The Kuranty in Context: Dutch Lading Lists and Their Russian Translations. Part 2

Abstract

This essay concludes the study whose first part (published in the previous number of QR) provided background information about the cargo lists of Dutch ships from the East Indies, examined the translations made from lists published in 1628 and 1646, and explored the evidence about a Russian interest in Dutch naval affairs in the mid‑1660s. The focus of this part is the lading lists of 1667 and 1671 and the complex contextualization of those translations which may help to explain why and for whom they may have been of particular interest in Moscow. Evidence supports an argument that their translation may have been of personal interest to Andrei Vinius, given what we know about his involvement with the project to build Russia’s first European-style warship and his writings on maritime affairs and geography. The translations also could have been particularly relevant for Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich, who was actively supporting Russia’s eastern trade, and whose Privy Chancery contained other texts related to events in Asia and the European searches for new routes to the Indies. One such text, based on a Dutch source, probably was produced by Vinius. The article concludes that the circumstances explaining the translations of the several Dutch lading lists during the seventeenth century changed over time. To explain their interest in Moscow requires a broad consideration of their history and the specific contexts in which the translations were done.