Nature's Evil [calibre 5.27.0]

In June 1613, John Meyrick again sailed to Arkhangelsk, where he learnt about the coronation of Mikhail Romanov. The new tsar had found out about English intentions and begun a secret investigation of the conspiracy. But Meyrick skilfully mediated in talks with the powerful Swedes and helped to end the Russo-Swedish war by the Treaty of Stolbovo (1617). This reassured both the English and the Dutch: Russian resources would not be landlocked and the Swedes would not be able to stop or tax the White Sea trade. As a result, James abandoned his idea of colonising the Russian north; instead he placed his confidence in the ability of the new tsar to establish order in his tsardom. The English were never again granted a monopoly on the White Sea trade.

According to various estimates, the Muscovy Company at the turn of the seventeenth century guaranteed between a third and a half of the English Navy’s requirements for rigging. 12 But Dutch ships visited the Dvina more frequently, taking a large share of the hemp market. Trading on behalf of their German or Spanish customers, the Dutch were more flexible and paid in silver (the English preferred barter). There were years when the Dutch became so successful at the White Sea trade that they bought up all the hemp from the Pomors and then sold it to the English. All this changed when Peter the Great realised the centuries-old dream of Russian autocrats and captured several Baltic ports, opening them up to Russian commodities. The founding of St Petersburg led to a rapid decrease in White Sea commerce, not because of fair competition, but because Peter imposed prohibitive tariffs on Arkhangelsk to help develop St Petersburg. From now on, hemp from central Russia would go to St Petersburg by the new canal which Peter had built for supplying his capital, and then sail west across the Baltic.

Hemp and Napoleon

On the eve of the eighteenth century, hemp was the leading Russian export, linen was second and iron third, followed by fatback. Fabrics made out of hemp and linen – i.e., canvas and sailcloth – were counted separately; they occupied fifth and sixth place in Russian exports. Grain lagged behind these products. England was Russia’s biggest customer, with North America in second place. The British import of hemp doubled throughout the eighteenth century and 90 per cent of it was consistently supplied by Russia. Providing hard currency, hemp was now grown in the most productive estates of central Russia that belonged to the top nobility. For the first half of the nineteenth century the export of hemp and linen made up a third of Russian exports, a figure which did not diminish even during the Crimean War. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the significance of fibre in Russian exports had lessened dramatically – it made up just a tenth of it. Grain was now the main Russian commodity. 13

The history of the Romanovs is full of attempts to nationalise the export of raw materials. The list of export commodities that were under state monopoly lengthened considerably in Peter’s reign: items included hemp, linseed, pelts, potash, tar, fatback and caviar. Private firms had to supply these goods to the state at a fixed price, and then the exchequer sold the raw materials to foreign buyers at market prices. In 1719 Peter repealed this decree ‘out of pity for the merchants’, but imposed custom duties which continued making profits for the empire. All goods were exported on the purchasers’ ships – the Russians had no merchant fleet. Only 7 per cent of exports went overland, including exports to China via Kyakhta. In 1724 Peter established a monopoly import-export company with a handful of shareholders, following the example of the Dutch East India Company, which he remembered from his tour of Holland. ‘I would like my people to become manufacturers,’ said Catherine the Great in 1764. But the production of hemp and canvas remained cottage industries. Attempts to push the Russian merchants to export commodities on their own ships failed, but the balance of trade was usually in Russia’s favour. Export tariffs on raw materials financed state expenditure. The Hermitage bought up treasures from all over Europe. The army which would defeat Napoleon paid salaries to mercenaries of all ranks. Russian landowners wore frock coats of English broadcloth, drank French wine from Bohemian glasses, took pinches of Virginia tobacco, and then blew their noses on handkerchiefs dyed with indigo. In between all these activities they read Voltaire, Rousseau and even the anti-colonial Raynal. The richest landowners, such as the Demidovs and the Chertkovs, invested their wealth in Italian or British estates or even, like Alexander Herzen, in American bonds. All this was financed by the income received from the overseas sales of Russian raw materials.