57° 



A VOYAGE TO 



'-79- files, guns, powder and fhot; hardware, fuch as hatchets, 

 bills, knives, fcifTars, needles, looking-glafTes ; flour, fu- 

 gar ; tanned hides, boots, &.c. We had an opportunity of 

 feeing a great many of thefe articles in the hands of a mer- 

 chant, who came in the Emprefs's galliot from Okotfk ; and 

 I mall only obferve generally, that they fold for treble the 

 price they might have been purchafed for in England. 

 And though the merchants have fo large a profit upon thefe 

 imported goods, they have a £1 ill larger upon the furs at 

 Kiachta, upon the frontiers of China, which is the great 

 market for them. The befl fea-otter fkins fell generally in 

 Kamtfchatka, for about thirty roubles apiece. The Chinefe 

 merchant at Kiachta purchafes them at more than double 

 that price, and fells them again at Pekin at a great ad- 

 vance, where a farther profitable trade is made with fome 

 of them to Japan. If, therefore, a fkin is worth thirty- 

 roubles in Kamtfchatka, to be tranfported firft to Okotfk, 

 thence to be conveyed by land to Kiachta, a diftance of one 

 thoufand three hundred and fixty-four miles, thence on to 

 Pekin, feven hundred and fixty miles more, and after this 

 to be tranfported to Japan, what a prodigioufly advantage- 

 ous trade might be carried on between this place and Japan, 

 which is but about a fortnight's, at moft, three weeks»fail 

 from it ? 



All furs exported from hence acrofs the fea of Okotfk, 

 pay a duty of ten per cent, and fables a duty of twelve. 

 And all forts of merchandize, of whatever denomina- 

 tion, imported from Okotfk, pay half a rouble for every 

 pood *. 



* Thirty-fix pounds Englifh. 



2 The 



