Chapter 16 016 There are some good goods at Kyakhta's trade port
Chapter 16 016 Kyakhta’s Trade Port Really Has Some Good Goods
Since we have mentioned Chinese culture, in fact, Russia's biggest advantage compared to other countries is that they are directly an old neighbor of the Qing Dynasty. Before the Qing army entered Shanhaiguan, the Russian expedition team had already reached the Heilongjiang River Basin.
The northern border between the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia has been determined, and Kyakhta and Maimaicheng have been designated as the locations for trade. The two countries currently maintain a peaceful state. During the reign of Catherine II, envoys set out from Kyakhta to China. As for the results, there were actually no results. For more than 500 years, although the two countries have continued to trade, the annual trade volume has increased from 800 million rubles to million rubles, which is probably enough to build dozens of factories in Solovyov. However, this is still referring to the initial investment cost. In the future, it will have to be put into operation, which requires a lot of preparation.
In Kyakhta, the main commodity obtained by Russia was tea, but there were also some other products. The main form of trade was barter, which did not initially involve monetary settlement. At the same time, on the Russian side, Solovyov was also familiar with the situation. When he returned to St. Petersburg from Upper Palen, he consulted a businessman and former military officer who had been to Kyakhta for exploration.
The other party actually made it very clear that during the reigns of Empress Anna and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the transfer of paper money between the European part of Russia and Siberia was still prohibited. The Russian government was worried that high-ranking officials and governors hidden behind commercial bill transactions could withdraw funds from Siberia and transport them to Siberia in cash. It was not until 1769 during the reign of Catherine II that non-cash payments began to spread, paper money could also be used, and the banking system began to take shape. State bank offices responsible for credit and bill transactions were established in Tobolsk and Irkutsk in 1772 and 1779, respectively.
However, after 1796, decrees issued one after another during the reign of Tsar Paul had already begun to restrict the direct use of cash at ports. Some special circumstances might occur in the future that would lead to the appearance of precious metals in smuggling activities. However, these were methods adopted by the Russian side, and there were very few active smuggling activities on the Qing side.
As for some of the main goods in Russian trade, the bulk of its exports in the early days were livestock trade. After 1758, the export of horses once accounted for the bulk of Russia's foreign trade, and even caused the price of horses in the Krasnoyarsk area to rise from 5 rubles to about 15 rubles; although the Qing Dynasty exported tea to China, the lining of tea boxes often required tanned leather, and the packaging boxes required a large amount of raw materials. The current main supply relies on leather workers around Irkutsk; in addition, there are various furs. Although the Qing Dynasty was "richest in the world", some things were indeed scarce, and there was still a certain scale of imports in this regard. In addition, there is a small part of grain, iron, copper, paint, mirrors, carpets, honey, oil, frozen fish, candles, soap, iron products and hardware products. In addition to the local supply of grain, they will be exported to inland areas of China.
Tea is the largest product imported from China, and the purchase volume of textiles has also been increasing in recent years. In addition, there are gems, pearls, porcelain, groceries, gold, silver and rhubarb - some Chinese medicinal materials are stored in Irkutsk, which is an official act of Russia.
What Solovyov wanted was whether there were any Chinese books purchased from Kyakhta. Anyway, his level of classical Chinese was good enough, even without punctuation marks, but at least he could read it, and there would be no problem as long as he understood it.
This old gentleman, who has worked in Kyakhta and Irkutsk for many years, said that this does exist, but the number is small, and the level of translation in Tsarist Russia is probably like the "Kyakhta Port Russian", and the level is definitely not as good as that of French missionaries.
That's it. You see, when Voltaire created a play called "The Orphan of China", there wasn't actually much Chinese cultural content transplanted from it. This was also the case even when the mysterious East sparked a craze in Europe during the Enlightenment.
It was not until around 1845 that translated fragments of the Four Great Classics began to appear, and the complete texts did not come out until the 20th century. The English version came out first, followed by French and Russian versions. There are still many contents of China's classical literature and various classics that did not spread to the West. Even though Russia was a land neighbor, it had no content in this regard.
Solovyov wants to use this to try to stir up some "China fever". Otherwise, with his family's status and economic strength, no matter whether he wants to move up or do business to make money, the cycle will be too long.
Even if it takes a lot of time to go to Kyakhta, the round trip is extremely long, but it is always worth it. Now it is only 1797, and it is estimated that these books will not be sent back until 1798. They have to be delivered by "express delivery" at that time, and sent to the post station in the heart of Russia.
As for what to translate, Solovyov had a clear idea. From the content point of view, the Ming Dynasty Jiajing version and Mao's annotated "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" were naturally more suitable for translation. The story content was also relatively easy to understand, which was much better than starting with monsters and demons.
As for "Water Margin", thinking about the fact that the old guys who suppressed Pugachev's uprising are still around, this one is just "the good thing is that they surrendered", and for the last one, he himself feels that he is not at the level to translate it.
The reason is nothing else but describing emotions, which is more troublesome and requires a higher level of translator.
The trade between the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia in Kyakhta had suffered a severe setback a few years ago. The reason was that among the forest people, that is, the Buryats, there appeared a bandit gang that joined forces with the herdsmen of the Mongolian Tushetu Khanate on the border. They did not dare to attack the Russian army and Cossacks on the side of the Governor of Irkutsk, but the repeated attacks on Shanxi merchants on the Qing side would inevitably attract the attention of General Uliastai.
In the end, the prisoners were captured on the Russian side, but the Russian side exiled them according to Russian law. However, according to Qing law, they would be beheaded. The two sides argued for several years, and as was the usual practice in every argument between the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia, these people died in exile, and the first phase came to an end.
When a similar case happened again, the Qing court was extremely angry. Emperor Qianlong sent an imperial envoy to the trading city - Kyakhta to negotiate with the Tsarist Russian Governor of Irkutsk. Although Qianlong had issued a clear edict before the envoy left, he was still dissatisfied with the result of the handling. It was nothing else, but that when the Qing Dynasty signed equal and unequal treaties, it always showed its cards for various reasons, such as Ma Zhongtang accepted Russian rubles and had a stake in the Thirteen Hongs. This time was the same. The Qing envoy finally decided to solve the problem according to Russian law, which made Emperor Qianlong very angry. He directly dismissed him from his post, but did not investigate him. It was this person who signed the "Kyakhta Commercial Treaty" later.
However, Russia was also afraid of causing a big incident. After all, the shipment volume of Kyakhta had dropped sharply in recent years, and the Russian emperor would be unhappy. So at that time, all the prisoners were beaten to death with 300 lashes. After all, the severity of the lash depends on the severity. Although the Russians have not read the full version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and have never heard of Pinghua, the severity of the lash is measured. Similarly, at this time, the lash must be severe. Even if the Qing emperor was beaten to death, there would not be too many complaints. In the end, a new treaty was signed, stipulating the trade regulations, which made the old emperor relatively satisfied. Although the "Rakshasa Kingdom" in the north has always been arrogant and unreasonable, it is more reasonable than the "British barbarians".
After that, the total transaction volume of the port of Kyakhta reached 2400 million rubles (equivalent to 1200 million taels of silver) a year at its peak. It was not until the Qing Dynasty was opened to the outside world during the Opium War that it gradually declined. In this era, sea transportation was always stronger than land transportation, and the British held control of the sea.
Until the end of Catherine II's reign, the British still regularly provided personnel training for the Russian fleet. During Paul's reign, the situation changed somewhat, and his attitude towards the British became more emotional.
Buying books was indeed Solovyov's main idea recently, but he had to return to Upper Palen to help Count Bobulinsky complete two tasks: factory and garden construction.
It is said that the count also had a wild idea to invite his brother to visit, but given the busyness of Tsar Paul's daily work, he should have little time to condescend to visit an inland estate on the Baltic coast. At this moment, after handling state affairs in the palace, he would find someone to play cards. People like General Kutuzov would always be called by him. Although the Tsar was moody and vengeful, with a strong revenge mentality, he usually rewarded those who obeyed him.
Moreover, the Tsar himself was very happy about Kutuzov's behavior of always losing to him in card games, but he also felt that something was wrong.
"No, count, you should try to win once. It would be meaningless if I always win at cards."
"Your Majesty, when you play whist, you are like a victorious general on the battlefield, like Caesar and Charlemagne, both emperors, while I, when I play cards at the English Club, always lose."
"But, Mikhail Illarionovich, everyone knows that you lost the card game to Prince Bagration because you deliberately made up for it to the brave young man who lost so badly to others. In this way, the day was almost over and a lot of trouble from fighting could be saved."
Rostopchin never forgot to complain in front of the Tsar, sometimes telling gags and jokes that were not very sophisticated, on the one hand to highlight his own "stupidity" in front of the emperor, and on the other hand to make the emperor happy.
"And that's what happened, Your Majesty. In order to help the young man win, our general lost a lot of his previous wins."
"Is that so? Mikhail Illarionovich?"
The Turkish captive Kutaisov, who was the favorite of the Tsar, was very curious. Moreover, the four people on this occasion spoke Russian fluently, and they did not speak in private in court social activities, and always used long French. Of course, the Tsar himself also loved French culture. Although his taste was not high, he was also an enthusiastic patron.
Kutuzov looked at these two guys and knew that his trick of deliberately losing the card game to the Tsar had been exposed. Perhaps it was because he lost too badly today that Rostopchin felt a little embarrassed, and the stakes kept getting bigger and bigger.
"But Your Majesty, winning the game is very joyful. Although I lost the game, if Your Majesty is happy, I am happy for Your Majesty sincerely and from the bottom of my heart."
Paul I actually liked to hear flattery, and he was actually satisfied with Kutuzov's series of performances, but because of his temper, he always wanted to say something more.
"But what if I lose the game and am still happy?"
This question made Kutuzov's one eye full of confusion.
"But if you lose a card game, Your Majesty, generally speaking, people will not be happy if they lose a card game. As Count Rostopchin said, young people will be very impulsive when playing cards. But, Your Majesty, if you really feel that you will feel a sense of pleasure if you lose a card game, your subject."
"Well, my clever general, you can win as much as you want tonight, otherwise you will let Count Rostopchin lose all his money. As the French kings said, l'etat, c'est moi (I am the state). You are all my good subjects and good generals. If I let you keep losing cards, I, as the emperor, will not be happy all the time."
In fact, this Tsar was actually quite smart, and his idol, Frederick the Great, was once described.
"Paul was short in stature, and his features were ugly, except for his eyes, which were very beautiful; when Paul was not in anger, his eyes showed infinite kindness and joy. Although his manners lacked elegance, they were far from lacking dignity. His manners were decent and dignified, and he was very polite to ladies, all of which made him very elegant to everyone who met him. He was well-read, lively and open-minded, liked to joke and have fun, loved art, understood the French language and literature, loved French culture, and incorporated the etiquette and taste of this country into his habits. His conversation always changed the subject quickly, and he had a little understanding of subtle and delicate rhetoric. Of course, his jokes were not good."
To the outside world, the Tsar was a "German stick", but the King of Prussia himself thought he was a "French stick".
But he himself was going to play a losing hand today. Rostopchin and Kutuzov were a little troubled about this.
(End of this chapter)