Russian Overseas Commerce with Great Britain During the Reign of Catherine II

On the basis of newly-discovered Russian and British archival sources, Prof. Kaplan makes important scholarly contributions to 18th-cent. economic history. He demonstrates that there was not only a symbiotic economic relationship between Russia and Great Britain, but also that Russia contributed greatly to Britain’s industrial revolution and its imperial strategic military and political power during the second half of the 18th cent. Kaplan is the first to estimate the real balance of payments between the two countries. Kaplan’s meticulous analysis of Anglo-Russian commercial treaties as well as Russian tariffs, which were intended to undermine them, reveals policies that both countries undertook to advance their respective maritime and mercantile power. Charts and tables.