The monograph of the English historian Dr. Stuart R. Tompston examined the system of organization and infrastructure of Russian foreign trade in the 19th - early 20th centuries. The author analyzed such key problems as sources of financing trade, the evolution of trade entrepreneurship in the context of the economic policy of the government of the Russian Empire, the place of Russia and Russians in international trade. Of undoubted interest are essays on the history of the leading foreign trade firms in Russia.