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The Management of the RAC in Alaska
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This article explores the dynamics of barter/trade between Russians and Alaska natives under the Russian Empire. During the frst stage of colonization, the Russians (unlike the English and French) did not tend to barter/trade. They preferred to take the main riches of Alaska, especially valuable furs, on their own, or to obtain them by exploiting local people in hunting parties, deploying non-economic coercion to work and debt bondage. Moreover, the trade between the Russians and natives was complicated by the high cost of delivery, the chronic defcit of commodities, a relatively narrow assortment and the prohibition of selling frearms and alcohol (with a few exceptions). The paper demonstrates the formation of three diferent systems of barter/trade with their own dynamics during Russian colonization of Alaska. Though relatively proftable overall, the Russian fur trade in Alaska was less efective than similar operations run by their competitors, French, American and British traders. The development of the fur trade had a dramatic negative efect on the fate of many native peoples. Nevertheless, it improved indigenous standards of living through its infuence on material culture and contributed to a decrease it. The number of intertribal conficts.
With the formation of the Russian-American Company (RAC) in 1799, the company acquired a small flotilla of sailing ships that maintained communication between the Russian settlements in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands as well as connection of these colonies with Okhotsk and Kamchatka. This flotilla periodically lost vessels as a consequence of numerous shipwrecks in the first twenty years of the 19th century. For replacement of ships that were lost or discarded because of decrepitude the company built vessels at Okhotsk and in the colonies themselves or purchased them from foreigners. Ships were obtained primarily from representatives of the United States since American sailing ships and steamships were highly valued for their durability and good running qualities. Later, from the 1830s, sailing vessels for the RAC also began to be constructed in the shipyards of Finland, and from the 1850s in Germany as well. All the round-the-world ships of the company, which went from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, were without exception of foreign construction. A general trend was increase in the number of the company’s fleet from 5 or 6 to 17 ships at the beginning of the 1840s. Though later the number of ships and steamships of the RAC diminished to 10 or 12, their total tonnage sharply increased due to the acquisition of large ocean-going clippers and three-mast barks in the 1850s. It was three-mast sailing ships that became the basis of ship composition during this period, though before this, small two-mast brigs, hookers, and schooners had predominated. On the whole, for the 68 years of its existence the RAC fleet made its way from a small flotilla of small one- and two-mast ships to a small commercial fleet with more than ten vessels, including steamships and large ocean-going sailing ships.
In summing up the study of this theme it is possible to arrive at the following conclusions. Analysis of the presented mate¬rial shows that, beginning in the mid-1780s, foreign ships almost constantly entered the waters of Alaska, though the frequency of their visits was unequal in different years and in addition a sharp regional contrast was observed. Thus, the chief purpose of the visits by foreign ships at the end of the 18th and first half of the 19th century in the region of Southeast Alaska was trade between for¬eigners and the local Indians and Russians in Novo-Arkhangel’sk. From the 1840s to the sale of Alaska in 1867, numerous foreign ships, particularly whalers, began to appear in the region of the Aleutian, Commander, and Kuril islands, as well the waters of the Bering Sea along the western coast of Alaska. Consequently, it seemed as if two “waves” of foreign ships appeared in Alaskan waters: the first was connected with the development of the mari¬time fur trade in the 1790s–1820s, and the second with the active whaling trade in the 1840s–1860s. Concerning the nationalities, American sailing ships undoubtedly predominated, noticeably fewer were British, and even fewer were German (whalers and RAC charters). The remaining maritime nations (the Spanish, French, and others) were represented only by isolated ships. Addi¬tionally, in the composition of the foreign ships, merchant ones that belonged to private individuals and companies absolutely dominated. The naval ships made up an insignificant minority. They were primarily occupied with geographic surveys in the course of expeditions organized by the governments of Spain, France, England, and the United States.
Germans in the History of Alaska in its Russian Period.
Medics in Russian America in 1784 - 1867
The Russian Historiography of Russian America.
Expeditions were an integral part of the activity of the Russian Academy of Sciences, promoting its further development and prosperity. Expeditions also helped assemble data for future scientific development. In the first half of the 19th century, the territory of the Russian Empire included some regions of North America (Alaska, North California and the Aleutian Islands). The study of these areas was carried out with the participation of the Russian-American Company. The greatest merit for the scientific study of these regions belongs to a scientist from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ilya G. Voznesensky. In this article, for the first time, attention will be paid to the analysis of organizational and documentary aspects of this expedition.
The Sale of Alaska in 1867
The article is devoted to the analysis of the attitude of representatives of the reigning house of the Romanovs to the exploration and development of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, the formation and functioning of the Russian-American Company and Russian colonies in the New World.
2018, Oxford Bibliographies in Atlantic History
An interpretive bibliography involving works on the activities of the Russian empire and of Russian colonization in North America and the Pacific (1741-1867) -- but for the specific genre of Atlantic history, which privileges the early modern period.
This article was dewoted to Native hostages in Russian America
2013, Ethnohistory
This article argues that the creation of a creole estate in early nineteenth-century Russian America was motivated by cultural rather than racial concerns. Creoles were the offspring of Russian or indigenous men and native women. An analysis of the earliest known list of creoles allows the author to examine the social structure of the new creole class and to note that there was a high degree of social stratification within the estate.
2017, Sibirica
Russia transitioned from enforcing the world's longest ban on importing tobacco in the seventeenth century to legalizing the product at the beginning of the eighteenth and ultimately becoming one of the world's largest producers of tobacco by the nineteenth century. A part of this process neglected by historians is the way in which Russia distributed tobacco among the indigenous communities in Siberia, Kamchatka, and Russian America, creating new consumers where none had existed. This article discusses both the process by which Russia exported tobacco to its frontier and the manner in which tobacco consumption was localized among its diverse populations. Tobacco was not a single product experienced the same way throughout the empire but rather became a marker of difference, demonstrating the multiple communities and trade networks that influenced the nature of Russia's colonial presence in Asia and the North Pacific.
2002, Archaeological Data Recovery at Baranof Castle State Historic Site, Sitka, Alaska: Final Report of Investigations (ADOT&PF Project No. 71817/TEA000-3[43])
Archaeological excavations were conducted at Baranof Castle State Historic Park, Sitka, Alaska, during 1997-98 in conjunction with planned trail improvements. The work revealed over 300,000 artifacts and contributed substantially to our understanding of Russian American material culture during the early 19th century.
2013, History of Women in the Americas
2018, НАЗВАНИЯ РОССИЙСКИХ КОРАБЛЕЙ, ХОДИВШИХ К БЕРЕГАМ... АЛЯСКИ И АЛЕУТСКИХ ОСТРОВОВ (1728–1867)
Изучение наименований российских военных и гражданских парусных судов, бывавших на Аляске и Алеутских островах, а также кораблей и пароходов РоссийскоАмериканской компании, управлявшей этим обширным регионом в 1799–1867 г., представляет несомненный интерес для науки. Анализ этой темы позволяет проследить состав и динамику корабельных названий, в которых нашли отражения сдвиги в культурной жизни России в XVIII–XIX вв., а равным образом влияние со стороны зарубежных военных и коммерческих флотов. Актуальность темы обусловлена также встречающимися порой разночтениями в наименованиях или их дублировании в отношении разных судов, что иногда приводит к неточностям в научной литературе.
2011, Journal of Eurasian Studies
2018, Journal of Caucasian Studies / Kafkasya Çalışmaları
This article explores the story of Circassian tobacco by connecting local developments in Circassia with global markets in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. Since the 17 th century, European travelers described production, usage, and trade of Circassian tobacco. The 1807 Constitution of Kabarda (Eastern Circassia) prohibited tobacco for religious reasons; while the Russian conquest, in 1864 ended tobacco growing traditions and culture in Western Circassia. But the Russian settlers inherited the indigenous tobacco culture after they occupied the villages and houses left by the deported Circassians and brought it to a new level. Circassians produced a special brand of tobacco for export, known as Ozereg. Circassian tobacco successfully competed with Virginian tobacco from the year 1700 onwards, after the czar relaxed the ban on Russian trade with the Caucasus. In 1723, Russia started producing a new kind of Circassian tobacco known as cherkassky tabak in Ukraine. The Circassian tobacco competed with the Chinese tobacco in Western Siberia and with Californian tobacco in Alaska. Circassian tobacco became an exchange currency among the Native Siberians and Native Americans. This kind of Circassian tobacco became known as extremely bad for health thanks to the saltpeter added to it in order to preserve it. In the United States, tobacco manufacturer Pierre Lorillard introduced a new tobacco brand which he claimed was real Circassian tobacco, exploiting the exotic image of Circassian females.
A Brief Review of Russia's Imperial and Missionary Presence in North America, especially Alaska, from the Eighteenth Century
2013, Anthropocene
2008, Alaska Park Science
2013, Ethnohistory
The main focus of my investigation is to look into the effects that alcohol has had on society and law in Alaska through its history. A particular emphasis will be placed into its effects on the native communities of Alaska and how have they reacted to it. For this I will examine the available personal accounts, newspaper accounts, jurisprudence related, and psico/social research to the topic.
The focus of this study will be on the crime and punishment history of Alaska and how the different ethnic and cultural backgrounds of its inhabitants helped shape up its history. To help understand this period we will rely mainly on secondary material and a few primary sources that are available online. These will help us get a better understanding of the social and legal changes that were going on during the different periods, where race relations – even those that did not take place in this territory – would play a key role in the formation of the Alaskan legal history.
This version 4.3 will be the final version for this biblography, a project that was begun in 1993 by Greg Dixon. We have intentionally excluded all potential references for the year 2017. This version is about 29 pages longer and has about 211 entries added since the previous version 3.1 of 2012. Aaron Leggett has added over fifty sources many being rare items from newpapers and magazines. Also many corrections and additions were made to entries in earlier versions.
2015, Arctic Anthropology
The site of Mikt’sqaq Angayuk (KOD‑014) on eastern Kodiak Island provides an intimate view of Native Alutiiq responses to the colonial labor regime imposed by 19th‑century Russians in Alaska. Recent excavation of Mikt’sqaq Angayuk through the Alutiiq Museum’s Community Archaeology program revealed a well-preserved Alutiiq-style sod house and associated faunal midden dating to the 1830s. The midden was rich in cod remains, and mostly colonially introduced products, including metal hunting and trapping gear and European ceramics, comprised the artifacts. These finds dovetail with Russian historical evidence to suggest the site’s use as an odinochka: a small seasonal encampment where Alutiiq workers were conscripted to fish, hunt, and trap on behalf of the Russian-American Company. Yet the workers’ economic strategies likewise involved a measure of individual autonomy, as revealed in the distinctly Alutiiq ways some imported products were used and evidence that residents also pursued subsistence aims of their own.
2010, Cahiers du Monde Russe
2007, Nicholas Breyfogle, Abby Schrader, and Willard Sunderland (eds.) Peopling the Russian Periphery: Borderland Colonization in Eurasian History. London and New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2007.
A trade business organisation cannot function according to pre-set rules: each businessman sets his own parameters. Studying numerous sources on trade on the Chukotski peninsular nevertheless allows us to make some generalisations. Management structures differed depending on the trading seasons. Summer’s trade workflow started with preparing or hiring a schooner and purchasing industrial goods for exchange, which were then prepared, packed, loaded and shipped to the Chukotski peninsular. On arrival, they were exchanged with natives or used to replenish supply stores, after which the schooners returned to Nome or Seattle with craft products to be sold. This process was repeated several times a year - working exclusively during the short period the Arctic was navigable - and was undertaken by private traders, whalers and trade company representatives who maintained trading posts on the Chukotski peninsular. In summer, exchanges occurred directly from the schooner, which served as a floating trade store sailing between settlements. Winter business was based on trade, hunting and commerce through trading posts. Schooners’ crews turned their vessels into temporary trading posts, serving as home, trade point and fur storage. Over this eight-month winter period, furs, walrus bones and fur clothes were collected from the natives. An extra stock of furs came from hunting. Winter allowed the American traders to study the market needs of the native population to better supply them, establishing a friendly connection with locals and widening their territorial knowledge. Traders travelled between Chukchi and Inuit settlements with cargoes of goods, visiting reindeer breeders’ nomadic camps, exchanging industrial goods and hunting. They assimilated themselves into native cultures, gradually adopting local ways of life. Many stationary traders married local women and, with their help, involved new relatives in the trading process.
The working paper includes some preliminary results of the research of the modernization of the Russian marine harvesting in the 18th c. in connection to the Spitsbergen exploitation.
The article explores administrative debates about and policies toward the Chinese in the Russian Far East in the 1860s–1880s. Uniquely in imperial Russia, the annexation of what became the Amur and Ussuri provinces was not accompanied by the automatic extension of Russian subjecthood to the Chinese who either resided in the area or visited it for work. In the 1880s the Russian authorities moved to implement a far-reaching program of separating the population of the area into Russian subjects and foreigners. The latter were required to produce national passports and Russian visas, as well as acquire residence permits and pay fees to stay and work in Russia. At the same time, the exterritorial status of the Chinese in Russia was ended and Qing subjects on the territory of Russia were placed under the jurisdiction of the Russian courts. Inspired by the European and American colonial examples, the Russian authorities also attempted to physically separate the Chinese population in urban spaces by decreeing special quarters for the Chinese. Although this regularization and rationalization was part of the broader process of movement toward universal citizenship, the Russian authorities still faced the fundamental problem of governance of the Chinese population. Facing the perennial challenges of imperial authorities, such as demographic and institutional weakness, the Russian authorities failed to properly control the border or enforce segregation in the cities. They treated the Chinese as an unrecognized estate, thus producing a hybrid form of imperial subjecthood. Poorly realized, these policies still created a legacy of exclusion and contributed to later attempts (ultimately successful in the Soviet period) to limit or eliminate the presence of the Chinese in the Far East.