ABSTRACT
The commercial relationship between Muscovy and Sweden offered instances of both types of colonies, in no small measure because of the periodic redrawing of boundaries which, during the period of Swedish expansion in the seventeenth century, left Russia or at least Russian Orthodox populations 'captive' on the Swedish side of the border. The Dutch commercial superpower of the era assisted by north German and English merchants paved way for Russia's economic integration in the broader European economy. By the early seventeenth century, the leading Russian settlement in the estuary was called appropriately enough Nevskoe ust'e, and the Swedish fortress of Nyenskans was built right next to it, at the confluence of the Neva and the Okhta, soon after the beginning of the Swedish incursion into Russia. Some ethnic Russians emerged as key players in Narva's economic renaissance. Some leading policy makers in Stockholm suggested that the Ingrian Russians might prove more useful to Sweden than the burghers of Narva.
