| Founded | 8 July 1799[1] |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Saint Petersburg |
| Key people | Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov and Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov |
The Russian-American Company (officially: Under His Imperial Majesty's Highest Protection (patronage) Russian-American Company; Russian: Под высочайшим Его Императорского Величества покровительством Российская-Американская Компания — Pod vysochaĭshim Yego Imperatorskogo Velichestva pokrovitelʹstvom Rossiĭskaya-Amerikanskaya Kompaniya)[2] was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the so-called Shelekhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelekhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov (after Shelekhov's death managed by his widow Natalia Shelekhova, with heavy involvement from Shelekhov’s son-in-law Nikolai Rezanov until the latter’s death in 1807).[3]
Chartered by Tsar Paul I in 1799,[1] it was Russia's first joint stock company, and came under the direct authority of the Ministry of Commerce of Imperial Russia. The Minister of Commerce (later, Minister of Foreign Affairs) Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev was a pivotal influence upon the early Company's affairs. In 1801 the Company's headquarters were moved from Irkutsk to St.Petersburg and the merchants who were initially the major stockholders were soon replaced by Russia's nobility and aristocracy. Count Rumyantsev funded Russia's first naval circumnavigation under the joint command of Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Nikolai Rezanov in 1803-1806, and later funded and directed the voyage of the Riurik's circumnavigation of 1814–16, which provided substantial scientific information on Alaska's and California's flora and fauna, and important ethnographic information on Alaskan and Californian (among others) natives. Rumyantsev (Bodega) Bay in northern California was named in his honour during the Russian-California period (1812–42) of Fort Ross.
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The 20-year renewable charter and accompanying ukase (edict) granted the company monopoly over trade in Russian America, which included the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and the territory down to 55° N latitude. Under the charter, one-third of all profits were to go to the emperor. A further ukase (edict or proclamation) by the Tsar in 1821, asserted its domain to 51° N latitude but this was challenged by the British and the United States, which ultimately resulted in the Russo-American Treaty of 1824 and the Russo-British Treaty of 1825 which established 54°40′ as the ostensible southward limit of Russian interests.[4] The only attempt at enforcement of the ukase of 1821 was the seizure of the U.S. brig Pearl in 1822, by the Russian sloop Apollon. The Pearl, a vessel of the maritime fur trade, was sailing from Boston to Sitka. On a protest from the US government the vessel was released and compensation paid.[5] A later lease to the Hudson's Bay Company of the southeastern sector of what is now the Alaska Panhandle, as far north as 56° 30' N, followed in 1838 as part of a damages settlement due to treaty violations by the Company's governor, Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel, in 1833.
Under Alexandr Baranov, who governed the region between 1790 and 1818, a permanent settlement was established in 1804 at Novo-Arkhangelsk (today's Sitka, Alaska), and a thriving maritime trade was organized.
The company constructed settlements in what is today Alaska, Hawaii, and California. Fort Ross, on the California coast in Sonoma County just north of San Francisco, was the southernmost outpost of the Russian-American Company. Though on supposed Spanish and then subsequently Mexican territory, the legitimacy of these claims was contested by both the Company and the Russian Government until the sale of the settlement in 1841, basing the legitimacy of their claims on prior English (New Albion) claims of territorial discovery.[6] It is now partially reconstructed and an open-air museum. The Rotchev House is the last remaining original building. Fort Elizabeth was built in Hawaii by an agent of the company.
But from the 1820s onwards the profits from the fur trade began to decline. Already in 1818 the Russian government had taken control of the Russian-American Company from the merchants who held the charter. The explorer and Naval Officer, Baron Wrangel, who had been administrator of Russian government interests in Russian America a decade before, was the first president of the company during the government period. The company ceased its commercial activities in 1881. In 1867, the Alaska Purchase transferred control of Alaska to the United States and the commercial interests of the Russian American Company were sold to Hutchinson, Kohl & Company of San Francisco, California, who then renamed their company to the Alaska Commercial Company.
Prior to 1799, the Shelekhov-Golikov Company held a charter in Alaska and were founded by Grigory Shelikhov (1747–1795) and Ivan Golikov (1729–1805). Baranov served both under the Shelekhov-Golikov Company and the Russian-American Company, but he is not generally called a governor, as that title began to be used by foreigners only after the company was transferred to the rule of the Russian Navy on January 11, 1818.
| No. | Name | Term |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov (1747–95) | 1784–86 |
| 2 | Konstantin Alekseevich Samoilov (fl. 1780’s) | 1786–87 |
| 3 | Evstratii Ivanovich Delarov (ca. 1740–1806) | 1787–91 |
| 4 | Aleksandr Andreyevich Baranov (1746–1819) | 1791–99 |
Below is a list of the general managers (or chief managers, usually known in English as governors) of the Russian-American Company. Many of their names occur as place names in Southeast Alaska. Note that the English spelling of the names varies between sources.
| No. | Name | Term |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexander Andreyevich Baranov (1747–1819) | July 9, 1799 – January 11, 1818 |
| 2 | Captain Ludwig von Hagemeister (1780–1833) | January 11, 1818 – October 24, 1818 |
| 3 | Lieutenant Semyon Ivanovich Yanovsky (1788–1876) | October 24, 1818 – September 15, 1820 |
| 4 | Matvey Ivanovich Muravyev (1784–1826) | September 15, 1820 – October 14, 1825 |
| 5 | Pyotr Igorovich Chistyakov (1790–1862) | October 14, 1825 – June 1, 1830 |
| 6 | Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangel (1797–1870) | June 1, 1830 – October 29, 1835 |
| 7 | Ivan Antonovich Kupreianov (1800–57) | October 29, 1835 – May 25, 1840 |
| 8 | Arvid Adolf Etholén (1798–1876) | May 25, 1840 – July 9, 1845 |
| 9 | Vice Admiral Mikhail Dmitrievich Tebenkov (1802–72) | July 9, 1845 – October 14, 1850 |
| 10 | Captain Nikolay Yakovlevich Rosenberg (1807–57) | October 14, 1850 – March 31, 1853 |
| 11 | Aleksandr Ilich Rudakov (1817–75) | March 31, 1853 – April 22, 1854 |
| 12 | Captain Stepan Vasiliyevich Voyevodsky (1805–84) | April 22, 1854 – June 22, 1859 |
| 13 | Captain Ivan Vasiliyevich Furugelm (1821–1909) | June 22, 1859 – December 2, 1863 |
| 14 | Prince Dmitri Petrovich Maksutov (1832–89) | December 2, 1863 – October 18, 1867 |
Source: Russian American Company in Hawaii
The Limestone Press Kingston, Ontario, Canada 1984.
Russia in California. A.I. Istomin, J.Gibson, V.A.Tishkov, Nauk, Moscow 2005
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