The company Mercury (Russian: Меркурій) was founded by privy councillors Valery Skripitsyn, Aleksey Lobkov and Nikolai Zherebtsov on 21 April [O.S.

[5] In 1913, to expand passenger traffic in the Middle Volga, the private shipping company of Maria Kashina was acquired.

At Botkin's suggestion, the company's river fleet was equipped with a whole series of 11 comfortable passenger ships of the Borodino-class.

Company's operations later spread to Qajar Iran as well, opened agencies in Tehran, Mashhad, Rasht and Qazvin in 1901.

[6] Earlier in 1887, the shallow-draft freight transport Tehran was built to communicate with the shallow Iranian port of Anzali.

The early 1910s also saw the merger of Caucasus and Mercury with the Eastern Society of Commodity Warehouses (Russian: Восточное общество товарных складов) and the acquisition of the Kura-Caspian Shipping Company.

From the 1880s, the company began building luxury steamships that were specifically designed for river cruises, with electric lighting and restaurants.