HALF OF THE XIX – BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY)

The main drink of the multinational population of the Southern Urals in the XIX century was the tea brought from China through Siberia. The main centers of the tea trade were first Menzelinsk, then Ufa, where large fairs were held. Tea was also sold on all smaller fairs of the Orenburg province. At the end of the XIX century increased the supply of tea from the seaports, but at the beginning of the XX century again dominated Chinese tea from Siberia. The turnover of the tea market in the Ufa province
accounted for millions of rubles. By the beginning of the XX century, there was a system of regional tea trade, in rural areas it is mainly combined the sale of tea with sugar. Ufa became one of the most important in the Russian center of wholesale tea trade. Here operated the largest tea trade firms of Vysotsky, Gribushina, “Caravan” and Kuznetsov, tea-packing factory was opened.
It is shown that by the beginning of the XX century among the multinational population of Southern Urals strong and mass culture of tea consumption was formed. The strength of this tradition even tried to use at struggle with excessive drinking by opening public tea houses all over the Ufa province.