24 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



organization, the Russian-American Company. This company was created in the year 

 1799, by decree of the Imperial Government, and was vested for a period of twenty 

 years witli exclusive privileges to trade along the shores of northwestern America, 

 between latitude 55 north and Bering Strait, on the Aleutian and Kuril Islands, and 

 the islands of the Northeastern or Bering Sea. 



ITS ORGANIZATION. 



The company's chief place of business was originally at Irkutsk, but was after- 

 wards transferred to St. Petersburg. Its shareholders, exclusively Russians, numbered 

 members of the Imperial family and the high nobility. For purposes of administration 

 the Imperial Government and the directors of the company jointly appointed a chief 

 manager, who resided at Sitka, in Alaska, then called Xew Archangel. The powers 

 of this manager were absolute within the territory over which the company exercised 

 jurisdiction. Under him were submanagers, overseers, and other agents. Reports 

 of the company's affairs were required to be submitted to the Imperial Government. 

 Under its charter the Russian-American Company paid no royalty or rental to the 

 Government, but as its trade consisted chieHy in the exchange of furs for teas on the 

 Chinese frontier, the Government received indirectly large sums through the resulting 

 duties. 



THE UKASE OF 1821. 



On the 4th of September, 1821, the Emperor Alexander I issued an edict known 

 as the ukase of 1821, which provided for a set of rules and regulations controlling t he 

 boundaries of navigation and trade on the coasts and waters over which the Russian 

 American Company exercised jurisdiction. These regulations provided for the 

 prohibition of all foreign vessels from landing on or approaching within 100 Italian 

 miles of the coasts and islands belonging to Russia.* Shortly after the issuance of this 

 decree the Emperor renewed for an additional term of twenty years the charter of 

 rights and privileges of the Russian-American Company. 



The ukase of 1821 involved Russia in a controversy, on the one hand with the 

 United States and on the other hand with Great Britain, which resulted in the treat ies 

 ot 1824 and 1825, the former between the United States and Russia and the latter 

 between Great Britain and Russia. These treaties left undisturbed the right of strict 

 control claimed by Russia "over all interior waters and over all waters inclosed by 

 Russian territory, such as the Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea or the Sea of Kamchatka, 

 as well as all gulfs, bays, and estuaries."! 



THE SECOND AND THIRD CHARTERS. 



The second charter of the Russian-American Company was revised in 1829 to 

 conform to the treaties of 1824-25 and its provisions reconfirmed. In 1842 it was 

 again renewed for a period of twenty years, with all its exclusive franchises and 

 privileges. This third charter expired in 1862 and was not renewed. The company, 

 however, continued to operate under it, pending a decision of the question of renewal. 

 But before a decision was reached the territory of Alaska was transferred to the 

 United States by the treaty of 1867. 



* Appendix to case of U. S., Fur Seal Arb., p. Hi IV. 



t Appendix to case of L T . S., Fur Seal Arb., Letter No. 10, p. 63. 



