Reni's Port: A Historical Trading Hub on the Danube River

The history of the port of Reni is little known. The city's trade activities were fragmented and considered exclusively along with other Danube ports. However, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Reni was a serious competitor not only to Romanian Galati but also to Odesa.

After the annexation of Budzhak in 1812, the Russian administration carefully analyzed the trade opportunities of the conquered former Ottoman ports. As Russian official Pavel Svinyin noted: "There is no port on the Danube that could make more profit from trade than Reni. Any vessel coming from Constantinople, Galati, Braila cannot bypass it. Reni is the center of Bessarabia, all roads go through it."

In February 1816, the governor of the Bessarabian region, Lieutenant General Oleksii Bakhmetiev, received an order from Emperor Alexander I to develop a project to build warehouses in Reni and turn the city into a river port. In the same year, active grain exports from Reni to the Balkans and European consumers began.

On February 17, 1825, the State Duma of the Russian Empire approved the "Rules for Trade with Bessarabia" proposed by Finance Minister Yegor Kankrin. According to this resolution, Turkish products were allowed to be imported only through the Skulyansk and Reni customs offices. The export of foreign goods to Russia by sea was allowed only through Reni.

The city became a regional center for import trade, which had a positive effect on the widespread commodity-money relations of Budzhak. As contemporaries noted: "Bessarabia conducted a lively trade through Izmail and Reni." In 1826, 22 ships visited the port (8 Russian, 8 English, 2 Turkish, 4 Greek, etc.). In the following years, 1835-1846, 46 ships visited annually.

The basis of trade operations was the export of grain. In 1842, the port of Reni exported 10,346 quarters of bread worth 46,597 rubles in silver and other goods worth 2,962 rubles, with grain accounting for more than 94%.

In addition to grain, the port specialized in the export of iron products. In 1835, iron and cast iron worth 31,943 rubles were exported from Reni to the Balkan Peninsula. In 1840, 25 voyages were made from the Danube ports to Galati, 15 to the Bulgarian port of Varna, 2 to Sulina, and 7 to the Turkish port of Trabzon. The growing interest of Ottoman Porta merchants in Danube trade was explained by lower prices for goods than in Odesa.

However, the imperial authorities did not take systematic steps to improve the port infrastructure. According to Russian officials, the port of Reni had no elevator, docks, boathouse, or warehouses, and "there is a wharf near the customs office where small ships can be loaded." The Russian consul in Galati admitted: "Reni's commercial importance is very limited."

The Reni authorities repeatedly appealed to the government with proposals for the development of a transportation network. In 1835-1836, the mayor of Reni, Rudolf Tomaszewski, insisted on the construction of a ferry crossing of the Prut and the Danube. "The money for the construction," he noted, "can be taken from private individuals who will later be given the ferry for rent. This will allow them to be maintained and will facilitate trade."

On October 6, 1839, the Reni customs officers asked, in order to intensify trade, to increase the rights of the Reni customs to import oriental goods, asking: "Can't the port of Reni... because of its proximity to the sea be equated with the Black Sea ports?" The response from the Ministry of Finance of November 3, 1839, stated that Reni could not be granted the privilege of importing Turkish goods, which was granted only to Crimean ports and Odesa.

Even Julius Hagemeister, an adviser to Novorossiysk Governor Nikolai Vorontsov, noted the negative consequences of this policy: "The Bessarabian ports of Izmail and Reni lost their importance after 1830. Their prospects are very ambiguous." But he drew attention to the need to arrange a ferry service across the Prut River, to support cargo insurance in Reni, because "it was inconvenient for non-centurions to do so in Odesa, while Braila and Galati had a developed system of credit and insurance."

Port of Reni. Postcard from the early 20th century. Image by unc.ua

The Romanian rule of 1856-1878 led to a reorientation of cargo from Reni to Galati. The capacity of the port of Reni in the late 1870s was such that more than 50 thousand quarters of grain were delivered annually from there to Galati.

After the return of Reni to Russia in 1878, the tsarist government helped restore its trade infrastructure. In particular, L . Poliakov proposed to equip a new wharf in Reni, build warehouses and a new customs office. It was also proposed to build warehouses for storing and shipping grain at the pier, to extend the railroad to the new pier because "...the railroad does not participate in the delivery of grain directly to the steamers."

However, Polyakov's plan was not implemented. This is confirmed by the report of the Russian consul in Galati in 1912: "Foreign steamers do not visit the port of Reni because of its insufficient development..... Therefore, Russian exporters continue to send grain to Galati and Sulina".

This rather incomprehensible behavior of the imperial authorities can be explained by several reasons.

First, the growth of the turnover of the Danube ports diverted cargo from Odesa, which threatened its image as a powerful seaport. In terms of visits by small vessels, Reni ranked fourth in the empire, ahead of Odesa, Vladivostok, and Novorossiysk.

Fearing the decline of Odesa's trade, the tsarist government introduced a new railroad tariff in October 1897. According to it, transportation from Skynosy station to Odesa (214 versts) cost 3.44 kopecks per pood, and from Skynosy to Reni (174 versts) - 6.96 kopecks. The cost of transportation from Bessarabia to Odesa (240 miles) was 5.69 kopecks, and from Bessarabia to Reni (152 miles) - 6.08 kopecks per pood.

This was a gross violation of the 1893 railroad tariff, which clearly stated that the transportation of bread up to 200 miles for domestic traffic was 5.9 kopecks, and from 200 miles onward - 9.15 kopecks per pud. In fact, Odesa railroaders were underpaid by up to 6 kopecks per pound of cargo, while Reni railroaders were overpaid by a kopeck per pound.

The Reni businessmen saw this tariff as an open disregard for their interests: "By artificially reducing the tariff, the transportation of goods to Odesa led to a decrease in the supply of goods to Reni. Our city has become a defenseless victim of speculation by a huge port, which it cannot fight."

The new tariff resulted in a decrease in the railroad's share of export grain transportation from 0.5 to 5%. It has become profitable to deliver grain only from the nearest stations of Vulcanesti, Taraklia, and Troyaniv Val. Therefore, the annual turnover of the Chisinau railroad was 11 million poods, while that of the Reni railroad was 1-1.3 million.

Reni merchants demanded additional railroad lines to Izmail and Kiliya to divert cargo from Bender. But the government did not allow their construction because of "the inexpediency of spending on secondary facilities that would not contribute to a significant increase in port capacity."

Secondly, Russia did not want to spoil relations with Romania because of trade competition in the Danube region. In fact, it was a small payment for the loyalty of this Balkan country. The Romanian government halved the commission costs for the delivery of grain from the Danube region. Grain bound for Russian ports was taxed at 5 francs per carload of rye, barley, oats, corn, and 9 francs per carload of wheat. Grain brought by Russian barges to Romanian ports was taxed at 0.25 kopecks per pood. Such measures significantly weakened Reni's trade opportunities.

At the end of the nineteenth century, grain was brought to Reni from a relatively small number of villages located near the city. Reni could not compete with Galati, which had the status of a port-of-call and received up to 10 million loaves of bread. These factors led to a significant decrease in grain exports compared to other Danube ports. In 1880, the amount of grain exported reached 76,947 poods, while 527,000 poods were exported from Kilia. The shipment of some grain from Izmail allowed the port to increase its exports to 413,700 poods in 1884.

However, the Russian government did do something for the port. In 1883, the Izmail customs was liquidated, and in 1901, port supervision authorities were transferred to Reni. This had a positive impact on the port's foreign trade. In 1906, grain exports already amounted to 4,496.8 thousand poods. In 1910, 5,027.1 thousand poods of wheat were exported through Reni, and another 51.3 thousand poods were transited through Odesa. In 1911, grain exports reached their highest level of 9,355.95 thousand poods. Soon after, exports fell sharply again, due to the revival of Romanian exports.

On the eve of the First World War, exports from the port of Reni dropped to the level of 1898. In addition to grain exports, the port became "specialized" in exporting kerosene and coal to the Balkan countries.

In the early 1880s, the transit of Donetsk coal through the port of Reni began. The first significant sale took place in 1885, when 48.6 thousand poods of Donetsk fuel were exported abroad. In 1890, only 10 thousand poods were brought to Romania. In 1908, 168 thousand pounds of coal were exported to Bulgaria and Romania through the port of Reni.

To popularize Ukrainian fuel in the ports of the Mediterranean countries, an exhibition was organized in November 1909 on the steamer Emperor Nicholas II. As a result, the Council of Congresses of Mining Industries of Southern Russia received many requests for contracts from commercial firms in Bulgaria, Egypt, and Serbia.

Prince Yuri Gagarin's estate on the territory of the port. Image by reni-odessa.od.ua

In 1910, 180 thousand poods of coal were sold in transit through Reni to the countries of the Balkan Peninsula, and in 1912-1913 - more than 271.85 thousand poods.

In 1909, 829 thousand poods of kerosene were brought from Reni to Romania and Serbia by barges of the Danube Shipping Company, and another 59 thousand poods were brought by ships of the Austrian Lloyd's Shipping Company. In 1912, 418,523 poods of kerosene worth 185,000 rubles and 155,279 poods of coal worth 47,000 rubles were exported from here, which together amounted to almost 10% of the quantity and 4% of the value of goods from this port.

Further development of the port was halted by the First World War. In 1914, foreign trade ceased, and some of the port workers were mobilized into the army. In 1916, due to the fighting in Romania, the port was finally reoriented to the needs of the Russian army. In January 1918, Reni was captured by Romanian troops, which marked the beginning of a new chapter in the port's history.

Андрій Шевченко