“So That… In the Meantime the Duty From Turkish and Crimean Merchants is Not Lost”: Foreign Trade in Southern Russia in the Middle of the Eighteenth Century

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

^1. See Troitskii, S. M. Finansovaia politika russkogo absoliutizma v XVIII v. Moscow, 1966, p. 186.

^2. Aleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Riumin (1693–1766)—count, statesman, diplomat, and chancellor of the Russian Empire. Began his diplomatic career under Peter I, attending the Congress of Utrecht in 1712. In 1740, on the recommendation of Empress Anna Ioannovna’s favorite, Biron, Bestuzhev-Riumin was appointed cabinet minister in place of the executed A. P. Volynskii. As a result of the coup that toppled Biron after Anna Ioannovna’s death, Bestuzhev-Riumin was stripped of his post and sentenced to death, which was later commuted to exile in Belozersky Uezd. Empress Elizabeth Petrovna brought back the disgraced cabinet minister from exile, appointed him as a senator, and later vice-chancellor. After taking charge of Russian diplomacy, Bestuzhev-Riumin pursued a firm foreign policy designed to have Russia form an alliance with Austria and England. In 1744, he became a chancellor and retained that post until 1758, when he again fell into disfavor. A charge was brought against him of plotting against Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in favor of the wife of Peter III Fedorovich. The plot, however, was never completely cleared up or proven.

^3. Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov (1714–1767)—count, vice-chancellor, and from 1758 to 1763 chancellor of the Russian Empire and chief of the country’s foreign-policy ministry. Vorontsov was an experienced diplomat and politician, but was not as forceful as his predecessor A. P. Bestuzhev-Riumin or as skillful at prevailing on the tsar. Peter III did not heed his recommendations and conducted his own policy, aimed at forming an alliance with Prussia. Given the emperor’s personal interference, chancellor Vorontsov failed to exert any noticeable influence on the process of the concluding a Russian-Prussian peace treaty. On April 24 (May 5), 1762, Russia signed a peace treaty with Prussia under which Russia returned to Frederick II all of the lands conquered from him without any compensation.

^4. Ilia Grigor’ev—captain, inspector of the Kizliar border customs house.

^5. Donduk Dashi—regent of the Kalmyk Khanate, 1741–1761.

^6. Mesouk—Kabardin owner.

^7. Kizliar—a city-fortress, founded in 1735 in present-day Dagestan to replace the Holy Cross fortress, which was vacated in the North Caucasus.

^8. I. L. von Frauendorf—major-general, commandant of the Kizliar fortress in the 1750s.

^9. A. S. Zhilin—major-general, Astrakhan governor, 1754–1760.

^10. N. G. Spitsyn—major-general, in the 1740s and 1750s worked under the regent of the Kalmyk Khanate, Donduk Dashi, on assignment from the Russian government

^11. [A bodokchei was a Kalmyk official who helped to facilitate local trade other ethnic groups, combining the roles of middleman, judge and bailiff.—Translator.] <https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ob-odnoy-kalmytskoy-pechati-kontsa-xviii-nachala-xix-v

^12. Murza was an aristocratic title, roughly equivalent to “prince,” in Turkic ethnic groups, especially Tatars.—Translator

^13. The reference is to Count A. P. Bestuzhev-Riumin.

^14. A zaisang was a hereditary local ruler.—Translator.

^15. Enotaev fortress was founded on the right bank of the Volga River between the cities of Astrakhan and Cherny Yar in 1742. It served as the winter residence for the regent of the Kalmyk Khanate.

^16. Iakov Matveevich Evreinov—president of the Commerce Collegium. Son of Matvei Grigor’evich Evreinov, a Moscow merchant in the Merchants’ Guild. Educated abroad. In 1720 was appointed consul to Spain. Upon his return he served in the Monetary Chancellery, and in 1742 he moved to the Commerce Collegium, where he advanced from counselor to president (beginning in 1750).

^17. Here the words “a ukase is to be sent” have been crossed out.

^18. Here the words “treat according to Her Imperial Majesty’s ukase” have been crossed out.

^19. S. S. Mezheninov—counselor in the Commerce Collegium. Began his service as a chancellery employee in the St. Petersburg customs house in 1723.

^20. Mikhail Tikhomirov—counselor in the Commerce Collegium, graduate of the Szlachta Cadet Corps.