THE ECONOMICS OF WHALING 53 



Russian Government issued an ukase in 1821, in 

 which it was declared that the pursuit of commerce, 

 whaling, and fishery, on the north-west coast 

 of America from Behring Strait to 51 N. 

 Latitude had been granted exclusively to Russian 

 subjects, and all foreign vessels were forbidden to 

 approach these coasts within less than a hundred 

 Italian miles. The execution of this ukase was 

 soon suspended, the Russian ships of war being 

 instructed to confine their supervision to an extent 

 of the sea within the range of cannon-shot from the 

 shore. 



After this, British and American whalers 

 increased greatly in numbers in Behring Sea, and 

 the Russian officials frequently urged their 

 government to preserve the sea as a mare clausum, 

 and to prohibit foreign whalers from approaching 

 nearer the coast than forty Italian miles (1842). 

 The Russian Government objected, pointing out 

 that such extensive limits were contrary to con&en- 

 tions, and would lead to protests from other 

 nations " since no clear and uniform agreement has 

 yet been arrived at among nations in regard to the 

 limit of jurisdiction at sea." In 1847, the Russian 

 Government repeated their objections, but in 1852, 

 as a result of repeated complaints by the Russian- 

 American Company, instructions were issued to the 

 Russian cruisers to prevent foreign whalers from 

 entering bays or gulfs, or from coming " within 

 three Italian miles of the shores " of Russian- 

 America (north of 54 41'), the peninsula of 



