ABSTRACT
Charles Whitworth was sent to Russia for almost entirely commercial reasons. It was hoped that his mission would serve to ease conditions for English merchants in Russia in general and resolve disputes concerning one group of tobacco contractors in particular. At the beginning of the reign of Peter I English ministers viewed Russia almost exclusively in commercial terms. English trade with Russia was at this time exclusively in the hands of the Russia Company, which had been founded in 1555. In April 1698 the Russia Company discovered that a group of new city merchants, who were mostly Whigs, and who were not members of the Russia Company, had privately secured a contract for the export of tobacco with Peter I. The tensions between the old and new members of the Company, and over the tobacco contract, coloured all Whitworth’s activities in Russia. Whitworth also demonstrated rather more acumen than the contractors had in dealing with Russians.
