Note 2 — Chapter XXVII · THE SIBERIAN FRONTIER AT KIAKHTA.

Kiakhta became the centre of Russo-Chinese commerce, which was greatly increased after 1762, when Catherine II. abolished the Crown monopoly of the fur trade, together with the exclusive privilege of sending caravans to Peking. These concessions increased the traffic enormously, and the influence of the business transacted on the frontier extended from Kiakhta all across Siberia and Russia, and even to the middle of Germany. Thus, from 1728 to 1860, the Kiakhta merchants enjoyed almost a monopoly of Chinese trade, and made fortunes estimated by millions of roubles. The treaty of 1860, however, opened Chinese ports to Russian ships, and thus dealt a severe blow to the Kiakhta trade; for up to that time only a single cargo of tea was carried annually into Russia by water. Before 1860, the importation of tea at Kiakhta was about one million chests annually, without taking any account of brick tea, and, previous to 1850, all trade done at Kiakhta was in barter, tea being exchanged for Russian furs and other goods, because the Russian Government prohibited the export of gold and silver money.