This article deals with the research results of the national, religious, gender and age composition of entrepreneurs of the Steppe Region in the second half of the 19th and early 20th century. The significance of this study is relevant as the first data the research presents new data on the number and ethnic and religious composition of merchant cities of the Steppe Region. The identification of national and religious composition is based on the new data from the Republic of Kazakhstan archive and the census of the second half of the 19th century. Despite the differences and difficulties in working with statistics of that time, the author identifies general trends for the formation of regional merchants. Also based on the latest studies of the historians and the archival data of the Republic of Kazakhstan the work traces the number, the life and the activity of women-merchants in the Steppe Region. Some of women, renewing merchant certificates from year to year, concentrated in their hands considerable capital, thus significantly strengthening their position in the business world of the Steppe Region.