Nerchinsk - Beijing: 121 Russian trade caravans in 1689-1703

The article presents a description of the first stage of Russian-Chinese trade after the conclusion of the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689. The Russian side was primarily interested in the trade "discovery" of China, and tried to develop this new economic direction by sending large trade caravans to Beijing annually (while under the treaty their frequency had to be established only once every three years). Changes in composition and guidance of these 11 expeditions attest to the fact that Russian-Chinese trade was not exclusively governmental, carried out by the Moscow merchant class. Commercial interests, knowledge and experience of Nerchinsk merchants were a necessary condition for its successful development. Trade expeditions to Beijing were mostly privately-owned (5), mixed (4) and only finally official (2). The basis for such a differentiation was the ratio between the Moscow merchants (their interests were represented by trade agents) and their exported and imported goods with local merchants from Nerchinsk and their goods (the Treaty of Nerchinsk contained the condition of free trade for all comers). Consistent with traditional isolationist policy, the Chinese side did not consider the possibility of trade with Russia as a necessary and economically beneficial direction. Direct opposition to including the trade item into the Treaty of Nerchinsk was changed by the tactics of coordination and bringing its regime according to the political tasks (border demarcation, Russia's consent to accession of Mongolia to China) and the factual course on gradual replacement of Russian trade from the center of the empire (Beijing) to its periphery (in the Manchurian Naun). The growing trading activity of Russians aroused dissatisfaction of the Chinese authorities with the official and unofficial economic contacts of their subjects with the northern neighbor. The Qin authorities forced Russian merchants out of Beijing in 1703, Naun in 1720, and the Mongolian Urga in 1726. This was the end of the first stage of Russia's international trade on the easternmost border of the country. During the period of unilateral Russian-Chinese trade, the military-border Nerchinsk experienced an economic recovery and acquired the character of a merchant city. After the abolition of Albazin Voivodship, which was ceded to China, Nerchinsk became the largest military and trade center of Transbaikal near the Russian border on the Argun River. Different strata of local population, in addition to their main activity in urban service, were involved in the sphere of commodity-money relations.

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