24 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 
organization, the Russian-American Company. This company was created in the year’ 
1799, by decree of the Imperial Government, and was vested for a period of twenty 
years with exclusive privileges to trade along the shores of northwestern America, 
between latitude 55° north and Bering Strait, on the Aleutian and Kuril Islands, and 
the islands of the Northeastern or Bering Sea. 
ITS ORGANIZATION. 
The company’s chief place of business was originally at Irkutsk, but was after- 
wards transferred to St. Petersburg. Its shareholders, exclusively Russians, numbered 
members of the Imperial family and the high nobility. For purposes of administration 
the Imperial Government and the directors of the company jointly appointed a chief 
manager, who resided at Sitka, in Alaska, then called New Archangel. The powers 
of this manager were absolute within the territory over which the company exercised 
jurisdiction. Under him were subinanagers, overseers, and other agents. Reports 
of the company’s affairs were required to be submitted to the Imperial Government. 
Under its charter the Russian-American Company paid no royalty or rental to the 
Government, but as its trade consisted chiefly in the exchange of furs for teas on the 
Chinese frontier, the Government received indirectly large sums through the resulting 
duties. 
THE UKASE OF 1821. 
On the 4th of September, 1821, the Emperor Alexander I issued an edict known 
as the ukase of 1821, which provided for a set of rules and regulations controlling the 
boundaries of navigation and trade on the coasts and waters over which the Russian- 
American Company exercised jurisdiction. These regulations provided for the 
prohibition of all foreign vessels from landing on or approaching within 100 Italian 
miles of the coasts and islands belonging to Russia.* Shortly after the issuance of this 
decree the Emperor renewed for an additional term of twenty years the charter of 
rights and privileges of the Russian-American Company. 
The ukase of 1821 involved Russia in a controversy, on the one hand with the 
United States and on the other band with Great Britain, which resulted in the treaties 
ot 1824 and 1825, the former between the United States and Russia and the latter 
between Great Britain and Russia. These treaties left undisturbed the right of strict 
control claimed by Russia “over all interior waters and over all waters inclosed by 
Russian territory, such as the Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea or the Sea of Kamchaika, 
as well as all gulfs, bays, and estuaries.” t 
THE SECOND AND THIRD CHARTERS. 
The second charter of the Russian-American Company was revised in 1829 to 
conform to the treaties of 1824-25 and its provisions reconfirmed. In 1842 it was 
again renewed for a period of twenty years, with all its exclusive franchises and 
privileges. This third charter expired in 1862 and was uot renewed. The company, 
however, continued to operate under it, pending a decision of the question of renewal. 
But before a decision was reached the territory of Alaska was transferred to the 
United States by the treaty of 1867. 
* Appendix to case of U. S., Fur Seal Arb., p. 16 ff. 
+ Appendix to case of U. 8., Fur Seal Arb., Letter No. 10, p. 63. 
