But cars, along with bicycles, were just a hobby, and Nikolai Vasilyevich's main occupation - both for the soul and for the good - was weapons and hunting. Historian Sergei Shupert notes that for a long time, sport and amateur (but not commercial) hunting was part of the lives of only wealthy people from society. It was too expensive a pleasure.
Yakovlev was a member of a hunting society, and, therefore, he was a very wealthy merchant. The chairman of the hunting society at that time was merchant Sergei Nikolaevich Rodionov - a great friend of Nikolai Vasilyevich.
There was a special connection between Yakovlev and Rodionov. Yakovlev's gun shop was located in the house of Sergei Nikolaevich's father - Nikolai Lvovich Rodionov*, a merchant and tea merchant. Tea merchants are some of the richest merchants in Irkutsk, monopolizing the tea trade through Kyakhta. The merchants transported tea to the West, to European Russia, and, being the richest people, they participated in various concessions, including the "Lena Gold Mining Partnership" and many, many others.
- The mental and business connection between these two merchants was probably born out of their love for hunting, as well as their love for such technical innovations as cars, - notes Sergei Shupert. - By the way, Sergei Rodionov became the second owner of a car in Irkutsk. And after some time, Yakovlev, with the help of Rodionov, opened his second store after the gun shop, where he sold only cars - this time on Ivanovskaya Street (now Proletarskaya).
Nikolai Yakovlev, as the leader of the cyclists' and motorists' societies, participated in a number of events directly related to their activities. For example, on June 18, 1907, Yakovlev met in Irkutsk an automobile rally from Beijing to Paris, organized on the initiative of the French newspaper "Matin".
The first to go was an Italian crew in the car "Italia", driven by Prince Scipione Borghese, traveling with his wife Anna-Maria. Yakovlev and Rodionov, who met them, invited the guests to Rodionov's house, where they spent the night. The next day, a cordial celebration of the arriving guests took place at the cyclodrome. And on June 20 at 11 o'clock in the morning, the prince and his companions, accompanied by the Irkutsk Cycling Society, set off on their further journey.
Incidentally, the remaining participants in the rally, five more cars, arrived in Irkutsk only on June 22. They stayed at the Grand Hotel and the next day continued along the route.
And Irkutsk historian Sergei Shupert told our magazine about some more facts from the life of the merchant Yakovlev:
- As a member of the city council, Yakovlev was obliged to actively participate in the life of the city. He contributed to the reconstruction of the city after the fire of 1879: he gave his personal money for construction, including for the cathedrals and churches of Irkutsk. Perhaps, like Sergei Rodionov, he participated in the construction of the Kazan Cathedral. It is known that the Rodionov father and son took on a contract for the delivery of stone for the construction of this cathedral.
Corr.: Is there any information about the entrepreneurial qualities of this merchant?
- Yakovlev's style of doing business was very typical for that time. If you compare the advertising of Yakovlev's gun shop with other similar shops, they are similar in many ways. For example, the range of goods at the main competitor - the Abachin and Orlov store is almost identical to Yakovlev's and other stores in Siberia and European Russia. But the fact that Yakovlev managed to oust Muscovites from Irkutsk speaks of the exceptional entrepreneurial qualities of Nikolai Vasilyevich.
... By the beginning of the October Revolution, several gun stores were already operating in Irkutsk. All of them ceased to exist after the change of power in the country. But the founder of an entire trend in local trade did not live to see this. Merchant Nikolai Yakovlev died in 1916.