The Siberian fur trade is an exchange concerned with the gathering, buying and selling of valuable animal furs that originate from Siberia. The Siberian fur trade expanded from localized trade, and Siberian fur is now traded around the world. The Siberian fur trade had a significant impact on the development of Siberia through exploration and colonization. The fur trade also precipitated a decline in the number of fur-bearing animals and resulted in Siberia being conquered by Russia.
Beginnings
Traditionally, Siberians hunted as a means of sustenance and only used the fur from animals they hunted and consumed for gloves and hats. The practice of hunting animals solely for fur began after the Russians came to Siberia. Sable quickly became the most valuable and popular type of Siberian fur, and still maintains the distinction to this day.
The Siberian fur trade began in the sixteenth century, peaked in the seventeenth century, and continues to the present day.Fur Trade: Russia. Answers.com <http://www.answers.com/topic/fur-trade-russia> While sable has always been the most coveted fur from Siberia, the Siberian fur trade has included a large variety of animals pelts used for a variety of products, most frequently clothing. Some of the richest fur regions in Siberia are the Yakutsk, Kamchatka, and Okhotsk Peninsulas.
The Stroganov family, wealthy merchant-capitalists with extensive resources and influence in Russia, played a significant role in developing Siberia's fur trade. The Stroganovs owned several pieces of land in Siberia and made large profits trading with the natives for fur on these lands. The Stroganov family led the way to fur trading in Siberia, which became both economically and culturally important to both Russia and Siberia.
Obtaining furs
Russians used several methods of acquiring the fur pelts from the Siberian furriers: yasak, purchase, confiscation, hunting expeditions, trade with natives, and in much later years, fur farming of the most valued animals. Yasak was the easiest way of collecting furs, as the furs were simply demanded as a tribute or tax from the Siberian natives. Russian explorers and hunters were not as skilled as the Siberian natives at hunting fur-bearing animals without damaging the fur, which made trading with the Siberians the second easiest way to obtain pelts. The Siberian natives knew how to kill the animals without ruining the fur.
Yasak (fur tribute)
Yasak, otherwise known as Iasak, refers to the fur tax that the natives of Siberia were forced to pay to the tsarist government of Russia. Russians would set up winter camps known as zimovya while they waited for the Siberians to hunt and pay their taxes in fur. In return, the Siberians were promised to be able to look to the Russian government for protection. If a native tribe, community, or individual did not comply to the tax or otherwise resisted, they would face government-backed Cossack raids.
Yasak could be levied on an individual, a tribe, or both. All men between the ages of eighteen and fifty years were subject to this tax. The type of fur and the amount of fur pelts required for this tax varied, depending on how available the pelts were. For example, in the beginning of the 17th century, yasak could be anywhere from five to twenty-two sables per man, but this dropped to three sable pelts by the mid-1600s due to decreases in the sable population. In 1601, Russian tax collectors in the Verkhoturye district collected about ten sables a year from every married man and five sables a year from every bachelor. Officials collecting the yasak tribute also demanded extra furs as "gifts". Fox, squirrel, and ermine pelts were also accepted as yasuk after sable populations began to decline due to overhunting. Instead of one sable pelt, the following was accepted as its equivalent: one fox, glutton (relative of the marten), or otter pelt; two blue-fox pelts; sixteen polar-fox pelts; or one hundred squirrel pelts. The Russian government decided the amount of other pelts that were equivalent to the sable pelt.
Within forty years, almost all Siberian natives were forced into paying fur tribute to the Russians. Russian traders, hunters, and explorers reached the Pacific coastline by 1650 and were collecting fur tribute from most natives along the coast.
Hunting and trading with natives Beyond the yasuk, the Russians had two principal ways of obtaining Siberian furs: through hunting the animals themselves or through trading. Promyshlenniki was the Russian name for the small groups of Russian traders and trappers who took part in the Siberian fur trade. They were free-men who used fur trapping as a way of making a living. They worked together as a group making traps, collecting food and drink, and building camps in the harsh climate. These groups would evenly split the fur caught between all the members of the group. Working in groups gave these trappers protection against harsh Siberian winters, against unexpected attacks, and other dangers they could encounter if they were alone. At the peak of the Siberia fur trade during the seventeenth century, over a thousand of these trappers and traders ventured into Siberia each year. Men were infected with "fur fever," wanting to strike it rich like the Stroganovs.
The Siberian fur trade was composed of two main types of traders. Small groups of traders braved the dangers of Siberia's taiga wilderness to trade with natives themselves, but many more traders stayed in Russia and sent agents to work for them in Siberia. Both the independent traders and the agents of the traders in Russia would stay in Siberia typically anywhere from two to six years, depending on how far they wanted to travel, their luck at trading with natives and trapping the animals, and the harshness of the weather. The most commonly traded items included Russian-made goods such as metal wares and ironworks, hunting equipment and firearms, and food and drink supplies. For most of the natives, hunting equipment and metal products were the most useful and coveted trade items.
There was no oversight or rules for the traders who participated in the Siberian fur trade, especially in the first few centuries of fur trading. The native Siberians did not have much knowledge of the worth of their furs, and Russian traders commonly took advantage of this ignorance. For example, names would commonly pay for one copper kettle with the amount of sable pelts that would fit inside of the pot, a tiny fraction of the pelts' actual worth. Traders frequently used force and terror tactics to collect additional furs from the natives. For example, one report from Okhotosk told of a trader who kidnapped all the children from the local native Tungus so he could sell them back to their parents for a sable pelt apiece. In some cases, the traders would hold the native women and children as hostages (amanat) and in doing so they would force the fathers, brothers, and husbands to bring them furs in return for their loved ones’ safety.
The fur hunting expeditions into Siberia were mostly conducted in groups ranging from six to sixty men based at small winter peasant huts in the Siberian taiga. The groups baited pit traps with fish or meat to catch sable, and tracked other prey with nets and dogs. They would usually spend up to six or seven weeks at a time hunting. While hunting on land, they would usually use a dog team trained to smell and hunt animals, particularly sable. The dogs were trained not to kill the animals; hunters feared that the dogs would destroy the precious fur by tearing it to pieces. The hunters also occasionally used dogs to retrieve animals once they were killed. Hunters typically killed the animals themselves, doing their best not to damage the pelts in the process.
Hunters utilized bows, traps, snares, and nets to catch and kill animals for their pelts. Hunters would also follow the footprints of the animals to their dwellings and catch the animals as they emerged. Water mammals, such as sea otters, were also hunted for their pelts. Hunters would balance on small kayaks and would throw spears to kill the water animals. This skill was commonly passed down from father to son and taught at a young age.
Few Russian hunters were as skilled as the Siberian natives at killing animals without damage to the pelts, which made trading the superior method of acquiring these pelts. Hunting was also dangerous for the participants - hunters faced the possibility of disease, accidents, injury from animals, or violent confrontations with the indigenous peoples of Siberia when hunting fur-bearing animals. Under the best conditions, the hunting and trading parties exploring Siberia had a mere seven months after the spring thaw before the Siberian winter drove the animals into winter shelters, which stopped hunting for the season. Early routes taken by fur traders followed the large rivers in Siberia, as the furs were easier to transport over water than land. These rivers connected the major fur gathering centers and provided for relatively quick transport between them. The fur pelts were tied between two boards for transport along these rivers, and were thus called "timbers".
By the twentieth century, prime fur-bearing animals were raised on farms. However, the most valuable pelts still come from the wilderness, because the farm-raised animals were believed to not have as luxurious pelts. The wild animal furs are the most valuable because the harsh climates forced the animals to naturally grow thick warm fur, whereas the ones grown in farms do not need to grow such thick fur for protection from the harsh climate.
Sable
Sables were the first fur-bearing animals in Siberia to interest Russians. Sables were known as the "Golden Fleece" because they of their extreme value, both on the local and the world markets. A fur clothing store describes the sable fur as follows: "It is difficult to describe Russian sable fur in words: almost weightless, silky, satin like, lustrous, sparkling, glistening, incredibly beautiful. In addition it is very warm and durable.""Sable Coat is King." The Haute Women's Fur Clothing Boutique. 14 May 2009. Web. 16 January 2012. < http://www.luxfurclothing.com/blog/?cat=11>
Sable continues to be the world's most valuable fur. The most sought-after sable furs in the world come from the Barguzin region of Siberia. The sable is a small mammal resembling a mix between a weasel and a cat. It feeds on pine nuts, mice, and squirrels and hunts mostly at night. The sable fur surpasses all other types of fur due to its silky dense texture and luminous shades of beige, brown, gold, silver, and black. The darkest shades of sable fur are the most valuable. Next to sable, Siberian fox furs and squirrel pelts are the most valued furs from the region.
In addition to sable, black and white fox, ermine, beaver, squirrel, lynx, wolf, wolverine, rabbit, marten, walrus, sea otter, and polar bear were also hunted for their pelts. Most of these fur bearing animals are found in the Siberian taiga, except for the sea otters and walrus that were found on the North Pacific coasts. In more recent times, fur farming has been used to breed animals for their fur. Silver fox farms were started in 1936, mostly in Yakutia. These farms eliminated some of the dangers and uncertainties involved with hunting in the wilderness.
This trade of valuable fur-bearing animals from Siberia has a definite impact on the world fur trading industry. In 1910, the pelts of seventy thousand sables, ten times that many ermine, five million rabbits, and fifteen million squirrels from Siberia accounted for almost half the world's furs. Today, the most valuable furs still come from Siberia.
Profits