Trade in Kamchatka in the middle of the 19th century.

Molchanova Elena Gennad'evna ORCID: 0000-0003-4673-3587 PhD in History Associate Professor; Higher School of Pedagogy and History; Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education 'Pacific State University' 680000, Russia, Khabarovsk territory, Volochaevskaya str., 163, sq. 132 lenmolch@mail.ru

Trade in Kamchatka in the middle of the 19th century was shaped by a complex of geographical, socio-economic and political factors that determined its features and limitations. The significant remoteness of the region from the central regions of the Russian Empire, coupled with transportation difficulties and harsh climatic conditions, significantly complicated the supply of goods, as well as hindered the full development of trade relations. During this period, Russia sought to strengthen its position in the Far East, including through trade support. For this purpose, administrative centers were strengthened, warehouses for storing goods were created, and efforts were made to improve sea routes.

The purpose of this work is to analyze the main problems related to the provision of food and necessary goods to the population of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the middle of the 19th century, to study the policy of the Russian authorities in this area, as well as to characterize the features and main forms of trade in the region.

The source base of the work is archival materials from the collections of the Russian State Archive, the Russian State Archive of the Far East and the Russian State Archive of the Navy. Significant sources for the study are the works of contemporaries of the events under consideration, such as K. Dietmar ^[5], A. S. Sgibnev ^[17], A. Butakov ^[2], J. Kennan ^[7], A. Philippeus ^[18] and others.

At the end of the XVIII – the first half of the XIX centuries. Kamchatka depended on supplies of food and other necessary goods, which mainly came from Siberia. Trade was conducted along the rivers, through which goods were delivered to Yakutsk, and then overland to Okhotsk. Then the cargoes were sent to Kamchatka using state-owned vessels ^{[9, p. 30]}. This trade route was one of the most important supply channels in the region, providing the local population with food, clothing, tools and other goods necessary for daily life. This route also played an important role in establishing links between Kamchatka and the rest of Russia. However, the transportation of goods was associated with great difficulties due to difficult climatic conditions and long distances, which made this process very costly and time-consuming. A. Butakov, a member of the crew of the Abo transport, which delivered goods from Kronstadt to Petropavlovsk in 1841, noted in his notes: "Everything that is brought to Kamchatka through Okhotsk is extremely expensive, and besides, due to the small space on government-owned transports and the difficulty of delivering goods from Siberia to Okhotsk on pack horses, the number of imports is very limited" ^{[2, p. 136]}. Kamchatka residents often experienced shortages of food and essential goods, and this was one of the main problems of the local population.

Until the end of the 1840s. Okhotsk was Russia's main port on the Pacific Ocean, playing a key role in the region's trade and development. However, the situation changed dramatically in 1849, when the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, N.N. Muravyov, visited Kamchatka, as well as Ayan and Okhotsk. The result of the visit was the decision to move the main port from Okhotsk to Petropavlovsk. In December 1849, the decree was signed by Emperor Nicholas I, which officially consolidated Petropavlovsk's status as Russia's main port on the Pacific Ocean. This decision had significant consequences for Kamchatka, as the development of the port contributed to the improvement of the transport infrastructure and economic development of the peninsula ^{[1, p. 395]}.

The first half of the 1850s, when Russia's main port on the Pacific Ocean was located in Petropavlovsk, was a period of intensive development in Kamchatka. Military units were relocated here. Military vessels have arrived in Kamchatka to ensure the protection of the Russian Pacific coast. Active construction began: barracks for soldiers, houses for officers were erected, as well as work was carried out to expand the infrastructure of the peninsula and strengthen the Petropavlovsk port. However, there were still significant difficulties in supplying the population and government institutions of the region with food, building materials and other necessary goods. These problems were compounded by the remoteness and inaccessibility of the region. Kamchatka researcher K. Dietmar, who traveled around the peninsula in the first half of the 1850s, noted: "a fairly large increase in teams and officials required much larger supplies, a significant amount of building materials and all kinds of tools. Ship accessories were needed for the repair of ships" ^{[5, p. 126]}.

The state considered Kamchatka and the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk as strategically important territories, and, within its capabilities, sought to solve the problems of the local population. Many officials realized the expediency of organizing the supply of Kamchatka with goods from America. In December 1854, P. V. Kazakevich was sent to the United States, who at that time served as an officer-at-large under the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, in order to purchase various goods, as well as ships for the Primorsky Region and the Kamchatka Port squadron ^{[12, l. 1]}. In 1865, the Russian vice consul in San Francisco, M. F. Klinkovstrom, sent the brig Olga to Kamchatka and the Amur Region, carrying a cargo of flour, salt, corned beef and other goods. He also offered Russian merchants his services to purchase goods in the United States at favorable prices. At the same time, he sought not only to meet the needs of the local population, but also pursued his own commercial interests. However, this initiative has not been further developed ^[3].

A significant role in the development and livelihood of the Russian Far East was played by a Russian-American company established in 1799 to develop Russian America. In fact, she was the leader of the Russian government's policy in this region. The company's activities were of great importance in the return of the Amur region, the organization of Russian settlements there and the development of trade. Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands were also annexed to Russia with the company's participation. In addition, the Russian-American company occupied an important place in the supply of food and necessary goods to the Far Eastern territories. The Kamchatka Peninsula was of strategic importance to the company. Communication between Russian America and Asian Russia was carried out through Petropavlovsk. Petropavlovsk was the only port in the North Pacific Ocean where ships could replenish supplies of drinking water, food and carry out repairs. In addition, it was here that the company's ships often wintered. In 1803, the Russian-American company established a permanent warehouse of goods in Petropavlovsk, from which its ships and the local population were supplied ^{[9, pp. 30-31]}. On the eve and during the Crimean War, the company delivered thousands of pounds of food to the peninsula. This saved the inhabitants from starvation and helped to increase the peninsula's defense capability. After the end of the war, the Russian-American Company continued to supply the peninsula's population with food and other necessary goods, which contributed to lower prices ^{[6, pp. 183-184]}. However, the capabilities and resources of this company were limited, which periodically led to crises. The volume of goods supplied did not always meet the needs of the population, it happened that due to lack of food, residents of the northern regions of the Far East were on the verge of starvation. For example, in the winter of 1860, due to food shortages, most of the Petropavlovsk residents had to be sent deep into the peninsula to the villages of Kamchadals so that they could feed on the fish stocks they had ^{[15, l. 3-3ob]}. The authorities, trying to solve the problem with the supply of food to the population, took measures to develop agriculture on the peninsula. However, these efforts have proved largely unsuccessful.

Since the organization of supplies to the population and government institutions of Kamchatka solely through the efforts of a Russian-American company and Russian merchants did not bring the expected results, the government took measures to attract foreign entrepreneurs to solve this problem. On August 6, 1828, the right of duty-free trade in foreign goods was introduced in Kamchatka ^{[13, l. 4]}. Foreign entrepreneurs, mostly Americans, have played a significant role in supplying the population of Kamchatka with essential goods.

Foreign merchant ships began entering the northern Russian Far Eastern ports as early as the beginning of the 19th century. The beginning of the active activity of the United States in the North Pacific Ocean dates back to the middle of the century. In the 1840s and 1850s, American whalers appeared in significant numbers in the Sea of Okhotsk. In a report from the chief of Kamchatka to the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia dated January 6, 1846, it was reported that in 1845 about 500 whaling vessels belonging to various states were fishing off the coast of Kamchatka. Of this number, 44 ships entered the port of Petropavlovsk. ^{[16, l. 1-1ob]}. Some of them delivered food and other goods to the city. However, these shipments were random and irregular.

Since the 1830s, the volume of imported foreign goods to Petropavlovsk has increased annually. During this period, American merchant ships with goods began to enter the port. The Kamchatka authorities, generally sympathetic to the visits of American merchants, allocated places for the organization of temporary shops. Local residents actively purchased the necessary goods in reserve ^{[2, p. 137]}. In 1834, the trade turnover of one American merchant, Pierce, amounted to 56,560 rubles. Trusted representatives of the Boston merchant W. Boardman sold goods for several tens of thousands of rubles annually ^{[4, p. 242]}.

In the late 1840s, foreign trading firms began to establish representative offices in Petropavlovsk, which facilitated the organization of regular supplies of goods and the formation of relatively stable commercial ties. During this period, a representative of the large Boston firm Boardman & Co., I. Knox, launched a permanent trading activity in the city. The vessels of this company have already visited the port in previous years, thanks to which its representatives were well aware of the needs of the local population. Subsequently, the company acquired a land plot and a building, organizing a permanent trade ^{[5, p. 128]}. This company supplied goods to Nikolaevsk and Petropavlovsk on the schooners Bering and Siver from the USA and European ports ^{[8, p. 66]}. Every year, this trading house brought large shipments of various goods that were in demand in Kamchatka. Local merchants bought some of the goods in small wholesale for resale or exchange for furs from the aborigines. Among the most sought-after goods were food products such as tea, sugar, flour, cereals, salt, fabrics, ready-made clothes, shoes, tableware, as well as blacksmithing, carpentry and carpentry tools, labor tools, guns, gunpowder, lead, spinning for seines and nets, soap and other goods ^{[5, p. 128]}. In the middle of the 19th century, Americans Cushing, Hunter, Chez, and others also conducted trade in Kamchatka. The publicist J. Kennan, who visited Kamchatka in 1865, noted in his notes that his translator was the American merchant Dodd, who spent seven years in Petropavlovsk. J. Kennan noted that this American trader could speak Russian and was familiar with the customs and lifestyle of the aborigines ^{[7, p. 310]}.

As for the share of foreigners in Petropavlovsk's trade turnover, in 1853 it amounted to 28.3%, and in 1854 – about 21% ^{[14, l. 3-3ob.]}. According to the information of the Petropavlovsk city elder for 1854, the prices of goods sold in the shops of the Russian-American company and foreign merchants were approximately the same ^{[11, l. 28-29]}.

A significant part of the goods supplied by foreign trading firms, as well as by a Russian-American company, were purchased in small wholesale by merchants who were engaged in small retail trade in shops in Petropavlovsk and other settlements of Kamchatka. However, merchants carried out most of their trade directly in the aboriginal camps, which they toured annually to exchange goods for valuable furs and other products of their trade. In his essays, K. Dietmar described in detail the departure of merchants from Petropavlovsk to visit the settlements of the indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka, where they concluded deals, offering local residents basic necessities such as flour, cereals, salt, guns and gunpowder, in exchange for highly valued furs, primarily sables. He wrote, "On December 17, 1852, a long row of sleds belonging to seven merchants set off and returned only on April 2. The merchants returned with pleased faces, and there was a reason: they exchanged 2,500 pieces of sables alone, most of them of the highest quality." It is noteworthy that by order of the military governor of Kamchatka, V.S. Zavoiko, the merchants' departure to the aboriginal camps to exchange goods for furs was accompanied by a police officer ^{[5, p. 400]}. His task was to prevent predatory, unequal exchange, which took place quite often. The official supervised that merchants did not deceive the indigenous people of Kamchatka, explaining to them the value of furs and the terms of exchange. As a result, the purchase price of sable increased by almost 300 percent and goods became more accessible to the indigenous people of Kamchatka ^{[10, p. 253]}.

A serious problem for the northern regions of the Russian Far East was the desire of entrepreneurs to import alcoholic beverages, the trade of which yielded high profits. Alcohol was often used as a commodity for exchange, including for the purpose of establishing control over the peninsula's population and obtaining resources from them, such as furs and other goods. For the aborigines of Kamchatka, who traditionally had no experience of alcohol consumption, the introduction of alcoholic beverages into their culture could lead to serious social and cultural consequences. The authorities tried to restrict and control the trade in vodka, rum and other alcoholic beverages. According to the report of the starosta of Petropavlovsk for 1854, the cost of alcoholic beverages among all goods delivered by the Americans was about 9%, while for the Russian-American company this figure was lower – 4.1% ^{[11, l. 28-29]}.

Trade in Petropavlovsk and other relatively large settlements was carried out for money, and only sometimes for furs, which the aborigines themselves brought here. The indigenous people of Kamchatka often brought their loot to Petropavlovsk on their own in order to exchange it with a Russian-American company and in the trading shops of American merchants for goods necessary for their daily existence. Furs, especially sable furs, occupied a central place in the exchange system of the region, being the main commodity with which the indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka carried out settlements with merchants.

After repelling the attack of the Anglo-French squadron on Kamchatka, it was decided to move all administrative and military institutions, as well as the main port of the Russian Empire on the Pacific Ocean from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. In 1856, Nikolaevsk became the administrative center of the Primorsky Region, which included the northern districts. This decision was a key moment for the gradual decline of the northern territories. The population declined, construction activity practically stopped, and existing buildings deteriorated and collapsed. As a result, there was a decrease in trade turnover. Most of the foreign merchants opened their shops in Nikolaevsk, and some moved their business from Petropavlovsk. The supply situation in Kamchatka and other northern regions of the Russian Far East worsened after the sale of Alaska in 1867 and the liquidation of the Russian-American Company, which, among other things, was engaged in providing Russian territories in the Far East. Russian Russians have lost the most important link between Kamchatka and the center of Russia and Russian America, which has led to a significant reduction in visits to Kamchatka by Russian military and commercial vessels.

For several decades, not a single governor visited Kamchatka, Chukotka and other northern districts, limiting himself only to sending officials to audit these territories, in most cases relying on reports from the police officers, who were not always objective ^{[18, p.1]}. From the early 70s to the mid-1880s, the supply of the northern regions The Russian Far East was occupied by businessman A.F. Philippeus, who signed a contract with the Russian government for the supply of necessary goods and received a subsidy for this.

Thus, trade in Kamchatka in the middle of the 19th century developed in conditions of limited infrastructure, remoteness from the main economic centers and unfavorable natural and climatic conditions. The economic development of the peninsula largely depended on external factors and decisions of the Russian government. The main emphasis in trade was placed on furs and marine products, which were exchanged by merchants for goods necessary for the population. The authorities tried to control and regulate trade, trying to prevent unequal trade between Russian and foreign merchants and aborigines, and to provide the population and government institutions with the necessary goods and materials.