This article examines the transformation of trade relations in the Turkestan Governor-Generalship during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focusing on the role of railway expansion and the emergence of banking institutions in reshaping the Tashkent Fair. The study argues that the introduction of railway infrastructure fundamentally altered the spatial and temporal organization of trade, replacing caravan-based exchange with a continuous and integrated market system. Furthermore, the development of financial institutions facilitated the transition from cash-based transactions to credit-based economic relations, accelerating capital circulation and enabling the expansion of wholesale trade. Drawing on statistical data, archival materials, and contemporary periodicals, the article demonstrates that by the early twentieth century the Tashkent Fair had evolved into a specialized trade and financial center, playing a key role in integrating the regional economy into the broader economic system of the Russian Empire.

Tashkent Fair; Turkestan economy; railway development; Trans-Caspian Railway; banking institutions; trade transformation; economic integration; wholesale trade; Russian Empire

National Archive of Uzbekistan (O‘zMA), Fond I19, Inventory 3, File 214, 17th Sheet.

National Archive of Uzbekistan (O‘zMA), Fond I1, Inventory 11, File 1427, 23rd Sheet.

National Archive of Uzbekistan (O‘zMA), Fond I19, Inventory 3, File 214, 9th Sheet.

National Archive of Uzbekistan (O‘zMA), Fond I17, Inventory 1, File 568, 44th Sheet.

Periodicals and Official Reports:

Turkestanskie Vedomosti, No. 34 (1890).

Turkestanskie Vedomosti, No. 18 (1893).

Turkestanskie Vedomosti, No. 41 (1897).

Turkestanskie Vedomosti, No. 27 (1904).

Regional Annual Reviews:

Obzor Turkestanskogo kraya za 1896 god [Review of the Turkestan Region for 1896], Tashkent, 1897.

Obzor Turkestanskogo kraya za 1905 god [Review of the Turkestan Region for 1905], Tashkent.

Obzor Turkestanskogo kraya za 1908 god [Review of the Turkestan Region for 1908], Tashkent, 1909.