was Ust-Kamenogorsk, opened as a trading place in
1765, destined to be a flourishing place of commerce,
although the Chinese in 1804 professed a wish to come
there with goods for barter with the Russians. It may
very well be, however, that the crafty Celestials merely
hid under this declaration their desire to watch the
Russians, who were consolidating their authority on
the Kirghese Steppe ; for here, as also at Bukhtarminsk,
where trade was ordered to be carried on in 1797, and
a custom-house established six years later, these would-
be merchants were constantly coming to every house
offering brick tea and copper pipes, not apparently
with the desire to find customers so much as to observe
whether there was any collection of Russian troops or
military preparations.
A t Semipolatinsk, however, a considerable trade
sprung up, Chinese soldiers coming there as early as
1757 to sell silver and Sungarian captives ; but the war
of the Chinese with Sungaria caused a great falling off
of commerce, an end being thereby put to the caravan
trade across the frontier, so that the custom-house staff
had to be reduced. In 1776 the commercial exchange
of Semipolatinsk was moved to a new site, which was
regarded as advantageous from both a strategic and
commercial point of view, since it attracted the Asiatics
to bring their goods, and also to purchase Russian
wares for sale in Western China, thereby competing
with the trading establishments the Chinese had built
near the present Urjarsk station and at Chuguchak.
Entrance to these places was prohibited to the Russians,
who could trade there only under the disguise
of Asiatics. This barrier had to be removed, and
in 1811, when Chinese merchants began trading at
Bukhtarminsk, General Glasenap despatched from
thence his interpreter, Putimsof, to Kuldja, with the
result that Russian caravans were allowed to proceed
both there and to Chuguchak. This seems so to
have diverted the stream of commerce that in 1839
the custom-house at Bukhtarminsk was transferred to
Omsk.
Meanwhile the Russian export trade with China
increased, but with one serious drawback. All commerce
at first was carried on by barter, but the
subsequent appearance on the bazaars of gold, first in
coin and then in dust and bars, had an injurious effect
on the exchange of Russian goods. Such was the
commercial condition when the Minister for Foreign
Affairs at Petersburg proposed to establish Russian
factories within the Chinese territory. In August,
1851, a treaty between the two Governments was
concluded, and the presence of Russian consuls at the
factories put a stop to the open trade in gold, but its
contraband sale could not be prevented ; and from
this cause the Russian trade was still suffering in
1856, at which date the exports amounted in value
to .£75,000, and the imports to £67,000, when the
commerce ceased altogether, owing to the destruction
by fire of the factory and all the goods it contained.
The consulates were re-established two years afterwards,
but in 1861, according to M. Abramof, the trade still
languished. In 1871 the Ili province passed temporarily
into the hands of the Russians, but as it was to
revert to the Chinese in 1883 the newly-appointed
Russian consul, whom I met in passing through
Omsk, was on the eve of taking his departure to
Chuguchak, and I subsequently stayed in the house
of the Russian consul at Kuldja. Thus I have
brought down to the present day the transactions of