Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century

How apt modern historians generally are to receive their cue from the official tricksters themselves, is best shown by their reflections on the commercial interests of England with respect to Russia and Sweden. Nothing has been more exaggerated than the dimensions of the trade opened to Great Britain by the huge market of the Russia of Peter the Great, and his immediate successors. Statements bearing not the slightest touch of criticism, have been allowed to creep from one book-shelf to another, till they became at last historical household furniture, to be inherited by every successive historian, without even the beneficium inventarii. [benefit of inventory — an heir’s privilege of securing himself against unlimited liability for his ancestor by giving up within a year an inventory of his heritage or real estate, to the extent of which alone he was liable] Some incontrovertible statistical figures^[72] will suffice to blot out these hoary common-places.

British Commerce from 1697-1700.

Export to Russia

£58,884

Import from Russia

£112,252

Total

£171,136

Export to Sweden

£57,555

Import from Sweden

£212,094

Total

£269,649

During the same period the total

Export of England amounted to

£3,525,906

Import

£3,482,586

Total

£7,008,492

In 1716, after all the Swedish provinces in the Baltic, and on the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia, had fallen into the hands of Peter I., the

Export to Russia was

£113,154

Import front Russia

£197,270

Total

£310,424

Export to Sweden

£24,101

Import from Sweden

£136,959

Total

£161,060

At the same time, the total of English exports and imports together reached about £10,000,000. It will be seen from these figures, when compared with those of 1697-1700, that the increase in the Russian trade is balanced by the decrease in the Swedish trade, and that what was added to the one was abstracted from the other. In 1730, the

Export to Russia was

£46,275

Import from Russia

£258,802

Total

£305,077

Fifteen years, then, after the consolidation in the meanwhile of the Muscovite settlement on the Baltic, the British trade with Russia had fallen off by £5,347. The general trade of England reaching in 1730 the sum of £16,329,001; the Russian trade amounted not yet to 1/53rd of its total value. Again, thirty years later, in 1760, the account between Great Britain and Russia stands thus:

Import from Russia (in 1760)

£536,504

Export to Russia

£39,761

Total

£576,265