b o o k nitre, native fal-ammoniac, lamb-fkins, raw f i l k in fmail
. j quantities, and rhubarb, large herds of iheep and horfes pi.
Exports. Cloth, Ruffian leather,-beads and trinkets, hardware,
indigo, cochineal, &c. I
The Chinefe trade is by far the moft' important partrof;
its Aiiatick commerce, and is now carried on at Kiadta, fitu-
-ated upon the frontiers o f the Chinefe and Ruffian empires.
But having in a former publication + given a cireuraftantial
account o f this commerce, it will be fufficient to obferve in.
this place, that in 1 7 7 7 , the total fum of importation and
exportation, as entered at the cuftom-houfe,, amounted to
£573,666 1 s r . ; but i f we include the contraband trade,,
which is very coniiderable, and make an allowance for.the
deficiencies o f the above-mentioned year,, which was-not fo
favourable as the preceding ones,, we may fairly eftimate the
grofs amount o f the average trade to China, in exports and
imports, at near£8oo,ooo fterling.
* PaU aSR eife, v o l f l . p . 233, & c . T h e y e a r fy io ld a tO r e n b u r g h , p . 234,
iheep and hprfes a r e b rou gh t fo r -fate b y f Se e an-ac count o f the ifarifa’&jonsland
th e K irg e e s T a r ta r s . M r . Pallas fa y s , th a t commerce , betvvepn RuATir . an d C h in a in
above 60,o oo fheep and 10,000 h o n e s are Ruffian D ifco v e r ie s , from p . 197 to .248.
C H A P .
C H A P . V.
■On the commerce o f the Black-Sea.— Havens.— Exports and
imports-.— Ports and territory ceded by the Turks to Ruffia.
— Zapbrogian Cojfacs.-— Abolition o f their government —
Productions o f the Southern provinces o/Ruffia.— navigation
o f the Don and Dnieper.— Attempts o f the Ruffians to
profecut-e the commerce through the Dardanelles to the Mediterranean.—
Frdqu-ent interruptions and precarious Jlate
o f that trade.
PETER the Great was the firft fovereign o f this empire chap
who attempted to open a commerce through the Sea o f v -
Azof and the Euxine, and to export, by that channel, the' 1 '
productions o f Southern Ruffia. By his victories over the
Turks, the poffieffion o f Azof, and the conftruction o f T a ganrog,
he feemed on the eve o f realizing this favourite
project ; but all his vaft fchemes were baffled by the unfuc-
cefsful campaign o f 1 7 1 1 , which terminated in the peace o f
Pruth, a peace purchafed by the cefficn o f A zo f and Tagan-
rock, and by relinquifhing the commerce o f the Euxine.
Since that period the Turks have jealouily excluded the Ruffians
from all ffiare in the navigation o f their feas, until the
prefent emprefs finifhed afticcefsful war againft the Porte hy
the glorious, peace of 1 7 7 4 . By this peace Ruffia obtained
a free navigation in all the Turkifh feas, a right of- palling
through the Dardanelles, all the commercial immunities
granted to the moft favoured nations in amity with the Porte,
•and the poffieffion o f Azof, Taganrog, the throe fortrefles o f
. M m a ..Kihburn,