From that period, we hear little for many ages of any commerce, or other proceedings upon the Caspian. But. in modern times, the Venetians and Genoese, as early as the 14th century, had begun to transport, by way of this sea, the Indian, Persian, and Arabian commodities ith which they supplied the southern parts of Europe, through Astra( an, to their magazines at Azof and Caffa. From Astrocan, the goods were conveyed up the Volga, the m, by land to the lion, and aftenv ards forwarded down that niter to Azof The northern part of the European «mtinent was, during the same period, liken ise supplied with those Asiatic goods, which were sent by the Rus sian t,; ders of er Astra( an, to their principal magazine at Wishy, a I lam,scatic town in the isle of Gothland. To wares the end of tl.c century, in consequence of the de vastotions produced by the wars of Timur, a transfer took 'dace of this trade from Astracan to Smyrna and A,e ppo; and the Arabian commerce, for which, in fact, !hese places lay more convenient, never returned thither, though a part of the Persian traffic was afterwards re stored to its old channel. While the provinces of Casan and Astracan remained under the government of the Tartars, the camp of the khan was a mart for the Russian and Persian merchants: and as, agreeably to the cus toms of that people, the site of their camp was often changed, Astracan and Terek became at length two principal places of resort. This commerce, frequently obstructed and interrupted by numerous banditti, was, however, precarious, until the conquest of Casan and As tracan by the Russians opened a ready communication between Moscow and the Caspian Sea ; and then Ivan Vassilievitch 11. having garrisoned Astracan with troops, rendered it the chief emporium of the eastern trade. This conquest having been effected previously to the end of the year 1554, soon after the discovery of Arch angel, the English about that period obtained the Czar's permission to pass through his dominions into Persia, and to carry on an exclusive trade over the Caspian. In 1558, Jenkinson accordingly, the first Englishman who navigated that sea, landed at Mangushlak upon the east ern shore, passed by land through the country of the Turcoman Tartars to Bokhara, capital of Great Buc.la ria, and returned to Moscow in the following year. In 1561, he again sailed over the Caspian, and proceeding to the coast of Shirvan, went by land to Casbin, and ob tained from the Sophi permission to trade into Persia. Similar expeditions were set on foot and conducted into the same parts by other merchants. The last of these was that under Christopher Burroughs, which was at tended with many dangers, his snip being finally shat tered by the ice in the mouth of tne Volga, while the crew with difficulty escaped, and at length arrived at Astracan. Hitherto this traffic had been chiefly confined to the poi is of 'rumen, Derbent, Baku, and the coast of Milan ; and having been much impeded by the banditti that frequent the shores of the Caspian, as well as by the wars which then prevailed between the Turks and the Pet sians, no English vessel during all that period, nor even for more than a century afterwards, ever appeared upon that sea. Indeed, for much the greater part of that time, the trade may be considered to have been al together extinct ; and no idea ever appears to have been entertained of its revival, till at length Peter 1. having subdued the northern provinces of Persia, endeavoured to induce the English to engage anew in this commerce. The many unsuccessful attempts, however, that had been made in that department since the 16th century, and in which large sums had been lost, deterred them from entering into the views of that monarch ; and so little, from various causes, chiefly the unwholesomeness of their climate, appeared now to be the advantage of possessing provinces which, at the time of their acqui sition seemed to promise very henefical results, that, in consideration of obtaining the liberty of import and ex port duty free in all the harbours or the Caspian, with some other minor advantages, the empress Anne at length agreed to relinquish these provinces to Nadir Shah. Russia then gained more from them by trade, than before through the conquest and the possession of them; enconraged by which favourable appearance, as well as induced by other considerations, Captain Elton, an En glishman in the Russian service, renewed the project of instituting a British trade over the Caspian. Influenced by his persuasion, the British merchants of St P. ters burgh turned their attention to this commerce. A ves sel was built for the navigation of the Caspian. It way loaded with the goods considered to be the best adapted for the Persian market ; and in line, a factory was esta blished at Rested, in the province of Gillian. Even, how ever, in the outset, the symptoms appeared of an inau spicious jealousy, and a tendency to disagreement among those who were to be concerned in this traffic ; and even tually, in consequence as well of disputes among the En glish themselves, as between than and the Russians, and at tne same (line, probably moved, by views of ambition, Elton entered into the service of Nadir Shah, and assisted in constructing vessels by means of which the Persian court seems to have entertained the idea of establishing their own supremacy. On this sea. This proceeding rea sonably gave umbrage to the court of St Petersburgh, and Elizabeth, in 1746, withdrew her permission to the English merchants of passing through her dominions, on account of the Caspian commerce. On t he death of Na
dir Shah, who haul for sonic time permitted the English to trade to Persia, their factory was pillaged, and their commerce annihilated. Elton, after various vicissitudes of fortune under those who, amidst the troubles which now began to prevail in this state, followed each other in rapid succession as the heads of its government, at length by a s lolent and premature death, paid the forfeit, either of his imprudence or of his crimes. The Russians pro fiting by the loss of the English in this quartet., received no small advantage from the models wnich they left them, and from learning of them in those parts, as they had before done in St Petersburgh, the use of the best ma terials for ship-building.
Considerably before this period, indeed, the natives of that country had entered into, and were now proceed ing with no very unequal steps in the track opened by our merchants. Under A lexey 11ichaclovitch, Astracan became the centre of the Persian trade, to which place there resorted merchants from Bucharia, Crim Tartary, Persia, and even India. The vessels of the Russians, as has been already remarked, being rudely framed, with out decks, and consequently exposed to frequent ship wrecks, the Czar drew from Amsterdam several ship builders, for the purpose of constructing others more calculated to weather the storms of the Caspian sea. his designs of improvement. however, were frustrated, in consequence of the rebellion of the Cossacks of the Don under Stenko Rasin, and the devastations occasion ed by it ; and in line, the trade of Russia was for the pre sent annihilated. When this revolt was quelled, the greater part of the commerce of the Caspian fell into the hands of the Armenian merchants established in As tracan, who settled factories in both the Russian and Persian territories. During this whole period, neither the Russian nor the Armenian traders had, for the most part, penctrated farther than Niezabad, and their chief settlement was at. Shamachie, till the year 1711, when that town, leaving been taken by the Lesghees, the factory was destroyed. In 1721, Peter 1. having obtained, as has been stated, the cession of tne provinces of Dagestan, Shirvan, Milian, and Mazanderan, the commerce was renewed. 1 le established a Russian mercantile company tradi: g to the Caspian, with a capital of 400 achines, or share s, of the value each of 150 rubles, or 30/. The ehi,.1 settlements were formed at Astracan and Kislar ; but the right of property in those distant pros inces hav ing been resigned in the manner mentioned, the Russian nu i chants still retaining their exclusive privilege, now obtained ti c liberty of trading without payment of any duty to all the havens of the Caspian, and were allowed to build houses and magazines, subjef t to the shod( condition of ob«lience to the laws of the '1 In benefit of the monopoly, with the other advantages en joyed by this company, were confirmed to them by and Elizabeth. Vet the commerce «mtinued in( onsi derable till, in 1762, Catharine II. abolished th( i• ex( lu sive privileges, and permitted for the future all her sub jects, without exception, to take part in the Persian trade. On account of the numerous banditti that infest the road.., she at the same time prohibited thy: inland traffic from Kislar and the other Caspian porth to Shamaeltie. Poi the benefit of the legitimate and authorised trade, two Russian consuls have their residence statedly at 11.1ku and at Einzellee. By degrees, the Russian trade on the Caspian rose to considerable consequence ; it has, how ever, been a good deal injured by means of a contraband trade carried on in Shamachie and other inland Persian towns by the Armenian merchants, who, fri,n, thei• know ledge of the country and language, and from the terms on which, with these aids, they can make their purchases; have it in their power to unders( II the Rus sians, in the parts w hich they severally frequent. Vet upon the whole, and owing chiefly to the vat ious useful regulations introduced by the late empress, instead of the declining stoic into which it had for sonic time fallen, it has of late increased so much, that within the spa( e of fifteen years, the average stun of the exports and the imports by the way of this sea, have been nearly tripled. The following is a general view of the state of this trade for several considerably distant. years in the latter part of the last century. In 1760, the amount of the exports was 36,1001., of the imports, 42,100/., in all 78.2t, /. ; with a balance against Russia of 6000/. In 1768, the exports were 87,700/., the imports 63,700/. ; the amount of the whole, 151,400/. Balance in favour of Russia 4000/. In 1775, the sum of the exports was 125,4011., of the imports 64,120/. ; giving a total amount of 18.),52 to which is to be added the farther sum of 10,00( /. for the traffic of Georgia and the nations of du. Caucasus, making the whole sum 199,520/.; the balance, in re spect to the part of this sum stated under the distinct heads of exports and imports, Leing in favour of Russia 61,230/. In these statements, it is to be understood. that no account is made of the contraband trade, the amount of which is also considerable.