1. The Alaskan fur rush and the Russian-American Company
- Author:
- Jonathan Tiemann and Christopher McKenna
- Publication Date:
- 01-2022
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Oxford Centre for Global History
- Abstract:
- On 18 July 18031 , Russian Navy Lieutenant Nikolai Aleksandrovich Khvostov, commander of the Sv Elizaveta, faced a critical peril, threatening shipwreck. Having left Kodiak Island in what is now Alaska, bound for the port of Okhotsk, the Elizaveta carried for the Russian-American Company (the Company) an enormous cargo comprising more than 16,000 sea otter skins, some 10,000 fox skins, 8,000 sables, and a small number of other furs, a cargo that was worth about 1.5 million roubles.
- Topic:
- Capitalism, History, Trade, and Fur Trade
- Political Geography:
- Russia, North America, and United States of America