266 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



that sncli a fact could liave escaped the notice of Mr. Middleton and 

 Count Nesselrode, of Mr. Stratford Canning- and Mr. Poletica, who were 

 the negotiators of the two treaties. It is imi:)ossible, that in the Anglo- 

 Kussian treaty Count Nesselrode, Mr. Stratford Canning, and Mr. Po- 

 letica could have tak t^n sixteen lines to recite the titles and honors they 

 had received from their respective sovereigns, and not even suggest the 

 insertion of one line, or even word, to secure so valuable a grant to 

 England as the full freedom of the Behring Sea. 



There is anotlier argument of great weight against the assumption of 

 Lord Salisbury that the phrase" "Pacilic Ocean," as used in the lirst 

 arti(;le of both the American and British treaties, was intended to in- 

 clude the waters of the Behring- Sea. It is true that by the treaties with 

 the United States and Great Britain, Eussia practically withdrew the 

 o] (('ration of the Ukase of 1<S21 from the waters of the Northwest Coast 

 on the Pacific Ocean, but the proof is conclusive that it was left in full 

 force over tlie waters of the Behring- Sea. Lord Salisbury can not have 

 ascertained the valiui of the Behring Sea to Russia, when he assumed 

 that in the treaties of 1824 and 1825 the Imperial Government had, by 

 mere inclusion in another phrase, with ajiparent carelessness, thrown 

 open all the resources and all the wealth of those waters to the citizens 

 of the United States and to the subjects of Great Britain. 



Lord Salisbury has perhaps not thought it worth while to make any 

 examination of tlie money vaUie of Alaska arud the waters of the Bering 

 Sea at the time the treaties were negotiated and in the succeeding- 

 years. The first period of the Pussian American Company's ojicrations 

 had closed before the Ukase of 1821 was issued. Its affairs were kept 

 secret for a long time, but are now accurately known. The money ad- 

 vanced for the ca])it!il stock of the company at its opening- in 1799 

 amounted to 1 ,238,740 rubl(?s. The gross sales of furs and skins by the 

 company at Kodialc nnd Canton from that date up to 1820 amounted to 

 20,024,(>9S rubles. The net profit was 7,085,000 rubles for the twenty- 

 one years — over 020 per cent for the whole period, or nearly 30 per cent 

 per annum. 



Peviewing these facts, Bancroft, in his " History of Alaska," a stand- 

 ard Avork of exhaustive research, says : 



We lind tliis powerful monopoly firmly established in tlie favor of the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment, many nobles of high rank and several members of the Royal family being 

 among the sliarebolders. 



And yet Lord Salisbury evidently supposes that a lai-ge amount of 

 wealth was carelessly thrown away by the Royal family, the nobles, the 

 courtiers, the capitalists, and the sjieculators of St. Petersburg in a 

 X)hrase which merged the Behring Sea in the Pacific Ocean. That it was 

 not thrown away is shown by the transactions of the company for the 

 next twenty years ! 



The second period of the Russian American Company began in 1821 

 and ended in 1841. Within that time the gross revenues of the com- 

 ])any exceeded 01,000,000 rubles. Besides paying all expenses and all 

 taxes, the company largely increased the original capital and divided 

 8,500,000 rubles among the shareholders. These dividends and the in- 

 crease of the stoi-k showed a profit on the original capital of 55 iter cent 

 per annum for tlie wliole twenty years — a g-reat increase over the first 

 ])eri()d. It must not be forgotten that during sixteen of these twenty 

 years of constantly increasiiig profits, the treaties, which, according- to 

 Jjord Salisbury, gave to Great Britain and the United States equal 

 I'ights witli b'ussia in tlu^ I>ehring Sea, were in full fi)rce. 



The proceedings which took jilace when the second x>eriod of the 



