The Empire of Russia: From the Remotest Periods to the Present TimeAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
The Empire of Russia: From the Remotest Periods to the Present Time
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Russia -- History
Chanceller and his companions were received with the same cordial
hospitality as before. Ivan gave them a seat at his own table, loaded
them with favors and gave to the Queen of England the title of "my
dearly beloved sister." A commission of Russian merchants was
appointed to confer with the English to form a commercial treaty. It
was decided that the principal place for the exchange of merchandise
should be at Kolmogar, on the Bay of Dwina, nearly opposite the
convent of St. Nicholas; that each party should be free to name its
own prices, but that every kind of fraud should be judged after the
criminal code of Russia. Ivan then delivered to the English a diploma,
granting them permission to traffic freely in all the cities of Russia
without molestation and without paying any tribute or tax. They were
free to establish themselves wherever they pleased to purchase houses
and shops, and to engage servants and mechanics in their employ, and
to exact from them oaths of fidelity. It was also agreed that a man
should be responsible for his own conduct only, and not for that of
his agents, and that though the sovereign might punish the criminal
with the loss of liberty and even of life, yet, under no
circumstances, should he touch his property; that should always pass
to his natural heirs.
The port of St. Nicholas, which, for ages, had been silent and
solitary in these northern waters where the English had found but a
poor and gloomy monastery, the tomb, as it were, of hooded monks, soon
became a busy place of traffic. The English constructed there a large
and beautiful mansion for the accommodation of their merchants, and
streets were formed, lined with spacious storehouses. The principal
merchandise which the English then imported into Russia consisted of
cloths and sugar. The merchants offered twelve guineas for what was
then called a half piece of cloth, and four shillings a pound for
sugar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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