Varvakis in Astrakhan
From Saint Petersburg, he left for Astrakhan to develop a fishery, though he had no experience. In the northern Caspian Sea his fishery enterprise made him a millionaire. The boats of Varvakis caught sturgeon, white salmon and other valuable fish. Knowing the passion of Greeks for caviar, he tried to arrange exporting caviar to Europe. He invented a solution to preserve the freshness of the caviar eggs while being transported by ship. He produced timber boxes, which did not cause alterations in the precious eggs, were absolutely waterproof and thus were maintained in very good condition. Until then the caviar had been preserved in caves. Varvakis shipped caviar from Astrakhan to Greece by camel or by boat through the Volga river. In 1788, the business of Varvakis employed more than 3,000 workers.
In 1810-1817, Ioannis Varvakis financed the delayed construction of the channel linking river Volga to its arm Kutum. The channel, which was initially built as "Astrakhansky" was renamed by the decree of December 31, 1817 as "Varvatsievski". After Russian revolution, it was renamed to "The May 1st Channel".
Read more about this topic: Ioannis Varvakis