“Three altyns worth of petroleum…”: Oriental goods in Russia at the second half of the 17th and early 18th century

Abstract

This article uses the records of archival monastic account books to answer a number of questions about trade relations between Russia and the eastern countries at the second half of the 17th and early 18th century. In particular, for some oriental goods, we can talk about the predominance of the import from Europe. Although contemporaries believed that Russia had an advantageous position for the Eurasian transit of oriental goods. The article also presents a newly constructed time series of prices for pepper. The data allow us to affirm that a “price revolution” was not taking place on the Russian spice market. In addition, the study shows that monasteries were one of the key consumers of oriental goods. The monastic books make it possible to describe the use of petroleum and other oriental goods in Russia.