emp, an& JUapoleon

336 Pages·2006·16.95 MB·English

gmertca, , ?|emp, an& JUapoleon
American Trade with Russia and the Baltic, 1783-1812

BY ALFRED W. CROSBY, JR.

Ohio Sttite University Press
$6.50
America, IXuaata, S>emp, anb Napoleon
American Trade with Russia and the Baltic,
1783-1812
BY ALFRED W. CROSBY, JR.
On the twelfth of June, 1783, a ship of 500 tons
sailed into the Russian harbor of Riga and dropped
anchor. As the tide pivoted her around her mooring,
the Russians on the waterfront could see clearly the
banner that she flew — a strange device of white stars
on a blue ground and horizontal red and white
stripes. Russo-American trade had irrevocably begun.
Merchants — Muscovite and Yankee — had met and
politely sounded the depths of each other's purses.
And they had agreed to do business.
In the years that followed, until 1812, the young
American nation became economically tied to Russia
to a degree that has not, perhaps, been realized to
date. The United States desperately needed Russian
hemp and linen; the American sailor of the early
nineteenth century — who was possibly the most
important individual in the American economy —
thought twice before he took any craft not equipped
with Russian rigging, cables, and sails beyond the
harbor mouth. To an appreciable extent, the Amer­
ican economy survived and prospered because it had
access to the unending labor and rough skill of the
Russian peasant.
The United States found, when it emerged as a free
(Continued on back flap)

America, Hossia, fiemp, and Bapolcon
American Trade with Russia and the Baltic, 1783-1812

America, llussia, iicmp, and Bapolton
American Trade with Russia and the Baltic, 1783-1811

BY ALFRED W. CROSBY, JR.

Ohio State University Press
Co'pyright (c) 1965 by the Ohio State University Press
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 65-18735
The illustration reproduced on the title page is from "The Naval
Chronicle for 1805: Containing a General and Biographical His^
tory of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom; with a Variety
of Original Papers on Nautical Subjects" (London: I. Gold, 1805),
XIV, facing 224.
acknowledgments

AN AUTHOR'S DEEPEST GRATITUDE goes to those who had the
fortitude to read his work in manuscript and who were kind to its
creator. Robert E. Moody and Frank Novae of Boston University
examined and offered valuable suggestions about this book when
it was still a Ph.D. dissertation. Harry L. Coles, whose scholarly
courtesy is one of the warmer attractions of the Ohio State Uni­
versity, read it and helped it toward publication.
I owe a great deal to those who gave me bibliographical help,
such as M . V. Brewington of the American Neptune, Jack Bat-
tick, George Brooks, and Lance Trusty.
I must also acknowledge my debt to the archivists and librari­
ans of the Boston, Harvard, and Ohio State University libraries,
the Boston Public Library, the Boston Athenaeum, the National
Archives, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Salem Custom
House, and the Peabody Museu m and the Essex Institute of
Salem, Massachusetts—men and women wh o spun out a million
man-hours in preparation for, among other things, that in­
conspicuous moment when I wrote thefirst word of this book.
Lastly, let me thank the editors of the American Neptune and
the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, who have
allowed m e to use as parts of this book articles of mine that have
appeared in their pages.
ALFRED W. CROSBY, JR.