ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 245 



many years carried on by individual adventurers, each of whom acted 

 alternately as a seaman, as a Lunter, and as a trader, solely for his 

 individual profit. 



Inception of the Rttssian-Amertcan Company. — At length, 

 however, an association was formed in 1785, among a number of Sibe- 

 rian merchants, to carry on the fur trade of tlie North Pacific. It 

 received the protection and encouragement of the Emi^ress Catherine, 

 who bestowed upon it many valuable privileges. G. Shell ikov was the 

 ruling spirit of the corj)oration. Catherine's son and successor, Paul, 

 was, at the outset of his reign, disposed to abolish these imperial 

 advantages extended to this company by his mother on account of tbe 

 heartless conduct of afiairs in Alaska. Reasons of state, however, 

 caused him to abandon this resolution; and he issued a ukase, dated 

 July 8, 1799, which granted to those united merchants aforesaid a 

 charter, under the title of the Russian-American Company, that gave 

 them exclusive use and control, for a period of twenty years, of all the 

 coasts of America on the Pacific and the islands in that ocean, from 

 Bering Straits to the fifty-fifth degree of south latitude, together with 

 the right of occupying any other territories not previously possessed 

 by civilized nations. The residence of the dn-ectors of this company 

 was first fixed at Irkutsk, Siberia, which was the great depository or 

 bonded warehouse for the Chinese trade with all the Russias, a short 

 distance only from Kiachta, on the frontier, where the Monguls and 

 Muscovites alone could meet for barter. It was afterwards transferred 

 to St. Petersburg, and these directors were personally made known to 

 and placed under the surveillance of the imperial department of com- 

 merce. 



Those privileges, thus accorded by Paul, were confirmed and extended 

 even by Alexander; and under these favorable auspices the power and 

 influence of the Russian-American Company rapidly advanced. In 

 180;i its establishments extended from Attoo to Sitka; during 1806 

 preparations were made to occupy the littoral regions north of the 

 Columbia River, but that plan was soon abandoned. 



Autocratic power op the Russian-American Company. — 

 The government of Alaska by this company was arranged and directed 

 in simi)le despotism. Each trading post was superintended by a Rus- 

 sian overseer or "precashcheek," who, with the aid of a small number 

 of Russians, maintained absolute control over all the natives in his dis- 

 trict. He compelled tliem to labor incessantly, in and out of season, for 

 the benefit of the company. These overseers were in turn under abject 

 subserviency to a chief agent, one of which resided in the limits of 

 four natural divisions of the country. Those men were again directly 

 responsible to the authority of the governor-general, who resided at 

 Sitka, and who was appointed really by the Imperial Government, 

 though nominally by the directors. His powers were supposed to be 

 limited and defined by regulations drawn up and signed by him in St. 

 Petersburg; but, in fact, they were absolute, and irresponsible to any 

 court on earth. 



The iron- willed Baranov.— Tlie person who filled the office of 

 governor-general soon after the organization of the Russian- American 

 Company, and for many years afterwards, was Alexander Baranov. He 

 was a man of iron will, of dauntless courage, shrewd, and wholly devoid 

 of tender feeling. Under his aufcocrntic ni^anagement the affairs of this 

 company prospered pecuniarily, and its stock rose accordingly in value. 

 Hence his proceedings were always approved at St. Petersburg, although 

 the truth in regard to his cruelty was often u.ade known there. 



