For over a century, the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve has preserved one of the most significant documents from the history of Vladimir — a 17th-century manuscript commonly known as the “Market Taxation Register”. This is an exceptional fiscal (tax) list of all commercial enterprises in Vladimir in the period between 1683 and 1684, detailing the names of their proprietors and the annual taxes due for each trading location. The title of the manuscript is not explicitly stated, hence its moniker “Market Taxation Register”. Such records were administrative in nature, prepared for a specific purpose and thus rarely carefully preserved. Its value lies in the fact that it has survived in its original format.

In Vladimir, along the Bolshaya Street and the surrounding areas, approximately 430 commercial establishments were located: shops, stalls and trading halls, barns, granaries, taverns, kvass shops, blacksmith’s shops, and others. A century later, in 1787, stone shopping malls appeared in the areas with the highest concentration of these establishments, which continue to exist today. These shops were small in size, so there were many of them in a small space. An average wooden stall measured 2 by 2.5 sazhens (approximately 22 square meters).

“Market Taxation Register” is one of the earliest sources that mention the Vladimir merchants of the Stoletov family. In the entry for December 1683, a member of the Stoletov family, Larka (Larion), was mentioned twice: one of his businesses was located in the Drysalter Row (among businesses that sold glue, powder paints, non-food oils, and drying oil) on the left-hand side of Bolshaya Street when moving towards the Golden Gate. This is confirmed by the record of the receipt of tax fees and their amount, “Fyodor Dementyev’s shop is to pay four altyns, it is now owned by Larion Stoletov. Money received.”