The Rostov-on-Don Exchange Committee, on January 18, 1886, authorized the formation of the first exchange artel in the city of Rostov, in compliance with the established rules and legal provisions. The artel deposited 11,500 rubles (silver) with the mutual credit society in the name of the committee; this amount serves as part of the artel’s designated capital. The submitted charter was reviewed in detail and approved. On Tuesday, January 21, after a prayer service with the blessing of water, the artel began its operations.
Elected and confirmed as artel headman was the peasant Vasily Ivanovich Zenin of Kolomna District, Moscow Governorate; as authorized representatives—the peasant Mikhail Mikhailovich Zamelatsky of Bogorodsk District, Moscow Governorate, and the Rostov-on-Don petty bourgeois Mikhail Grigoryevich Barsukov.
Exchange artels proper are intended for: performing cargo-related work involving the care of merchants’ goods entrusted to the artels, their storage, transportation, stacking, packing, and the like; and performing office work consisting of carrying out various assignments for merchants’ offices involving the receipt and transfer of sums of money, documents, securities, letters, and other items. For office work, artels usually assign one or more of their members to the employer’s disposal; it then depends on the employer to assign the dispatched artel member one task or another.