Customs affairs in South-Eastern Transbaikalia in the late 17th - early 18th centuries

The article presents an analysis of customs business organization in the territory of the eastern borderlands of the Russian state, from the point of view of customs bodies functioning in state interests, first of all, in terms of its fiscal component. According to the authors' view, generalization of historical experience and estimation of authorities' activities in a historical context can be applied to solve some modern problems, and may prevent repetition of the errors of the past. Basic attention in the article is paid to Nerchinsk customs (customs house) activities estimation, established in Nerchinsk, a city with a strategic frontier position on transportation routes with China. The Nerchinsk customs became the main customs providing frontier control over the movement of Russian and Chinese goods at the Transbaikal region western borders. The authors mention an idea that Transbaikalia can be considered as an absolutely unique territory in terms of customs legislation enforcement. Being part of the all-Russian customs policy construction, the region had a considerable number of regional jurisdiction legislative acts with the use of simplified systems for some customs formalities. This circumstance was caused by the all-Russian policy interests of involving "borderline areas" in all-Russian economy, expansion of the Russian foreign trade in new markets. Nerchinsk customs activities were carried out in two directions: collection of customs duties and control over goods turnover to suppress illegal import and export. The article estimates the customs books that preserved detailed information about the nature of the goods, describes the toll taxation system, categories of persons transporting the goods and the status of customs heads. All this allowed to determine special regional features of customs activities in the region. The authors note the importance of studying customs books as the basic sources of information on Nerchinsk customs activities. The conclusions are made on the basis of archival materials introduced in the scientific use for the first time. As a result, the authors state that the suspension and further termination of the Nerchinsk customs activities were directly influenced by foreign policy events. With high duty turnover of the Nerchinsk customs, the Russian authorities could not keep Nerchinsk as the trade center and a strategic point of customs control.

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