The market played a key role in the city life and influenced also its appearance. From the beginning of the 19th century the city had rich private residences and social buildings. The commercial Taganrog became one of the largest industrial cities of the Russian South. By the end of the 19th century grew the number of educational institutions. During the second half of the 19th century the foreign trade turnover of Taganrog increased distinctly. Already at the beginning of the 20th century Taganrog held the second place in Russia in the importation and the sixth in the quantity of exported products. Due to dramatic developments in domestic commerce, the fairs lost their dominant role, and the stores, these 'eternal trade points' started to appear in the city. Petrovskaya Street and Gogolevski Street turned into main commercial highways of Taganrog. The foreign investments into Russian economy influenced the development of a large-scale industry in Taganrog. In 1896 with Belgian investments, started the construction of the iron-and-steel factory. The factory began to function a year later. The plant produced iron beams, railings, pipes, railway bands, iron sheets, rolled steel.