Chapter 31 031 Russian-American Company Fur Traders

Chapter 31 031 Russian-American Company Fur Traders

Chapter 31 031 Russian-American Company Fur Traders
Solovyov had not paid much attention to the Russian-American Company's office in St. Petersburg at 72 Moika Embankment before, for the simple reason that this place had been established not long ago according to the edict of Tsar Paul.

In the past, when Russians went to North America as fur traders, they all acted independently in the Russian America designated west of Alaska and the Rocky Mountains. Although this area was vast and sparsely populated, with almost only Aleuts, Inuit and some indigenous peoples of the Northwest tribes, the competition among several Russian fur traders in this area was still very fierce.

During the reign of Empress Catherine II, they had already explored the Yukon River area, and a small number of explorers even went deep into the Mackenzie River basin. Russian merchants went a long way in their exploration, but one thing is that even before signing the treaty with the British, they did not attempt to cross the Rocky Mountains.

The largest settlement in this area is Pavlovskaya Port on Kodiak Island, which is also the center of Russian activities in this area. It is convenient for ships coming from the Kamchatka Peninsula to come for supplies and transport various goods. Even if you go further, you can go directly to the rich west coast of North America from here. At this time, the Americans had not yet completed the expedition across the North American continent, and the Spanish Kingdom, which actually "claimed" to control this area, had very limited control.

It can be said that it is a vast world, a treasure land where people from the Old Continent can roam freely and rarely explore, and more importantly, it is rich in resources.

How the Americans controlled this region before they moved westward across the Mississippi River, and how Spain controlled this region before the collapse of its colonial system in America, is a topic that is very worthy of study.

However, Solovyov's relationship with this company was nothing more than his father subscribing to the company's initial bonds on his own initiative. It must be said that this kind of risky investment was a typical feature of their family. The four Solovyov brothers had engaged in dangerous smuggling business in the past.

By the way, the name Russian-American Company was an abbreviation given by Americans when they were researching it, and the full name is "Russian American Company, under the Supreme Patronage of His Majesty the Empire". It was a joint company finally formed after decades of vicious competition among several major fur merchants and trading companies in the past. However, compared with the East India Company of other countries, its profits and business scope are still relatively limited, but its main business is very clear, which is to engage in fur business and fishing.

Judging from the future development of this company, it was too slow. In fact, they wasted their first-mover advantage of arriving at the west coast of North America and Alaska first, and allowed Americans to buy this precious land at a bargain price. At the same time, there was a small problem, that is, the money for buying cabbage at a bargain price was never received.

Of course, it is also because Russia's transportation in Siberia is so bad that if they really want to try the immigration trick, the journey to North America will be longer than the journey of the Second Pacific Labor Reform Fleet carrying low-quality coal from Hokkaido, Japan to the Tsushima Strait to die.

Although the reasons for development are reasonable, the trip is so long that it would probably take longer for the gentlemen who set out by boat from St. Petersburg to reach the destination than by crossing Siberia.

As for the information obtained by the Second Expedition, there were indeed practical difficulties for the Russians to immigrate there. You have to know that the local food supply is very difficult, and they even have to seek food supply from the Spanish territory in California. Even in Fort Ross, which is suitable for farming, there are not many people, and they have to exchange rations with local tribes, or the United States and Mexico will supply it.

Solovyov was thinking of Fort Ross. The Russians had already built a "hotel" in California, but in the end they didn't stay. This was not the first time that this happened in Russia's weekly development.

They are just not very good at "doing business". After merging several original companies, such as Shelikhov and Golikov's "Northeast American Company", "Northern Company", "Kuril Islands Company", Minierkov's "Irkutsk Merchant Company", and companies run by Baranov and others, these Russians seem to have lost their way in doing business.

The final outcome of the Russian-American Company was its dissolution in 1881. It began to suffer losses during the reign of Alexander I. No wonder Russia had to sell off all the vast tracts of precious land in North America in the end. After all, all of them were developed by the "bestial development" of the Anton people. With this business model, it would be troublesome if there were no problems.

Of course, now is the time for this magnificent little building to close down, and it has not yet received the official authorization of Tsar Paul. It is just that the good news was announced in St. Petersburg, and these companies in Irkutsk announced that they would be reorganized and merged into a specialized company, and began to sell the company's corporate bonds in advance in St. Petersburg, Moscow and several major cities.

Compared with the "beastial development", their practice of dividend and interest payment was very conscientious. Even though they were later dissolved, they insisted on paying out the interest and dividends of the last batch of company bonds in 1888.

Solovyov didn't care about this now. He just walked two steps forward and would reach Laundry Lane. He would go home and sleep tonight. Tomorrow was an official holiday of the legion, so he didn't need to go to the barracks.

But after returning home, he lay on the bed, his mind full of "furrier" and various furs, and it was almost as if "mountain eagle" had entered his mind.

Solovyov was quite good at planning, including his own career, company operations planning, and military construction direction planning. In fact, he had his own ideas. The first thing he had to do was to prepare a sanitary environment, which was actually common sense. In 1797, people already had a certain understanding of microorganisms, and the era of explosion in scientific research was about to come.

As for the Russians, apart from their artistic talents being activated by the French, they are actually no worse than the Western Europeans in scientific fields such as mathematics, chemistry, physics, and in adventure activities. If you don't believe it, you can look at the remaining place names in the coastal areas of North America, and how the main waterways were named.

Of course, Mr. Bering was a Dane, but he led a Russian expedition team, so there is no conflict. Moreover, Mr. Bering's mood was stable in front of his tomb. He was buried on the island he explored, and the island was named after him.

The long distance does not really matter. If the exiled prisoners are kicked from Siberia to North America, that is also a solution. After Russia joins the anti-French alliance in the future, the Spanish Bourbons will not care who has the head of Louis XVI and will always choose to ally with France. In the end, it will become like a puppet state until the situation in Spain becomes extremely bad.

During this period, although Spain could not obtain the land in several core viceroyalties in America, Russia could still fight for the land west of the Rocky Mountains.

For example, send all the exiled Poles to North America to cut off their thoughts of restoring their country, or attract more immigrants from various countries to go there.

Anyway, although Russia does not look like an immigrant country in tradition, there are many foreigners in the streets of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Solovyov's biggest shortcoming now is that he is only 16 years old. If he were in the royal family, he might have to marry a wife, but in ordinary noble and civilian families, he can only hold the hands of little girls at the dance and kiss them under the cover of flowers and plants in the greenhouse. Well, he didn't take this script. Even the "little fairy" Countess sometimes thought that he was unromantic. He didn't fall for the "seduction" with such obvious signals. He only had gold rubles and guns in his mind.

Of course, that might have a lot to do with the fact that this girl is not his type.

The next morning, Solovyov returned to the Moika River Embankment early in the morning. This time he was more familiar with the route. He always passed by on horseback or in a carriage before, but now he realized that some places were so close that he could even walk there in a few steps whenever he wanted.

Solovyov said that the office location of the Russian-American Company was a very problematic business model. In fact, the first floor could be used for display, especially to show that the company's greatest advantage was that it had obtained the monopoly right to operate in North America north of 55° north latitude with the emperor's grace, and what was even more advantageous was the vast investment space.
However, none of these were displayed. He had originally wanted to buy the "little fairy" a sea otter shawl as a thank-you gift. The last duel broke the secretary's kidneys. If she hadn't entrusted her aunt, Princess Yusupov's wife, to do it, he would have been targeted by Prince Kurakin.

However, that girl really likes to show her shoulders because she and others think it looks good.

Solovyov still has some money now. In addition to the bonus, he also got the "Bobricky" company which owns the "Little Bee" brand, which is headed by Count Bobulinsky. In fact, Solovyov wanted to complain about this name, as if the count insisted on letting people know where his last name came from - of course, Paul was very happy that his younger brother could have a serious job. You know, this kid did some ridiculous things when the queen was still alive, but now he has become much more stable after getting married.

Of course, this small company was invested by Count Bobulinski with the reward from his brother, and it has become a joint-stock company of which he is now the major shareholder.
But for several young people, their cooperation in starting a business has made them all small shareholders, which is a strange thing. Of course, the count is also a hands-off boss. When he saw old Solovyov coming to St. Petersburg, he handed all the managers to him. After all - your family has been doing this since Menshikov came to power.

In addition to the three-quarters of the company's profits held by its shareholders, the other quarter had to be presented to the emperor. This was usually only the case with monopoly companies. For example, one-third of the profits of the Russian-American Company belonged to the Tsar.

This is the cleverness of Count Bobulinsky. Since his brother was very good to him, he had to show some appreciation. The Tsar was still the biggest serf owner, and he was the one who had to pay the most respect.

As for the purchase of sea otter skins, Solovyov actually has his own ideas. They are wild and will be fished out sooner or later. The sea otter has already been eaten up by the Russian expedition team when the population is at a low point. If the sea otter, which is relatively friendly, can be semi-domesticated in the bay, it may bring greater benefits in the future.

The more he thought about this kind of place, the more he felt that the Russians were honest people. When they did good things, they never left their names and only the locals knew about it. But when they did bad things, the whole village knew about it. How did they do it?
As a captain of the grenadiers, he obviously had no chance to intervene in the management of North America and Siberia. Today, he was not happy because he did not see the sea otter cape at the Russian-American Company, so he planned to find a cafe.

But unfortunately, the cafe he went to was already full of people. Diplomats and military officers of all levels often come here to experience French life. It is not surprising that Russians are very European.

Of course, there were many people Solovyov didn't know. He was always in the barracks or following his superiors around. There were so many people in St. Petersburg, it was impossible for him to know them all.

However, there are still many people who know him.

"Sir, please take a seat. Let's have a nice conversation." (Sir, please take a seat so we can have a nice conversation)

Solovyov did not recognize the young officer with glasses. He looked about the same age as him, but he was wearing a Guards cavalry uniform and had the rank of major.

But no matter how you look at it, this young officer's temperament is too elegant, he doesn't look like an officer.

"Thank you, are you a cavalryman?"

"Oui, je suis Karl von Nesselrode." (Yes, I am Karl von Nesselrode)
This person is indeed a heavyweight, but he is just Solovyov. He only knows a group of generals and is not very familiar with the story of this German diplomat who later served as Foreign Minister for forty years and Reich Chancellor for fourteen years. He did not react for a while, but the other party might still recognize him. He was probably the adjutant of some nobleman.

In fact, he was in the entourage of Tsar Paul himself, who liked him very much, even though this gentleman was seasick and had been awarded the title of naval adjutant, and now he was transferred to the Guards Cavalry, becoming a colonel of the Guards at the age of 20 - but he really had no military talent at all, but was very suitable for diplomatic occasions.

Solovyov recalled that this Guards officer had stood in the line of adjutants of Tsar Paul's entourage in Gatchina before. The pair of small glasses was so easy to recognize that it could almost be said to be a standard feature of those diplomats.

But there is an embarrassing thing, that is, the other party can hardly speak Russian, and we can only communicate in French or German.

No wonder he will move to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the future to display his talents.

(End of this chapter)