Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1990 Trading City

In July 1687, Pavel Shulkin, the new military and political chief of Yakutsk and a minor nobleman (usually a Cossack), led a team of people and walked towards Nerchensk.

Before becoming the supreme governor of the most remote administrative region of the Russian Empire, Shulkin had been fighting for the tsar in Central Asia, and he was promoted to the post of military and political governor of Tobolsk.Later, because he maintained a relatively good relationship with Ghazan (Galdan), the Mongolian leader of Junggar, and thwarted a series of harassment activities by the Kazakhs, Shulijin entered the eyes of the tsar and was bestowed a hereditary title.

After that, Pavel Shulkin has been working harder to serve the tsar, keeping Tobolsk in order, business income has been rising steadily, and agricultural and animal husbandry production is also extremely gratifying.Although the whole area is still plagued by the Junggar Mongolian threshing valley from time to time, the damage has been minimized, which is not easy.

And it was precisely because of the relatively outstanding realization in the Tobolsk area that the tsar ordered Shulikin to be transferred eastward to serve as the chief officer of the key Yakutsk military and political prefect district, and at the same time allowed him to bring along a team including Semyon Vishniakov, Lyubim Yevsheveyev, Grigory Ronshakov and many other subordinates came to take office, and the level of trust was unprecedented.You know, ever since many officials, including the Lithuanian-born officer Chernigovsky, were colluding, stealing and selling the treasury, deceiving the top and the bottom, and something like a separatist regime happened. The composition of officials is very careful. In principle, someone is no longer allowed to bring his own team to the post, so as to avoid a second Chernigorsky time.

Therefore, we can see from here how difficult it was for Shulkin to take three main helpers and other entourages to Yakutsk.At the same time, it can be seen that the Tsar—well, in fact, Princess Sofia is ordering the world—how heavy expectations he placed on Shulkin.If he can't properly solve a series of problems faced by the Yakutsk military and political governor's district in his tenure, I'm afraid the end will not be very good.The Tsar was sometimes extremely generous, but many times he was also ruthless!

When it comes to the problems facing the Yakutsk region today, or the work to be done, there are actually many, but the most important ones are nothing more than a few: [-]. Compromise and handle the relationship with the people on the east coast, and don’t let them worry about it. If you are dissatisfied, take the opportunity to make trouble, and at the same time, don't let them embezzle the land of His Majesty the Tsar and cause the country to suffer unnecessary losses; [-]. Handle trade affairs well, especially pay attention to purchasing more tea, silk, porcelain, furs, etc. Commodities, especially high-grade furs, Moscow urgently needs to sell them to Turkey or England in exchange for funds; [-]. Crack down on the bandit forces in the territory and the unruly Tungus tribes, and prevent the Tungus or Buryat Mongols from flowing into the territory of the people on the east bank; [-]. Assist priests in preaching, so that more Tunguskas have correct beliefs and strengthen their cohesion with the tsar and Russia; Lawbreakers can be executed directly; Sixth, fund expeditions, and strive to find a road to the sea to expand a wider space.

These six requirements, relying on any one of them alone, actually requires a lot of effort and hard work, not to mention putting the six together, it will kill people, so Shulijin will be said to be under a lot of pressure .

He pondered over and over again, and finally felt that he should deal with the first few items first, so he and his entourage went through hardships to the border city of Nerchensk, and planned to stay here for a long time, and carefully deal with the various issues. kind of business.

They arrived here about a week ago.As soon as he arrived, Shulgin announced that he would give two thousand rubles to the Cossack officer Nikifor Trusov, asking him to recruit people, pretend to be businessmen, and see if he could break east along the Amur River.This is the most convenient way to explore eastward. There is faint news that the river leads to the East from the people on the east bank. Therefore, the Tsar ordered Yakutsk to find out whether this is true. At the same time, if there is spare time , looking for other routes to the East, especially to the north.

Trusov is a Cossack who has lived in the Far East for many years. He is more loyal to His Majesty the Tsar and has strong abilities. It would be best if he was in charge of this matter.Moreover, this guy also has some good brothers in the local area. These people have a life-long friendship with him, and they can even pay for the journey eastward together. What a heroic spirit—of course, it also shows how much their desire for wealth is. Eager, as for how the wealth comes from, of course it is robbing!

Using two thousand rubles to complete the work of looking for the coast eastward may sound like a joke, but there is no way, Yakutsk is not a rich place, and this work is not the most important work, so spending so much money is already It's the limit.What's more, these are all real silver coins and cash. You must know that in the Yakutsk region, the salaries of many soldiers or civil servants are half in gold and silver and half in kind.

After arranging this matter, Pavel Shulkin left Nerchensk with a team of cavalry and officials, and went to the trading city of the East and Russia to check the trade situation.

The Maimai City is generally located near the later Puri Ergunsk. It is a town that has emerged due to trade. It currently houses thousands of merchants, farmers and herdsmen, and geographically belongs to the Russian Empire.In fact, the trading city stipulated in the peace agreement between the two parties was not originally located here.

In the early years, the dispute between the two countries had just been settled, and the people on the east bank and the Russians were discussing together to find a suitable place for trade in the border area between the two countries. The one that would be chosen was the one that was very close to the Yaksa Castle. The place is generally located on the east coast.Later, the Russians pointed out that the distance was too far to be convenient for their merchants, so after the two parties negotiated, the location of the trading city was moved westward to Fort Erguna, a new tax collection camp built by the Russians ( Historically, it was built in 1682), and it took several years to do it.

Later, due to frequent raids by horse bandits (sometimes even impoverished Cossacks pretending to be it), the location of the trading city changed again, and finally moved to its current location.In order to avoid the nuisance of the horse bandits, after negotiation between the two parties, it was decided to set up an armed force in Maimai City, with a rated number of 200 people.

The armed forces composed of professional soldiers are naturally not something small horse bandits can fight against. In addition, Russia has strictly investigated the Cossacks who pretended to be horse bandits and attacked merchants, and executed a group of people, so the business of the trading city began to prosper rapidly. Get up, and finally fix in the current position.

The City of Buying and Selling can now provide more than [-] thousand rubles in taxes per year for both parties.To be honest, this money is already a huge sum of money for Russia, and it can do many things.Even if half of it is to be distributed to the east bank government, it is [-] rubles, enough to form four Trusov expeditions to the east.

Of course, compared to taxes, the biggest benefit that the trading city brings to the Russians is the satisfying array of oriental goods.These commodities may not seem like much to people on the east coast, but they are very precious to the remote Russian Empire.Whether it is mink fur, fox fur, bear fur and other valuable furs, or Chinese specialties such as raw silk, porcelain, tea, or high-quality hardware tools produced on the east coast, Russians want to purchase in large quantities.Once these things are shipped to Moscow, the profit margins in them can make every businessman crazy about it, so this is the real value of the existence of the trading city.

It can be seen from this that in fact, in the bilateral trade in Maimaicheng, the Russians are the party with a larger import volume.They are very interested in every piece of goods in the hands of the people on the east coast, but the people on the east coast may not be so interested in the goods in their hands, so they need to export a large amount of hard currency such as gold and silver to balance the trade. Over time, a lot of currency gold and silver flowed into Yaksa and other places, which greatly prospered the local market.

Pavel Shulkin stayed in the trading city for three full days, listened to reports from Russian officials in the market, and gained a more comprehensive understanding of the trade practices here.Later, he also watched with great interest the "drama" in which the joint court of Maimai City tried a total of [-] grassland horse bandits and finally executed them, including a Cossack officer. The understanding of complex situations has reached a new level.

Shulijin also noticed that because of the prosperity of the trading city, a large number of Tungus and Buryat Mongols lived here.These people's tents or bark houses are set up just outside the city, and some small East Coast merchants often haunt them, as if they are selling their wares.However, some Russian officials told Shulikin that these businessmen may also play the role of lobbyists, because they often lure native tribes to live in the East Bank-controlled areas, especially the Buryat Mongols. .

The Russians even suspected that the people on the east bank abducted so many Buryat Mongols in order to form a large cavalry force.But the people on the east bank told them very clearly that the east bank did not have much interest in forming Mongolian cavalry, at least not for the time being.Their goal is the Manchu Qing, not the Russian Empire, please don't be nervous, let alone make a misjudgment, it doesn't make sense.

Shulkin was a little silent after hearing this explanation.He ordered his men to bring the map, and after carefully looking at the surrounding situation, his frown deepened.Why did the people from the east coast get so many Buryats?It is said that most of them have been moved to the other side of the river, which is the territory of the Mongols under the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Could it be that they want to start a war with the Mongols?

Shulijin thought about it for a long time but didn't think about it, and then he didn't think about it at all. Anyway, the people on the east coast were dealing with the Manchu Bogd Khan, not the people of the great Tsar, so why do they have so many? ?Nerchensk still has a lot of business to deal with, so it's better to go back quickly.

As for what many people are worried about in case there is another war between the East Bank and Russia, Shulkin said that the possibility is not very high, unless the people on the East Bank are really determined to turn against His Majesty the Tsar in Ukraine, but he doubts that the people on the East Bank will have Without this determination.

(End of this chapter)