ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the emergence of the Baltic as a privileged outlet for North Eurasian trade, and the origins of the quest for North Eurasian trade. The first section discusses the main factors contributing to this process, such as the widely spread eagerness to break Dutch commercial predominance in the Baltic, the increasing British and French awareness of the strategic significance of North Eurasian trade via the Baltic Sea, and the roles of Sweden and Muscovy as adversaries in a long-standing struggle for North Eurasian markets. The second section highlights how, in the wake of an upsurge of commercial interest in Central Asia by Europe’s leading economic powers, and the acknowledgement of Muscovy’s strategic role in Western Europe’s trade with Central Russia, Persia, and China, plans to divert commodity flows from Muscovy and the transit trade of Asian goods through Muscovite territories to ports in Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, Brandenburg-Prussia, and Courland contributed to the sustained international economic, political, and military interest in North Eurasia. The third section describes how, alarmed by Muscovy’s rapid westward expansion, the British changed their tactics during the final phase of the Great Northern War (1700–1721). It shows that, among other things, the British requested permission for their subjects to trade in Kazan and Astrakhan on the Volga, which indicates that British commercial interests were not limited to Russia’s Baltic ports alone, but also comprised access to North Eurasia for the transit of Central Asian goods.
