| Popis: |
This paper elucidates changes of trade routes between Russia and Xinjiang from the end of the 18th century till the middle of the 19th century on the basis of various Russian travel records. The author utilizes many travel reports in this paper, but she especially focuses on three records. The first one was written by a Russian soldier Filipp Efremov, who was enslaved in Bukhara, then escaped and traveled toXinjiang, and returned toRussia in 1782. The second record was written by a Tatar merchant Faizulla Seifullin, who visited Xinjiang in 1820's according to instructions of the Russian government. The author of the third travel report is Porfirii Ufimtsev, a Russian who was trained in Tatar language in his childhood to become a trader, and visited Xinjiang in 1840's as a faked Tatar merchant. The analysis of this paper shows that Muslim merchants of the Russian Empire engaged in the Russo-Xinjiang unofficial trade in the early 1780'. They went to the cities in Kashgaria through Central Asian cities, and sometimes they went to Aksu through the Kazakh Steppe. Around 1800 Muslim traders from Russia visited Ghulja and Chuguchak in the northern Xinjiang through the mediation of Kazakhs, whowere allowed totrade with the Qing government in these cities already in 1760's. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian government had adopted various policies to develop Russo-Xinjiang trade, and the trade routes between Russia and the northern Xinjiang was established in 1810's. Muslim traders from Russia began to visit even Ladakh and Kashmir through Xinjiang in this period. However, traffic between the northern and the southern Xinjiang was sometimes restricted for these traders. Faizulla Seifullin was sent to Kashgar in 1821 to find a direct route from Russia to Kashgar via the Kazakh Steppe. Though the direct route was opened, political situations in Kashgaria became unstable in the second half of the 1820's, and trade between Kashgaria and Central Asia diminished. Instead, trade between Russia, Central Asia, and the northern Xinjiang flourished. In 1830-1840's Muslim traders from Russia traded in cities in Xinjiang actively, and the Russian trade with the northern Xinjiang increased. Kenesary Revellion in the Kazakh Steppe (1837-47) gave a severe blow to Russo-Xinjiang trade, but even in this period this trade continued, and the influence of the rebellion was diminished in 1840's. Thus, the trade routes between Russia and the northern Xinjiang, which was originally considered unprofitable because of high-cost mediation of Kazakhs and the government trade system in the northern Xinjiang, became major trade routes between Russia and Xinjiang in 1830-40's. The reason of this change is unstable political situations in Kashgaria and Central Asia, loosened restrictions for Russian goods and Russian Muslims in Xinjiang, and upsurge in demand of tea in the Russia Empire. |
