Consequent on the rectification of frontier in 1728, a line of custom-houses was established by treaty between Russia and China, whereby the commerce, previously unrestricted, was limited to the government caravans which passed the frontier only at Kiachta and at Zuruchaitu, south of Nerchinsk. The latter place always remained unimportant, while Kiachta and the opposite Chinese town of Maimatchin became the staple depôts of rhubarb.
The root was subjected to special control as early as 1687-1697 by the Russian Government, who finally monopolized the trade about 1704. Caravans fitted out by the Crown alone brought the drug to Moscow, until 1762, when the caravan-trade was for a while thrown open. It was not until this period that the export of rhubarb became considerable, although the stringent regulations, established in 1736, were still maintained. The surveillance of rhubarb was exercised at Kiachta in a special court or office called the Brake,[1822] under instructions from the Russian Minister of War, by an apothecary appointed for six years, the object being to remove from the rhubarb brought for inspection all inferior or spurious pieces, and to improve the selected drug by trimming, paring and boring. It was then carefully dried, and packed in chests, which were sown up in linen, and rendered impervious to wet by being pitched and then covered with hide. The drug was dispatched, but only in quantities of 1000 puds (40,000 lb.), once a year by way of Lake Baikal and Irkutsk to Moscow, whence it was transmitted to St. Petersburg, to be there delivered to the Crown apothecaries and in part to be sold to druggists.
We are indebted for these accounts chiefly to Calau,[1823] an apothecary appointed to supervise the examination of rhubarb, and who resided a long time at Kiachta. An exact account of the remarkable policy of the Russian Government in relation to that drug was also given by Von Schröders[1824] in 1864.
So long as China kept all her ports closed to foreign commerce except Canton in the extreme south, a large supply of fine rhubarb found its way to Europe by way of Russia. But the unpleasant accompaniments of the Russian supervision, which was exercised with unsparing severity,[1825] and the extreme tediousness of the land-transport, made the Chinese very ready to accept an easier outlet for their goods. Accordingly we find that the opening of a number of ports in the north of China exerted a very depressing influence on the trade of Kiachta, which was augmented by the rebellion that raged in the interior of China for some years from 1852.
On these accounts Russia in 1855 removed certain restrictions on the trade, though without abandoning the Rhubarb Office. She withdrew in 1860 the custom-house to Irkutsk, and declared Kiachta a free port, while by the treaty with China of November 1860, she insisted on that country abandoning all restrictions on trade.
But the overland rhubarb trade had already been destroyed: the Chinese, tempted by the increased demand occasioned by the new trading-ports, became less careful in the collection and curing of the root, while the Russians insisted with the greatest strictness on the drug being of the accustomed quality. Hence it happened that from 1860 hardly any rhubarb was delivered at Kiachta, either for the government use or to private traders; and in 1863 the Rhubarb Office was abolished.
Thus the so-called Russian or Muscovitic or Crown Rhubarb, familiarly known in England as Turkey Rhubarb, a drug which for its uniformly good quality long enjoyed the highest reputation, has become a thing of the past, which can only now be found in museum collections. It began to appear in English commerce at the commencement of the last century. Alston,[1826] who lectured on botany and materia medica at Edinburgh in 1720, speaks of rhubarb as brought from Turkey and the East Indies,—“and of late, likewise from Muscovy.”
It has been shown ([p. 494]) that rhubarb was shipped from Syria in the 12th century. Vasco da Gama[1827] mentions it in 1497 among the exports of Alexandria. In fact, the drug was carried from the far east to Persia, whence it was brought by caravans to Aleppo, Tripoli, Alexandria, and even to Smyrna. From these Levant ports it reached Europe, and was distributed as Turkey Rhubarb; while that which was shipped direct from China, or by way of India, became known as China, Canton, or East India Rhubarb. The latter was already the more common sort in England as early as 1640.[1828]
As the rhubarb of the Levant disappeared from trade, that of Russia took not only its place but likewise its name, until the term “Turkey Rhubarb” came to be the accepted designation of the drug imported from Russia. This strange confusion of terms was not however prevalent on the Continent, but was chiefly limited to British trade.
The risk and expense of the enormous land-transport over almost the whole breadth of Asia, caused rhubarb in ancient times to be one of the very costly drugs. Thus at Alexandria in 1497, it was valued at twelve times the price of benzoin. In France in 1542,[1829] it was worth ten times as much as cinnamon, or more than four times the price of saffron. At Ulm in 1596,[1830] it was more costly than opium. A German price-list of the magistrate of Schweinfurt, of 1614, shows Radix Rha Barbari to be six times as dear as fine myrrh, and more than twice the price of opium. An official English list[1831] giving the price of drugs in 1657, quotes opium as 6s. per lb., scammony 12s., and rhubarb 16s.