Russia's first joint-stock company, it came under the direct authority of the Ministry of Commerce of Imperial Russia. Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev (Minister of Commerce from 1802 to 1811; Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1808 to 1814) exercised a pivotal influence upon the early activities of the company. In 1801 the company's headquarters moved from Irkutsk to Saint Petersburg, and the merchants who were initially the major stockholders were soon replaced with Russia's nobility and aristocracy.
Count Rumyantsev funded Russia's first naval circumnavigation of the globe under the joint command of Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Nikolai Rezanov in 1803–1806. Later he funded and directed the Ryurik's circumnavigation of 1814–1816, which provided substantial scientific information on Alaska's and California's flora and fauna, and important ethnographic information on Alaskan and Californian (among others) natives. During the Russian-California period (1812–1842) when they operated Fort Ross, the Russians named present-day Bodega Bay, California as "Rumyantsev Bay" (Залив Румянцев) in his honor.
In 1799 the Russian government appointed an official, with the title 'Correspondent', to maintain oversight of company affairs, the first being Nikolai Rezanov.[4] This role was soon expanded to a three-seat board of directors, with two elected by the stockholders and one appointed by the government.[4][5] Additionally the directors had to send reports of the company's activities directly to the tsar.[4][5] They also appointed a Chief Manager of the company, who was stationed in North America to directly administer the forts, trade stations and outposts.
Alexander Andreyevich Baranov was appointed as the first Chief Manager. During his tenure, he founded both Pavlovskaya and later New Archangel, settlements that became operating bases for the company. He was replaced in 1818 by an officer appointed from the Imperial Russian Navy. The position of Chief Manager was thereafter reserved for Imperial Naval officers.[5]
The Ukase of 1799 (decree by the Tsar) granted the company a monopoly over trade in Russian America, defined with a southern border of 55° N latitude. Tsar Alexander I in the Ukase of 1821 asserted its domain to 45°50′ N latitude, revised by 1822 to 51° N latitude.[6] This border was challenged by both Great Britain and the United States, which ultimately resulted in the Russo-American Treaty of 1824 and the Russo-British Treaty of 1825. These established 54°40′ as the ostensible southward limit of Russian interests.[7]
The only attempt by the Russians to enforce the ukase of 1821 was the seizure of the U.S. brig Pearl in 1822, by the Russian sloop Apollon. The Pearl, a vessel of the maritime fur trade, was sailing from Boston, Massachusetts to New Archangel/Sitka. When the U.S. government protested, the Russians released the vessel and paid compensation.[8] Due to treaty violations in 1833 with the British by the company's governor, Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel, the Russians later leased the southeastern sector of what is now the Alaska Panhandle, to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1838 as part of a damages settlement. The lease gave the HBC authority as far north as 56° 30' N.
The Russian-American Company's capital at New Archangel (present-day Sitka, Alaska) in 1837
Under Baranov, who governed the region between 1790 and 1818, a permanent settlement was established in 1804 at "Novo-Arkhangelsk" (New Archangel, today's Sitka, Alaska), and a thriving maritime trade was organized. Alutiiq and Aleut men from the Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands were forcibly conscripted to work for the company for three-year periods because they were "among the most sophisticated and effective sea otter hunters in the world."[5] During its initial years, the company had problems in maintaining a pool of skilled crewmen for its ships. The limited number of Russian men proficient in naval craft in the Empire usually sought employment in the Imperial Russian Navy. The RAC (Russian-American Company) had difficulty recruiting men for naval training, in part due to the continued practice of serfdom in the Empire, which kept most peasants tied to the land.[4] In 1802 the Imperial government directed the Imperial Navy to send officers for employment in the RAC, with half of their pay to come from the company.[4]
Russian merchants were excluded from the port of Guangzhou and its valuable markets, something the RAC endeavored to change. The company funded a circumnavigation that lasted from 1803 to 1806, with the goals of expanding Russian navigational knowledge, supplying the RAC stations, and opening commercial relations with the Qing Empire.[9] While the expedition did sell its wares at the Chinese port, "no noticeable progress" towards securing Russian trading rights was made during the next half century.[9] Due to the closed Chinese ports, the RAC had to ship its furs to the Russian port of Okhotsk. From there caravans typically took more than a year to reach Ayan, Irkutsk, and the Siberian Route.[10] The majority of the pelts were traded in Kyakhta, where Chinese trade goods, principally cotton,[11]porcelain and tea, were traded.[10]
Over the course of the RAC's first decade of enterprise, its officials became increasingly concerned about American ships trading in adjacent coastal regions, especially their sale of firearms to natives. Throughout 1808 to 1810, Imperial officials appealed to the United States government to ban this trade. The American government took no action to satisfy Russian concerns. Discussions were held with American ambassador John Quincy Adams in 1810 to determine the southern limits of the Russian's claimed land.[12] Government agents of the Russian Empire "claimed the whole coast of America on the Pacific, and the adjacent islands, from Bering's Strait southward toward and beyond the mouth of the Columbia River".[12] The pronouncement stalled attempts at settling a southern border of Russian America for over a decade.
American fur trader John Jacob Astor sent a ship in 1810 to present-day Alaska with the intention of supplying New Archangel. The supplies were welcomed by Baranov, and he hired the ship to transport furs to Guangzhou.[13]:77–80 Upon learning of the pressing issue of American sales of firearms, Astor conceived of plan beneficial to both his American Fur Company and the RAC. In return for a monopoly to supply Russian stations through his subsidiary Pacific Fur Company and the right to transport RAC furs to the Qing Empire, Astor promised to refrain from selling firearms to Alaskan natives. The Russian Minister to the United States, Count Fyodor Palen, was informed of the proposal. He contacted the Imperial government, noting that the deal would likely be more effective at ending the firearm sales than through diplomatic channels with the United States.[11] Astor's son-in-law, Adrian B. Benton, traveled to Saint Petersburg in 1811 to negotiate with company and government officials.
The proposed agreement was favorably received by the board of directors, outside one contentious clause. Astor requested to be allowed to transport a minor amount of furs into Russia import free, a benefit which only the RAC had enjoyed.[11] Shareholders of the company, such as the minister of both the Foreign and Commercial offices, Count Nikolay Rumyantsev, expressed opposition to this provision. He believed that Astor had arranged all the negotiations to secure this trading right.[11] Eventually the Americans dropped the provision and on 2 May 1812, the parties signed a four-year agreement. The two companies agreed to cease trading with other merchants and prevent the trading operations on the coast by their competitors. But the onset of the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States, and the capture of Astoria by the North West Company of Canada, ended Astor's operations on the Pacific coast.[11]
Outside Russian America
The Russian-American Company grew interests in other parts of North America, principally Alta California, with smaller focus on Baja California and the Oregon Country. Additionally, some efforts were spent on increasing relations with the Kingdom of Hawaii, with the Schäffer affair being an attempt at colonizing the islands by a company agent acting alone.
Lower Pacific Northwest
Juno
While sailing south from Russian America for Alta California, the crew of the Juno, a New England ship purchased from John DeWolf, attempted entering the Columbia River. Grigory Langsdorff reported that "Count Rezanov had already formed his plans for the removal of the Russian settlement [New Archangel] to the river Columbia, and was now planning to build a shipyard there."[14] The company directors were previously advised by Rezanov to establish a company settlement on the river, in a plan aiming for company expansion south "to include the coast of California in the Russian possession."[15] Bad weather made passing the mouth of the Columbia too difficult to pursue.
A company vessel, the Nikolai, was dispatched to the Oregon Country by Chief Manager Baranov in November 1808 with instructions to "if possible discover a site for a permanent Russian post in the Oregon Country."[16] On 1 November,[17] a weather system of strong gales and large waves marooned the ship on a beach north of the Quillayute River and James Island.[16] Conflict arose with the neighboring Hoh nation and the crew had to flee into the interior of the Olympic Peninsula. Clashes with the indigenous population continued over the next year, the Russians having to resort to raiding villages for food.[18] Eventually most of the crew became willing slaves to the Makah on the understanding they would be released when the next European vessel would arrive.[19] American Captain Brown of the Lydia purchased the Nikolai crew and they sailed for New Archangel, arriving there on 9 June.[20] During their time marooned on the Olympic Peninsula, seven of the crew died, including expedition commander Nikolai Bulygin and his 18-year-old wife, Anna Bulyagina.[20]
Californias
The first ship to trap furs in either Alta or Baja California for the RAC was in 1803. An American vessel owned by James O'Cain, the O'Cain, was contracted to trap sea otters on the Baja California peninsula, with half of the furs caught property of the RAC.[21] On board the ship besides its American crew were 2 RAC staff and 40 natives, principally Aleuts,[21] along with some Alutiiq of Kodiak Island.[22] The hunting equipment used in the expedition was of indigenous origin, including the notable iqyax boats. Based out of San Quintín, Alaskan natives caught sea otters from Misión de El Rosario de Abajo to Santo Domingo (located in the modern Comondú Municipality).[22] Returning Kodiak island in June 1804, the O'Cain contained a total of 1,800 sea otter skins caught by the natives or purchased from Spanish.[22] Under similar terms other American captains were employed over the years, with Aleuts continually used to trap California Sea otters, specific operations employing upwards of 300.[11] During the period between 1805 and 1812 Baranov supplied Aleut laborers to 10 American ships sent to California, with over 22,000 pelts gathered.[21]
In Aug. 1805, Nikolai Rezanov arrived at New Archangel, then visiting the scattered RAC possessions. Provisions were at the time sorely needed by the RAC posts to feed its workforce, an issue that would plague the company for decades. After Rezanov purchased the Juno, an American ship, he and its crew departed from New Archangel in February 1806 south to attempt purchasing supplies in Alta California.[13]:51–55,59 Upon entering the Californias, Rezanov negotiated with Spanish authorities in the name of the Tsar, presenting himself as a minister plenipotentiary.[22] Despite his claims, he was never given such a commission by the Imperial Government. Efforts were made at cultivating relations with prominent official José Darío Argüello, in order secure a contract for provisions, Rezanov even having a romance with his daughter, Concepción Argüello. However the officials were only willing to forward the request of the Russians to Mexico City, none wanting to disobey a decree by the Spanish Empire that outlawed trade with foreigners. After several months the Russians departed for New Archangel without an agreement for provisions.
Valuable reconnaissance however was gained, with Rezanov seeing first hand the lack of Spanish presidios or settlements until the southern shore of the San Francisco Bay. Several ships owned by Americans were contracted to begin operations in Alta California almost immediately after the Juno's return to New Archangel. One ship was based in Bodega Bay, with its Indigenous Alaskan workforce operating from the coast of modern Mendocino County to the Farallon Islands.[22] While catching otters on the northern shores of the San Francisco Bay, Luis Antonio Argüello, the commandant ordered a cannon be shot at the trappers' baidarkas, dispersing the Aleut and Alutiiq trappers from the Bay.[22] Reports from the American captains and Rezanov on the conditions in California encouraged Chief Manager Baranov to plan a coastal settlement in the territory. There were numerous sea otter populations to hunt, a lack of Spanish military posts above San Francisco Bay, and the possibility to trade with the Spanish Missions.[22]
Built in 1812 and located on the coast of California in modern-day Sonoma County, Fort Ross was the southernmost outpost of the company. Several additional posts were operated by the company, including Port Rumyantsev on Bodega Bay, and several ranches south of the Russian River valley. Though on disputed Spanish and then subsequently Mexican territory, the legitimacy of these claims was contested by both the Company and the Russian Government until the sale of the settlement in 1841, basing the legitimacy of their claims on prior English (New Albion) claims of territorial discovery.[23] It is now partially reconstructed and an open-air museum, with the Rotchev House being the only remaining original building.
Proposed colonization
An expansive colonization program of California was presented to the Imperial Court by the "garrulous and unreliable"[24] 20-year-old junior officer and former DecembristDmitry I. Zavalishin in late 1824.[25] He had been a crew member of an expedition that during 1823 and 1824 to examine the Russian possessions in North America.[25] His memorandum proposed that the Californios be encouraged to secede from Mexico in order to create a political alliance.[26] Zavalishin wanted the Russian-American Company to receive a grant of land extending north to the border of the Oregon Country, south to the San Francisco Bay and east to either the Sierra Nevada mountains or the Sacramento River.[26] In return the Russians were to maintain a naval presence in San Francisco Bay, protect the California Mission's right to maintain neophyte labor, allow Californios to settle within the grant and establish Spanish language schools throughout California.[26] A council of the inner Russian government debated the merits of Zavalishin's plan. Foreign Minister Count Karl Nesselrode feared the scheme would anger the United States and the United Kingdom, and consequently was against it. The court representative of the RAC, Count Nikolay Mordvinov, defended the memorandum and voiced Zavalishin's stance that "too much leniency and effort to avoid conflict sometimes only precipitate a conflict."[26]
Building on Zavalishin's proposal, Mordvinov planned on buying serfs from Russian landlords and sending them to California.[26] The freed serfs were to be supported by the company and had to remain as settlers for seven years in its service. After the expiration of their contracts, all farming implements provided and land farmed upon would become the property of the freemen. A banquet was held for Zavalishin to draw support for his plan, with many prominent officials of the Empire attending.[26]Mikhail Speransky, a former Governor-General of Siberia, saw California as a future grain supplier to Russian Pacific possessions in Alaska, Sakhalin and the Siberian coast. The Assistant Foreign Minister, Poletica, while at first against Zavalishin's program of Californian expansionism, by the end of the reception became fully supportive of it. Additionally the Minister of Education, Shishkov, while not present at the banquet warmly received the memorandum.
Zavalishin became fearful the treaties made in 1824 and 1825 that delineated Russian America's borders would restrict the Empire from a proactive policy in North America. He beseeched Tsar Alexander I for an audience to defend his memorandum, but a meeting was never arranged.[26] Eventually Tsar Alexander echoed Nesselrode's position and refused to send Zavalishin back to California. The political upheaval of Alexander I's death and the subsequent Decembrist Uprising halted the considerations for an extensive commercial colonisation of California by the RAC.[26] In 1853 Governor General N. N. Muravyov recounted to Tsar Alexander II that: California during the 1820s "was unoccupied and virtually unprocessed by anybody", though he found that a "foothold in California" would "sooner or later" have to be turned over to the advancing Americans.[27]
Later period
In 1818 the Russian government had taken control of the Russian-American Company from the merchants who held the charter. Starting in the 1820s the Company's profitability slumped due to declining populations of fur-bearing animals. It had already had bad annual returns, in 1808 slightly less than half of the 2,300,000 rubles of expense were covered.[4] Between 1797 and 1821 the RAC or its forerunner the United American Company collected the following inventory of furs, worth in total 16 million rubles: 1.3 million foxes of several species, 72,894 sea otters, 59,530 river otters, 34,546 beavers, 30,950 sables, 17,298 wolverines, 14,969 fur seals along with smaller numbers of lynx, wolf, sea lion, walrus and bears.[28]
In 1828, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia ordered the RAC to begin to supply the Russian settlements on the Kamchatka Peninsula, such as Petropavlovsk, with salt. The Company was expected to ship between 3,000 and 5,000 poods of salt annually.[29] Continual difficulties in securing large amounts of cheap salt in the Kingdom of Hawaii and Alta California led officials to consider Baja California instead. Arvid Etholén was dispatched in the winter of 1827, and soon secured permission from Mexican authorities to gather salt around San Quintín.[29] Transportation was arranged with the Misión Santo Tomás.
The explorer and naval officer, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangel, who had been administrator of imperial government interests in Russian America a decade before,[citation needed] was the fifth governor (in office: 1830 to 1835) during the government period. Eventually during the 1840s the governing board of the company was replaced with a five-member administration of imperial naval officers.[4]
During the Crimean War of 1853 to 1856, when the United Kingdom fought against the Russian Empire from 1854 to 1856, officials of the RAC began to fear an invasion of their Alaskan settlements by British forces. The RAC began discussions with the Hudson's Bay Company in the spring of 1854, with each company pledging to continue peaceable relations and to press their respective governments to do the same.[27] The United Kingdom and the Russian Empire accepted the deal by the companies, but both governments specified that naval blockades and seizure of vessels were acceptable actions.[27] The British HMS Pique and the French Sibylle attacked an RAC outpost on Urup Island in the Kuriles in 1855, in the belief that the agreement did not cover the Kuriles.[30]
The company built a whaling station at Mamga in Tugur Bay in the Sea of Okhotsk in 1862. It operated from 1863 to 1865 before being sold to Otto Wilhelm Lindholm. Two schooners used the station as a base, sending out whaleboats to catch bowhead whales, which were towed ashore and processed at a nearby tryworks.[31]
The Russian-American Company has been appraised as being run with "poorly chosen and inadequately skilled staff", floundering in part from "the lack of experience of the executives handling an organization which overreached itself through its expansion across the Pacific and along the American coast into California..."[4] The company ceased its commercial activities in 1881. In 1867, the Alaska Purchase had transferred control of Alaska to the United States and the commercial interests of the Russian-American Company were sold to Hutchinson, Kohl & Company of San Francisco, California, who then renamed their company to the Alaska Commercial Company.
Currency
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The Russian commercial flag (civil ensign) was used between 1799 and 1806 by the company on its ships and establishments. Tsar Alexander I approved a design for a separate flag for the RAC on 10 October 1806 O.S., writing "So be it" upon the report.[33] After being sent to the State Council, it was forwarded to the Finance and Naval ministries, along with the Saint Petersburg office of the RAC on 19 October 1806 O.S.[34] The memorandum described the flag as having "three stripes, the lower red, the middle blue, and the upper and wider stripe white, with the facsimile on it of the All-Russia state coat-of-arms below which is a ribbon hanging from the talons of the eagle with the inscription thereon 'Russo-American Company'".[34]
The company flag eventually had several variations, in part from the nature of individual production and the changing designs of the Imperial flag. As researcher John Middleton noted, "There continues to be much discussion concerning the design of the company flag, mostly centered around the design and placement of the eagle."[34] The various flags flew over the company's holdings in California until 1 January 1842, and over Alaska until 18 October 1867, when all Russian-American Company holdings in Alaska were sold to the United States. The flag continued to represent the company until its Russian holdings were liquidated in 1881.[33]
Chief managers
Below is a list of the general managers (or chief managers, usually known in English as governors) of the Russian-American Company. Many of their names occur as place names in Southeast Alaska. Note that the English spelling of the names varies between sources. The position administered the commercial operations of the company, centered on Russian America. Alexander Andreyevich Baranov was the first and longest serving chief manager, previously managing the United American Company. After Baranov's tenure, appointees were chosen from the Imperial Russian Navy and generally served terms of five years. Thirteen naval officers acted as chief managers over the course of the company.
At the beginning of its existence the company vessels were all Russian-built. As time went on foreign-built vessels began to be acquired. More than 30 vessels were bought that had been built in England, the United States, Germany and Finland. When Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867, foreign-built ships made up 97% of the total tonnage of the company fleet.[36]
Alexander Nevsky, wrecked in 1813 at the Kurile Islands
Aleksei Chelovek Bozhii
Andrei Pervozvannyi
Andrian i Natalia
Avos, wrecked in 1808 at Icy Straight.
Bering, bought from a Boston skipper. Ran aground in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands), date unknown.
References: Pierce, Richard, ed. Documents on the history of the Russian-American Company. Kingston, Ont.: Limestone Press, c1976. pp.23–26. OCLC: 2945773. Tikhmenev, P. A. A history of the Russian-American Company. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978. pp.146–151. OCLC: 3089256.
From 1732 to 1867, the Russian Empire laid claim to northern Pacific Coast territories in the Americas. Russian colonial possessions in the Americas are collectively known as Russian America. It consisted mostly of present-day Alaska in the United States, but also included the outpost of Fort Ross in California, and three forts in Hawaii, including Russian Fort Elizabeth. Russian Creole settlements were concentrated in Alaska, including the capital, New Archangel, which is now Sitka.
Bodega Bay is a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California in the United States. It is approximately 5 mi (8 km) across and is located approximately 40 mi (60 km) northwest of San Francisco and 20 mi (32 km) west of Santa Rosa. The bay straddles the boundary between Sonoma County to the north and Marin County to the south. The bay is a marine habitat used for navigation, recreation, and commercial and sport fishing.
Fort Ross is a former Russian establishment on the west coast of North America in what is now Sonoma County, California. It was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America from 1812 to 1841. Notably, it was the first multi-ethnic community in northern California, with a combination of Native Californians, Native Alaskans, Russians, Finns, and Swedes. It has been the subject of archaeological investigation and is a California Historical Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, and on the National Register of Historic Places. It is part of California's Fort Ross State Historic Park.
Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov was a Russian seafarer, merchant, and fur trader who established a permanent settlement in Alaska.
Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, sometimes spelled Aleksandr or Alexandr and Baranof, was a Russian trader and merchant, who worked for some time in Siberia. He was recruited by the Shelikhov-Golikov Company for trading in Russian America, beginning in 1790 with a five-year contract as manager of the outpost. He continued to serve past the end date of his contract.
Ludwig Karl August von Hagemeister was a Russian naval officer who held the rank of Captain of the 1st rank in the Imperial Russian Navy. He was a maritime explorer of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean, and served briefly in 1817-1818 as the second Chief Manager of the Russian-American Company.
Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, a Russian nobleman and statesman, promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California to three successive Emperors of All Russia—Catherine the Great, Paul, and Aleksander I. Aleksander I commissioned Rezanov as Russian ambassador to Japan (1804) with the aim of concluding a commercial treaty. In order to get to his post he was appointed co-commander of the First Russian circumnavigation (1803-1806), led by Adam Johann von Krusenstern. Rezanov left the expedition in 1805 when it returned to Kamchatka after visiting Japan (1804-1805).
The Battle of Sitka was the last major armed conflict between Russians and Alaska Natives, and was initiated in response to the destruction of a Russian trading post two years before. The primary combatant groups were the Kiks.ádi Clan of Sheetʼká Xʼáatʼi of the Tlingit nation and agents of the Russian-American Company assisted by the Imperial Russian Navy.
The Shelikhov-Golikov Company (SGC) was a Russian fur trading venture, founded by Irkutsk entrepreneurs Grigory Shelikhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov in 1783. Formed in Eastern Siberia during the 1780s along with several competing companies, the SGC had operations in Kurile Islands and areas that later became Russian America. Russian ventures had been focused on maritime operations under promyshlenniki, though costs had continued to rise as more distant sea otter populations had to be exploited. Centered on the Kodiak and several Aleutian Islands, the majority of the company's indentured laborer was recruited among the Aleut and Alutiiq nations. A common practice amongst Russian companies was to take hostages from various villages, to force maritime hunters to gather otter furs. Shelikhov led aggressions on Kodiak Island against the indigenous Alutiiqs in 1784, known as the Awa'uq Massacre, where Russian employees killed over 2,000 people according to some estimates. In consequence of the massacre, the island became fully controlled by the company.
The Schäffer affair was a controversial diplomatic incident caused by Georg Anton Schäffer, a German physician who attempted to seize the Kingdom of Hawaii for the Russian Empire. After two years, his scheme failed and he returned to Germany.
The maritime fur trade, a ship-based fur trade system, focused largely on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. Entrepreneurs also exploited fur-bearing skins from the wider Pacific and from the Southern Ocean.
Baranof Island is an island in the northern Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle, in Alaska. The name "Baranof" was given to the island in 1805 by Imperial Russian Navy captain U. F. Lisianski in honor of Alexander Andreyevich Baranov. It was called Sheet’-ká X'áat'l by the native Tlingit people. It is the smallest of the ABC islands of Alaska. The indigenous group native to the island, the Tlingit, named the island Shee Atika. Baranof island is home to a diverse ecosystem, which made it a prime location for the fur trading company, the Russian American Company. The Russian occupation of Baranof Island impacted not only the indigenous population and the ecology of the island, but also led to the United States' current ownership over the land.
The flag of the Russian-American Company, first adopted in 1806, consisted of a variation of the horizontal white-blue-red tricolor of the flag of Russia, but with the white stripe broader than the other two, and containing a double-headed eagle symbol of the company. The exact form and placement of the eagle was subject to variations, before Russian rule over Alaska ended in 1867.
Matvey Ivanovich Muravyev was a Russian explorer and officer of the Russian Imperial Navy. In 1820 he was appointed by the Russian-American Company as Chief Manager, based in present-day Alaska and responsible for the company's colonization and trading efforts. He was succeeded by Alexander Baranov
Fort Nikolaevskaia or Fort St. Nicholas, also called Nikolaevskii Redoubt, was a fur trading post founded by the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company (LLC) in Alaska, the first European settlement on the Alaskan mainland. It is located on the site of modern Kenai. It was one of several posts maintained by the company on Cook Inlet. With the creation of a monopoly in Russian America around the Russian-American Company in 1799, the station continued operations until the Alaska Purchase.
RAC–HBC Agreement was a series of protocols signed by the Russian-American Company (RAC) and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1839 and remained active until 1865.
Nikolai was a schooner of the Russian-American Company (RAC) sent by Chief Manager Alexander Baranov to the Oregon Country in November 1808. The schooner was named in honor of Saint Nicholas ; it is sometimes referred to as Sv. Nikolai.
Lydia was a US merchant ship that sailed on maritime fur trading ventures in the early 1800s. In December 1813 it was sold to the Russian–American Company and renamed Il'mena, also spelled Ilmena and Il'men'. As both Lydia and Il'mena it was involved in notable events. Today it is best known for its role in an 1814 massacre of the Nicoleño natives of San Nicolas Island, which ultimately resulted in one Nicoleño woman, known as Juana Maria, living alone on the island for many years. These events became the basis for Scott O'Dell's 1960 children's novel Island of the Blue Dolphins and the 1964 film adaptation Island of the Blue Dolphins.
John DeWolf, also known as John D'Wolf, John D'Wolfe, John DeWolfe, John DeWolf II, Norwest John or Nor'west John, was a sea captain, merchant, and businessman known for his role in the maritime fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, and his influence on the Russian-American Company in Novo-Arkhangelsk in Russian America, and for being an uncle of Herman Melville. Melville was inspired by DeWolf's stories, including an encounter with a large whale that contributed to Melville's Moby-Dick, which Melville describes explicitly in Moby Dick, "Chapter XLV: The Affidavit". "Captain D'Wolf" is also described in the same chapter. John DeWolf was the first American known to have travelled overland across Siberia, and probably the first person ever to circumnavigate the globe by way of crossing Asia overland.
Timofei Nikitich Tarakanov, also written Timofey Tarakanov, was born into serfdom in Kursk, Russia. His owner, Nikanor Ivanovich Pereverzev, sold him to the Russian-American Company (RAC) shortly after the company was created in 1799. He worked for the RAC in western North America and Hawaii from about 1800 to 1819. Tarakanov played an important role in the expansion of Russian operations south from Russian Alaska into Spanish California, usually as hunting party leader of indigenous sea otter hunters, mostly Aleut and Alutiiq people working for the RAC. This task often involved US maritime fur trade merchant ships transporting the hunting parties and their kayaks as far south as Baja California. Tarakanov played a key role in the founding of Fort Ross, California, and helped build and run Fort Elizabeth on Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. He was granted manumission from serfdom and returned to his home near Kursk in 1819.
↑ (Russian: Под высочайшим Его Императорского Величества покровительством Российская-Американская Компания, romanized:Pod vysochayshim Yego Imperatorskogo Velichestva pokrovitelstvom Rossiyskaya-Amerikanskaya Kompaniya)
↑ Pierce, Richard A.: The Russian-American Company: Correspondence of the Governors; Communications Sent: 1818.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mazour, Anatole G. "The Russian-American Company: Private or Government Enterprise?" Pacific Historical Review 13, No. 2 (1944), pp. 168-173.
1 2 3 4 Lightfoot, Kent G. Russian Colonization: The Implications of Mercantile Colonial Practices in the North Pacific. Historical Archaeology 37, No. 4 (2003), pp. 14-28.
1 2 Baltic, Alix. "The Baltic Connection in Russian America." Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Neue Folge 42, No. 3 (1994), pp. 321-339.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Wheeler, Mary E. "Empires in Conflict and Cooperation: The "Bostonians" and the Russian-American Company." Pacific Historical Review 40, No. 4 (1971), pp. 419-441.
1 2 Wilson, Joseph R. "The Oregon Question. I.", The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 1, No. 2 (1900), 111-131.
1 2 Khlebnikov, K.T., 1973, Baranov, Chief Manager of the Russian Colonies in America, Kingston: The Limestone Press, ISBN0919642500
↑ Spencer-Hancock, Diane, William E. Pritchard and Ina Kaliakin. Notes to the 1817 Treaty between the Russian American Company and Kashaya Pomo Indians. California History 59, No. 4 (1980/1981), pp 306-313.
1 2 Alton S. Donnelly. The Wreck of the Sv. Nikolai ed. Kenneth N. Owens. Portland, OR: The Press of the Oregon Historical Society. 1985, p. 4.
1 2 3 Andrews, C. L. The story of Alaska. 5 ed. Caldwell, ID: The Caxton Printers. 1942, p. 86.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Owens, Kenneth N. Frontiersman for the Tsar: Timofei Tarakanov and the Expansion of Russian America. Montana: The Magazine of Western History 56, No. 3 (2006), pp. 3-21+93-94.
↑ I.F. Kruzenstern, "Notes on ports and Ross and Franchesko" 4th October, 1825. Russia in California 2005.
↑ Raeff, Marc. An American View of the Decembrist Revolt. The Journal of Modern History 25, No. 3 (1953), pp. 286-293.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mazour, Anatole G. Dimitry Zavalishin: Dreamer of a Russian-American Empire. Pacific Historic Review 5, No. 1 (1936), pp. 26-37.
1 2 3 Bolkhovitinov, Nikolay N. The Crimean War and the Emergence of Proposals for the Sale of Russian America, 1853-1861. Pacific Historical Review 59, No. 1 (1990), pp. 15-49
↑ Lindholm, O. V., Haes, T. A., & Tyrtoff, D. N. (2008). Beyond the frontiers of imperial Russia: From the memoirs of Otto W. Lindholm. Javea, Spain: A. de Haes OWL Publishing.
↑ Pravilova, Ekaterina Anatolʹevna (2023). The Ruble: A Political History. New York: Oxford University Press. p.42. ISBN9780197663714. Retrieved 17 May 2024. From 1817 until Russia's sale of Alaska in 1867, the workers of the Russian American Company received their meager salaries in pieces of tanned leather branded with the company's seal that featured a Russian two-headed eagle and the signature of the company's director. Assignats were in short supply in Russian America, while coins imported from the mainland quickly disappeared from circulation. [...] Therefore, in 1816, the Russian administration in America started issuing its own private money called "marki" that in design and colors resembled paper assignats. Printed on the skin of sea animals, Alaska's most precious commodity, and delivered to the colony from St. Petersburg, leather rubles and kopecks circulated in Sitka, Kodiak, the Aleutian Islands, and the Russian possessions in California.
Grinyov, Andrei V., “A Failed Monopoly: Management of the Russian-American Company, 1799–1867,” Alaska History, 27 (Spring–Fall 2012), 19–47.
A. I. Istomin, J. Gibson, V. A. Tishkov. Russia in California. Nauk, Moscow 2005
Middleton, John. Бытъ По Сему- So be it: 200 years of the history and interpretation of "The flag granted by his Imperial Highness" The flag of the Russian-American Company. September, 2006. Fort Ross Conservancy web site
Primary sources
Pierce, Richard A.:The Russian-American Company: Correspondence of the Governors; Communications Sent: 1818 The Limestone Press Kingston, Ontario, Canada 1984.
I.F. Kruzenstern: Notes on ports and Ross and Franchesko, 4 October 1825.
Vorobyoff, Igor V., trans. (1973) "Adventures of Doctor Schäffer in Hawaii, 1815–1819," Hawaiian Journal of History 7:55–78 (translation of Bolkhovitinov, N. N., "Avantyura Doktora Sheffera na Gavayyakh v 1815–1819 Godakh," Novaya i Noveyshaya Istoriya 1[1972]:121–137)
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