Lots of famous businesses started in the 18th century, when citizens and quitrent peasants were able to conduct trading activity freely, thanks to the laws signed by Peter the Great. The first mentions of the Ivan Mikhailov, founder of the Perlov merchant dynasty, date back to that period. Back then, common people did not have last names and were called by their name and patronym. The 1st Revision (a census conducted to determine the amount of collected tax) of 1725 said that Ivan Mikhailov conducted trade activities.
Half a century later his son Alexei, a Moscow merchant of the 2nd Guild, started a tea trade in the Vegetable Row. The decree dated July 15, 1807, granted Alexei Ivanov and his family the right for their own last name—the Perlovs. According to the 1850 Revision, his sons Vasily and IvAn Perlov bore the proud hereditary title of honorary citizens. They owned many stores in Moscow and outside it. The Perlovs cultivated the love of tea in Moscow, and in the mid-19th century it became an indispensable part of any dinner.
In 1860, Vasily Alexeevich started his own business—the Partnership for Tea Trade “Vasily Perlov and Sons.” The company was stationed in a house he owned on 1st Meshchanskaya Street (currently, Mira Avenue) where he had a big store. The business made the family famous in Russia and even in Europe: their trading house opened stores in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and Warsaw.
The decree signed by Emperor Alexander the Third on the Perlovs company’s 100th anniversary in 1887 granted them the title of nobility. Their coat-of-arms looked like a sky-blue shield with a circle and six pearls in it (thus, the last name Perlov which comes from the Russian word for ‘pearl’). The Perlovs were granted the honorary title of Purveyors to His Imperial Majesty.
In the late 1870s, Vasily Semyonovich Perlov bought a land lot from the Ministry of Land, built 83 dachas (summer houses) on it and rented them to the Moscow merchant families. Perlov also sent a petition to the Railway Office to build here the first passenger railway station in the direction from Moscow. In 1887, the author Mikhail Zakharov in his book ‘Outskirts of Moscow Along the Yaroslavl Rairoad’ wrote,
Half a century later his son Alexei, a Moscow merchant of the 2nd Guild, started a tea trade in the Vegetable Row. The decree dated July 15, 1807, granted Alexei Ivanov and his family the right for their own last name—the Perlovs. According to the 1850 Revision, his sons Vasily and IvAn Perlov bore the proud hereditary title of honorary citizens. They owned many stores in Moscow and outside it. The Perlovs cultivated the love of tea in Moscow, and in the mid-19th century it became an indispensable part of any dinner.
In 1860, Vasily Alexeevich started his own business—the Partnership for Tea Trade “Vasily Perlov and Sons.” The company was stationed in a house he owned on 1st Meshchanskaya Street (currently, Mira Avenue) where he had a big store. The business made the family famous in Russia and even in Europe: their trading house opened stores in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and Warsaw.
The decree signed by Emperor Alexander the Third on the Perlovs company’s 100th anniversary in 1887 granted them the title of nobility. Their coat-of-arms looked like a sky-blue shield with a circle and six pearls in it (thus, the last name Perlov which comes from the Russian word for ‘pearl’). The Perlovs were granted the honorary title of Purveyors to His Imperial Majesty.
In the late 1870s, Vasily Semyonovich Perlov bought a land lot from the Ministry of Land, built 83 dachas (summer houses) on it and rented them to the Moscow merchant families. Perlov also sent a petition to the Railway Office to build here the first passenger railway station in the direction from Moscow. In 1887, the author Mikhail Zakharov in his book ‘Outskirts of Moscow Along the Yaroslavl Rairoad’ wrote,
