CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 21; 



witli tlie natives of the islands and coasts visited by tlieni, 



and this not in the most scrui)nIons manner. Tribute in 



furs was exacted from the Aleuts on various pretexts, and 



"whenever the traders eanie in sufficient force these people 



were virtually enslaved. Xot only were the companies of 



traders under no sufficient or recognized control by the 



Eussian Government, but they even disliked and resented 



in some measure the advent or presence among them of Ti>i<i.. I'.sdi. 



commissioned officers of the Government. 



The effect of the reports of the subordinate members 

 of Billing's expedition, as to the unsatisfactory state of n)i.i.,p.299. 

 affairs in the Aleutian Islands and on the American coast, 

 tended to favour the project of the establishment of a 

 monopoly, by disclosing the abuses which existed by reason 

 of the existing competition. Bancroft more than 

 24 hints that the su])erior officers of the exi)edition were 

 induced to kee]) silence from interested motives; and 

 Billing's Rei)ort, whatever its tenour may have been, was 

 never ])nblished. 



In the end. however, it became in a degree imperative for 

 the liussian Government to put a stojt to tlu' s(;andals and 

 abuses whicli tionrished in this remote and i)ractically uncon 

 trolled portion of the Empire, and the easiest way in which 

 this could be- done, and the least exi)ensive, was to vest 

 exclusive rights in the hands of the most powerful of the 

 existing rival Companies. This, being also in the interests 

 of the ('om|)any in cjuestion, was not found diflicult of 

 achievement, and, as a consequence of the Ukase of 1790, 

 the absorption of the smaller concerns still existing appears 

 to have followed witliout any great difficulty, J>aranott", as 

 the executive head of the new Corporation on the Ameri- 

 can coast, connng to the front as the natural leader. 



When Shelikof presented at St. Pelersburg his original ^'-'^k;., ].. :!U8. 

 petition for the right to monopolize the trade, a Ive])ort was 

 requested on the subject from Jacobi, tln^ Governor-General 

 of Eastern Siberia, and in .Jacobi, Shelikof found an able . 



advocate. Jacobi stated that it wonkl be oidy Just to She- 

 likof to grant his request, and that it would be unfair to 

 allow others to enjoy the benelits of the peace'which She- 

 likof had established at Kadiak. 



The Empress then ordered the Imperial College of Com- ibi.i., p.-im. 

 merce to examine tlie question, and a Committee of this 

 body endorsed .Tacobi's Keport and recommended that the 

 request of Shelikof and Golikof for exclusive privileges 

 should be granted. 



Though, among the arguments naturally advanced in 

 favour of the grant of a monopoly, we tind it urged that the 

 benetits of trade accruing would thus be reserved to IJus- 

 sian subjects, the history of the occupation of the coasts 

 and the records concerning it, show conclusively that this 

 Avas not the object Avhicli to any great extent induced She- 

 likof to apply for snch a monopoly. His Company had the 

 utmost difficulty in sustaining its ])osition against hostile 

 natives, while not less serious were the difiliculties arising 

 from the competition, and scarcely veiled hostility of rival 



