St. Petersburg Wolffs

Historical development of the Barons von Wolff as British merchants in Saint Petersburg

From the 17th century onward, British merchants were organized in factories. With the designation of Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great as the new capital of Russia, the factory was relocated in 1723 from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.

In the 17th century, there were British factories in Reval, Narva, and Arkhangelsk, which dissolved with the beginning of the Great Northern War. In 1720, there was only one English family left in Reval, the Clayhills family, which had already settled in Reval in 1680.

In the Baltic region, the Livonian capital Riga was the only trading metropolis able to assert itself alongside Saint Petersburg. This was made possible only because the German Hanseatic cities maintained their trade relations with Riga. Here, in the 18th century, was the second-largest ‘British colony,’ which numbered around 150 members in 1789.

Over the course of the 18th century, Saint Petersburg developed into the largest British community in Russia. While at the beginning of 1720 there were only three known English families in Saint Petersburg, by the mid-1720s there were already 200 Britons; in 1781 the British church in Saint Petersburg counted 482 members. An exact number does not exist; however, around 1790 there were likely approximately 1,500 Britons in Saint Petersburg. By comparison, the approximate numbers of the other population groups were:

Britons 1,500 / Germans 17,660 / Finns 3,700 / French 2,290 / Swedes 1,860 and Dutch 50.

Naturalization of Germans and Their Position in Saint Petersburg

Already at the beginning of the 18th century, some German merchants were naturalized in England; among them was, for example, the Schiffner family. In the autumn of 1711, he was naturalized in England and immediately opened a trading house in Saint Petersburg and relocated there. Hermann Meyer, born in Moscow, acquired British citizenship in 1715 and joined the Russian Company in the same year. In 1725, Jakob Wolff from Narva became a British citizen and relocated to Saint Petersburg directly after his naturalization.

German merchants in particular were naturalized because greater advantages were expected from this. For merchants of German origin, naturalization brought the advantage of access to the British capital and colonial market.

In particular, Germans in Russia had long since developed a resident pattern of behavior. They integrated well into Russian social and economic life and held high offices at the Russian court. In addition, there were the Baltic German noble families and the families of German origin in the Hanseatic cities, so that in the 18th century the bourgeois upper class was composed of many Germans. The Germans possessed the corresponding knowledge and family connections to the Russian elite and in part also belonged to it. This was probably one of the main reasons that made the Germans so attractive to the British.

„Through the German Russians, the British cooperation partners gained direct access to the political and economic elite of Russia. Wolff’s connections to the Russian leadership prompted the British ambassador Lord Tyrawley to propose him as British consul."

The influence of the Germans was so great that German was spoken in the English Club in Saint Petersburg. ‘The English Weekly Paper in the German Language’ and the ‘English Magazine’ were also published in German.

Participation in Trading Houses

The Wolff family was directly involved in the following trading houses:

Influence and Commercial Acumen of the Wolff Family

Using two examples, one can clearly see the role that the Wolff family played in commercial activity in Saint Petersburg in the 18th century.

Prussian–British Competition for Supplying the Russian Army with Cloth and the Rhubarb Conflict

Until 1720, the British were the main suppliers of cloth and textiles to the Russian army. The Prussians recognized their opportunity and built up capacities. In 1724, the Berlin Company took over the supply of the Russian army from the British, which inevitably had to lead to a conflict. While the British were still supplying the Russian army in 1720 for 200,000 rubles, by 1728 this figure had fallen to only 60,000 rubles. In particular, during the crisis the trading house Schiffner & Wolff distinguished itself, succeeding by 1733 in uniting almost all cloth business with Russia under their house. This was only possible because the Wolff family underbid all their competitors for several years and accepted a loss of 200,000 rubles. After Schiffner & Wolff had become the main supplier to the Russian army, they gradually raised prices. The British–Prussian conflict ended in 1738 with the dissolution of the Berlin Company. Schiffner & Wolff rose to become one of the most powerful and influential trading companies in Saint Petersburg.

Schiffner and Wolff acted in a similarly skillful manner in the rhubarb conflict. This conflict took place between two competing British merchant groups: on the one side Schiffner and Wolff, and on the other Chittey and Meyer. Owing to their good contacts, Schiffner & Wolff were also able to decide this conflict in their favor.

Thus one writes about Jakob Wolff:

‘His career in the service of Great Britain was unique. On the basis of his economic achievements, among other things in the struggle against Prussia, and his connections, the British government appointed him British consul general in Petersburg in 1745 and a few years later minister resident. Around 1750, Wolff was considered one of the richest men in Petersburg. He left behind a fortune of 120,000 pounds. Schiffner and Wolff, however, did not act only as merchants, but also as bankers. According to Anthony Cross, there was hardly a foreign diplomat or Russian statesman … who was not in his debt. In the hope of gaining greater influence at the Russian court through Wolff, the Viennese court granted him the title of baron in 1748. Wolff, however, remained closely tied to British interests. He died in 1759.’

Furthermore, Robert Keith, who lived with Wolff for a time, reported: ‘nobody can live better than my landlord Baron Wolff & nobody is better served or has greater variety of wine & all good things.’

In Saint Petersburg, there existed a ‘Little Wolff Street’ and a ‘Great Wolff Street’ associated with the Wolff estate. The ‘Great Wolff Street’ still exists today in Saint Petersburg.

Sources: See Imprint