Russian-American Company
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| Founded | 1799 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Saint Petersburg |
| Key people | Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov and Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov |
The Russian-American Company (The Russian-American Company under Our Highest Protection (“highest” referring to the Emperor); Russian: Русско-американская компания) was a state-sponsored trading company formed largely on the basis of the so-called Shelikhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelikhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov (after Shelikhov's death managed by his widow Natalia Shelikhova, with heavy involvement from Shelikhov’s son-in-law Nikolai Rezanov until the latter’s death in 1807).[1]
Chartered by Tsar Paul I in 1799,[2] it was Russia's first joint-stock commercial enterprise, and came under the direct authority of the Ministry of Commerce of Imperial Russia.
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[edit] History
The 20-year revolving charter and accompanying ukase (edict) granted the company monopoly over trade in Russian America, which included the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and the territory down to 55° N latitude. Under the charter, one-third of all profits were to go to the emperor. A further ukase (edict or proclamation) by the Tsar in 1821, asserted its domain to 43° N latitude but this was quickly challenged by the British and the United States and was revised to 51° N, and ultimately resulted in the Russo-American Treaty of 1824 and the Russo-British Treaty of 1825 which established 54°40′ as the ostensible southward limit of Russian interests; a later lease of the mainland coast of what is now the Alaska Panhandle to the Hudson's Bay Company followed in 1838 due to treaty violations by the Company's governor, Baron Wrangel, in 1833.
Under Alexandr Baranov, who governed the region between 1790 and 1818, a permanent settlement was established in 1804 at Novo-Arkhangelsk (today's Sitka, Alaska), and a thriving maritime trade was organized.
The company constructed forts in what is today Alaska, Hawaii, and California. Fort Ross, on the California coast in Sonoma County just north of San Francisco, was the southernmost outpost of the Russian-American Company, though on Spanish and then subsequently Mexican territory. It is now partially reconstructed and an open-air museum. Rotchen House is the last remaining original building. Fort Elizabeth was built in Hawaii by an agent of the company.
But from the 1820s onwards the profits from the fur trade began to decline. Already in 1818 the Russian government had taken control of the Russian-American Company from the merchants who held the charter. The explorer and Naval Officer Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangel, who had been administrator of Russian government interests in Russian America a decade before, was the first president of the company during the government period. The company ceased its commercial activities in 1881. In 1867, the Alaska Purchase transferred control of Alaska to the United States and the commercial interests of the Russian American Company were sold to Hutchinson, Kohl & Company of San Francisco, California, who then renamed their company to the Alaska Commercial Company.
[edit] Chief managers of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company
Prior to 1799, the Shelikhov-Golikov Company held a charter in Alaska and were founded by Grigory Shelikhov and Ivan Golikov (1735-1801). Baranov served both under the Shelikhov-Golikov Company and the Russian-American Company, but he is not generally called a governor, as that title began to be used by foreigners only after the company was transferred to the rule of the Russian Navy on January 11, 1818.
| # | Name | Term |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov (1747 – 1795) | 1784-1786 |
| 2 | Konstantin Alekseevich Samoilov | 1786-1787 |
| 3 | Evstrat Ivanovich Delarov | 1787-1791 |
| 4 | Aleksandr Andreyevich Baranov (1746 - 1819) | 1791-1799 |
Sources: Piotr A. Tikhmenev: A History of the Russian-American Company (1978); Lydia T. Black: Russians in Alaska, 1732–1867 (2004).
[edit] Governors of the Russian American Company
Below is a list of the governors/general managers (or chief managers) of the Russian-American Company. Many of their names occur as place names in Southeast Alaska. Note that the English spelling of the names varies between sources.
| # | Name | Term |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexandr Andreyevich Baranov (1747 — 1819) | July 9, 1799 — January 11, 1818 |
| 2 | Captain Leonty Andrianovich Gagemeister (1780 — 1833) | January 11, 1818 — October 24, 1818 |
| 3 | Lieutenant Semyon Ivanovich Yanovsky (1788 - 1876) | October 24, 1818 — September 15, 1820 |
| 4 | Matvey Ivanovich Muravyev (1784 — 1826) | September 15, 1820 — October 14, 1825 |
| 5 | Pyotr Igorovich Chistyakov (1790 — 1862) | October 14, 1825 — June 1, 1830 |
| 6 | Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangel (1797 — 1870) | June 1, 1830 — October 29, 1835 |
| 7 | Ivan Antonovich Kupreianov (1800 — 1857) | October 29, 1835 — May 25, 1840 |
| 8 | Adolf Karlovich Etolin (1798 — 1876) | May 25, 1840 — July 9, 1845 |
| 9 | Vice Admiral Mikhail Dmitrievich Tebenkov (1802 — 1872) | July 9, 1845 — October 14, 1850 |
| 10 | Captain Nikolay Yakovlevich Rozenberg (1807 - 1857) | October 14, 1850 — March 31, 1853 |
| 11 | Aleksandr Ilich Rudakov (1817 - 1875) | March 31, 1853 — April 22, 1854 |
| 12 | Captain Stepan Vasiliyevich Voyevodsky (1805 - 1884) | April 22, 1854 — June 22, 1859 |
| 13 | Captain Ivan Vasiliyevich Furugelm (1821 — 1909) | June 22, 1859 — December 2, 1863 |
| 14 | Prince Dmitri Petrovich Maksutov (1832 — 1889) | December 2, 1863 — October 18, 1867 |
[edit] Forts
- Fort Elizabeth near Waimea, Hawaii 1816[3]
- Fort Alexander near Hanalei, Hawaii 1816
- Fort near Nuchek on Hinchinbrook Island, Prince William Sound 1791
- Fort Archangel Saint Michael near Sitka 1799
- Fort near Yakutat, Alaska 1796
- Fort (New) Alexandrovsk at Bristol Bay 1819
- Fort near Nulato, Alaska 1834
- Fort near Kolmakov, Alaska 1844
- Fort Saint Dionysius at Stikine River 1833
- Fort Ross, California
Source: Russian American Company in Hawaii
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Piotr A. Tikhmenev: A History of the Russian-American Company (1978) (the original Russian work is from 1861).
- ^ Records of the Russian-American Company National Archives and Records Administration
- ^ Benjamin Levy (August 1978), National Register of Historic Places/National Historic Landmark 1978 Update: Russian FortPDF ( 491 KB), National Park Service
- Tikhmenev, Piotr A.: A History of the Russian-American Company, translated and by Richard A. Pierce and Alton S. Donnelly, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 1978. (Original title in Russian: Istoricheskoe obozrenie obrazovaniia Rossiisko-Ameriskanskoi kompanii. Vol. 1 published in 1861 and vol. 2 in 1863.)
- Black, Lydia T.: Russians in Alaska, 1732–1867. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks, Alaska, 2004.
- Vorobyoff, Igor V., trans. (1973) "Adventures of Doctor Schäffer in Hawaii, 1815-1819," Hawaiian Journal of History 7:55-78 [1] (translation of Bolkhovitinov, N. N., "Avantyura Doktora Sheffera na Gavayyakh v 1815-1819 Godakh," Novaya i Noveyshaya Istoriya 1[1972]:121-137)
[edit] External links
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