Russian-American Company

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The Russian-American Company was a semi-official colonial trading company started by Grigory Shelikhov and Nikolai Rezanov and chartered by Tsar Paul I in 1799.^[1]

The 20-year revolving charter granted the company monopoly over trade in Russian America, which included the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and the territory down to 55° N latitude. A second charter, in 1821, extended its domain to 51° N latitude. Under the charter, one-third of all profits were to go to the emperor.

Under Alexandr Baranov, who governed the region between 1790 and 1818, a permanent settlement was established in 1804 at Novo-Arkhangelsk (today's Sitka, Alaska), and a thriving fur trade was organized.

The company constructed forts in what is today Alaska and California. Fort Ross, on the California coast just north of San Francisco, was the southernmost outpost of Russian America, and is now reconstructed and an open air museum.

But from the 1820s onwards the profits from the fur trade began to decline. Already in 1818 the Russian government had taken control of the Russian-American Company from the merchants who held the charter. The explorer and government official Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, who had been administrator of Russian government interests in Russian America a decade before, was the first president of the company during the government period. The company ceased its commercial activities in 1867, when the Alaska Purchase transferred control of Alaska to the United States and the commerical interests of the Russian American Company were sold to Hutchinson, Kohl & Company of San Francisco, California who then renamed their company to the Alaska Commercial Company.

1 Governors of the Russian American Company
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Governors of the Russian American Company

Below is a list of the governors/general managers of the Russian-American Company. Many of their names occur as place names in Southeast Alaska. Note that the English spelling of the names varies between sources.

#	Name	Term
1	Alexandr Andreyevich Baranov (1747–1819)	1799–January 11, 1818
2	Leonty Andrianovich Gagemeister (1780–1833)	January 11, 1818–October 24, 1818
3	Semyon Ivanovich Yanovsky	October 24, 1818–September 15, 1820
4	Matvey Ivanovich Muravyev (1784–1826)	September 15, 1820–October 14, 1825
5	Pyotr Igorovich Chistyakov (1790–1862)	October 14, 1825–June 1, 1830
6	Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel (1797–1870)	June 1, 1830–October 29, 1835
7	Ivan Antonovich Kupreianov (1800–1857)	October 29, 1835–May 25, 1840
8	Adolf Karlovich Etolin (1798–1876)	May 25, 1840–July 9, 1845
9	Mikhail Dmitriyevich Tebenkov (1802–1872)	July 9, 1845–October 14, 1850
10	Nikolay Yakovlevich Rozenberg (d. 1857)	October 14, 1850–March 31, 1853
11	Aleksandr Ilich Rudakov	March 31, 1853–April 22, 1854
12	Stepan Vasiliyevich Voyevodsky (d. 1884)	April 22, 1854–June 22, 1859
13	Ivan Vasiliyevich Furugelm (1821–1909)	June 22, 1859–December 2, 1863
14	Prince Dmitri Petrovich Maksutov (1832–1889)	December 2, 1863–October 18, 1867