 Russian-American Company flag, 1806 design | |
Native name | Под Высочайшим Его Императорского Величества покровительством Российская Американская компания |
|---|---|
| Company type | Joint-stock company |
| Industry | Fur trade |
| Founded | 8 July 1799[1] Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Founder | Nikolai Rezanov Grigory Shelikhov |
| Defunct | 1881 |
| Fate | Ceased operations following Alaska Purchase (1867) |
| Successor | Alaska Commercial Company |
| Headquarters | Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
Key people | Alexander Andreyevich Baranov |
The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty[2] was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the United American Company. Emperor Paul I of Russia chartered the company in the Ukase of 1799.[1][3] It had the mission of establishing new settlements in Russian America, conducting trade with natives, and carrying out an expanded colonization program.
Russia's first joint-stock company, it came under the direct authority of the Ministry of Commerce of Imperial Russia. Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev (Minister of Commerce from 1802 to 1811; Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1808 to 1814) exercised a pivotal influence upon the early activities of the company. In 1801 the company's headquarters moved from Irkutsk to Saint Petersburg, and the merchants who were initially the major stockholders were soon replaced with Russia's nobility and aristocracy.
Count Rumyantsev funded Russia's first naval circumnavigation of the globe under the joint command of Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Nikolai Rezanov in 1803–1806. Later he funded and directed the Ryurik's circumnavigation of 1814–1816, 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. During the Russian-California period (1812–1842) when they operated Fort Ross, the Russians named present-day Bodega Bay, California as "Rumyantsev Bay" (Залив Румянцев) in his honor.
- ^ a b Records of the Russian-American Company National Archives and Records Administration
- ^ (Russian: Под высочайшим Его Императорского Величества покровительством Российская-Американская Компания, romanized: Pod vysochayshim Yego Imperatorskogo Velichestva pokrovitelstvom Rossiyskaya-Amerikanskaya Kompaniya)
- ^ Pierce, Richard A.: The Russian-American Company: Correspondence of the Governors; Communications Sent: 1818.