Alexander Baranof [pp. 9-22]

ALEXANDER BARANOF
migrated to Siberia in 1780, and took the
management of a glass factory in Irkutsk.
Later, he~engaged in trading on the Anadir
river and in Kamchatka, and did a fair bus iness. Being fond of his independence, he
at first refused to enter the service of the
Shelikof company. So Delarof, a Greek, was
appointed in charge of the colony at Kadiak.
He behaved with great kindness and justice;
but, though visitors of all nationalities praised
him highly, he was much too lenient and hon est to suit his unscrupulous directors.
In 1789 Baranof lost two of his caravans,
and was rendered bankrupt. Shelikof ap proached him again, and this time Baranof
accepted his overtures, and entered the ser vice of the company in 1790 He was ex cellently fitted for the work he had to do;
shrewd, politic, full of courage and energy,
A RUSSIAN BLOCK HOUSE
enthusiasm, and fortunately for the success
of Sbelikof's schemes, the Russian government just about this time became convinced
that many abuses existed in the relations between t he various independent trading companies and the natives, and that it would be
best to abolish the traders' rule, and place
the whole American traffic in the hands of
a single strong company. So Shelikof and
his partner, Golikof, were invited to Saint
Petersburg to be presented to the Empress,
who manifested great interest in their projects, and conferred gold medals and swords
of honor upon them. On September 28th,
1788, a decree was issued, giving the company exclusive privileges of trading and
hunting in the regions discovered and controlled by them. Besides all this a subsidy
of two hundred thousand rubles was advanced
from the public treasury, to be repaid in
twenty annual instalments without interest.
In Siberia Shelikof looked about him for a
m an who would carry out his plans, and set RIT
his heart upon Alexander Baranof, a native
of Kargapol in eastern Russia. Baranof was
born in 1747, and from his native place went
to Moscow, where he was a clerk in retail
shops; in 1771 he set up in business for him- Photo by Partrid
self, but dissatisfied with his prospects, he UNTFRIOR OF RUSSIAN CHURCH, SITKA, ALASKA
ge
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