Many of us have very distant ideas about the history of our country, especially about its everyday aspects. Well, for example, what used to be called a simple stop, which we call a “public transport stop”, or, more simply, a bus, trolleybus stop, etc.?
Meanwhile, 100 years ago there were such stops in cities.
For example, we ask ourselves this question: "What was the name for street parking of cabmen in the old days?" We will try to give an exhaustive answer to this question.
But all in order.
Who are the cabmen?
The driver's profession in the cities was as widespread as today the profession of a security guard or driver.
The work was hard. The cabman spent all day on the street. It’s good in the summer, and in the winter, in the fall, in the spring?
Therefore, people from the lower social classes of Tsarist Russia worked in this area. Often former peasants, failed workers, that is, people accustomed to hard, exhausting work.
If the driver had his own horse and wagon, then he was considered a noble man among the cabmen. Others, most often, were hired by the owners of horses and carts and paid them most of their daily income.
Therefore, this is a very common question: "What was the name of the street parking of cabmen in the old days?" Perhaps the answer will be at least something hinting that these drivers had at least some kind of social guarantees: for example, a warm hut stop in which one could keep warm. But, unfortunately, such a hut did not exist.
In general, a cabman in tsarist Russia is an almost modern Uzbek migrant who drives a fixed-route taxi or, more simply, an ordinary minibus, which can be found on the streets of cities and towns of our country.
What in the old days was called street parking of cabmen? Simple answer to the question
Trying to answer this question, we turn to dictionaries.
For example, a dictionary of Russian historicisms tells us that this cab stop was called by the simple word "exchange".
“What is such an exchange? - the modern reader will ask perplexedly. “After all, the exchange and the stop are completely different things!”
“Of course,” we will answer him, “today they mean very different things, but once upon a time the word exchange had several meanings.”
You can learn about these meanings by contacting the most famous explanatory dictionary in our country, namely, the dictionary of V.I. Dahl.
So, Dahl gives the following double interpretation of the word "exchange":
- First: the exchange is a gathering place for trading people and merchants to solve their pressing business issues.
- Second: the stock exchange is a gathering place for cab drivers, their stop at which they waited for their riders.
The origin of the word "exchange" as a designation for a place for drivers
By the way, today few people will tell you how in the old days the street parking of cabmen was called. And this is not surprising, because the word "exchange" today has a completely different meaning. This is not even just a gathering place for merchants, but a very serious institution where shares are bought and sold (trade exchange) or employers and future workers meet (labor exchange).
It should be noted that in Russia the word "exchange" as a designation for a place for drivers did not take root immediately. Most likely, it was introduced after the reforms of Peter the Great, because this very word is of German origin.
So in the official documents of Tsarist Russia, those places on the streets of the city were named where the cab drivers were supposed to stop. City authorities thus controlled these workers. One more name for this place has taken root among the people - the “deck”.
However, in all the circulars of that time, there is only one answer to the question of how in the old days the street parking of cabbies was called: stock exchange.
The fate of this expression
By the way, this concept has not taken root among the people. After the 1917 revolution, it completely disappeared from all documents. The exchange began to be called exclusively by enterprises of economic or social significance.
Already after 20 years, few people could answer the question of how the street parking of cabmen was called in the old days. And the cabmen gradually became unnecessary. They were replaced by cars, buses, trolleybuses, subways.