Abstract
This article reveals the role of Tatar merchants in the formation of the inner regional market in the Turgai region during the XIXth century. A special place in the formation of a regional market was occupied by fair trade in district centers, the creation process of which began in the late 60s of the XIXth century. Documentary materials extracted from the funds of the central state archive showed that the leading positions in the development of trade were taken by the Tatars of the Volgo-Ural region, who opened trading shops, slaughterhouses, tallow houses and exported livestock from this territory to the central provinces of the Russian Empire. Moreover, Tatar merchants formed a certain infrastructure in the region: they built inns, trading shops, trading houses, warehouses became vowels of city duma, members of trade deputations.