Armenians also pioneered other industries, including the extraction of magnesium and copper, and the processing of caviar, all of which boosted the wealth of Transcaucasia.
Furthermore, the Armenians played a relatively important role in the development and expansion of Russian external trade, cementing contacts in the Orient, particularly in Persia and Asia Minor. 21 Armenians in Russian markets offered products from Transcaucasia such as cotton, fruits, furs, minks and caviar, and also treasures from Persia, perfumes and carpets. At the same time, Armenians exported to the Orient (Transcaucasia, Persia and Asia Minor), Chinese tea bought in Nijunibopok, sugar cubes and grains from the Ukraine, products from Russia and the West such as textiles, china, artificial china, metal products, glass, tools and machines. The Armenians initiated Russian trade with the Turkic people in Central Asia 22, cultivating centres such as Rostov and Norosish, which during the decades preceding 1914 were the equivalent of Odessa in the southwest for the south eastern part of empire.
Economic expansion in Transcaucasia undoubtedly relied to a great extent on the diligence and invention of the Armenians. 23 Thus Victor Berard comments: "The agriculture and the roads in Transcaucasia owe their present development and expansion to these pioneers and leaders of our civilisation, the Armenians. If Batum and Tbilisi, with their profit-making market places, have become the junctions in one of the biggest trade routes in the world, then it is without a doubt mostly because of the oil. But could Russia have used this natural resource in this extraordinary manner if the Armenian element, which imbued with western industrial knowledge has served Russia so well, did not exist?" 24
However, the economic improvement, in which the Armenians were implicit, affected cities such as Batum, Tbilisi and Baku more than the Armenian populated provinces in Transcaucasia. The annexation of these provinces to the Russian empire meant not only little development over a long period, but also the loss of Yerevan region's former significance in trade. Previously the region had been fertile and productive, placed as it was on two trade routes, that connecting Tbilisi with Tabriz, and the route connecting Tabriz to the Black Sea via Yerevan, Erzurum and Trabizond.
The first of these two trade routes, from Tabriz to Tbilisi, was devastated by the high customs import fees under the Russian trade policy, aimed at monopolising the trade with Transcaucasia. The second route was redirected away from Yerevan, instead taking the passage of Tabriz-Bayazid-Erzurum, so that contact between Persia and Turkey could continue without passing through Russian territory. 25
Thus Armenian industrial expansion was greater in southern Russia and the rest of Transcaucasia than in Eastern Armenia itself, which remained without railroads until the 20th century. Not only Armenia, but the entire region flourished during the 19th century thanks to the diligence of the Armenians.
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