The citizens and subjects of the contracting parties shall, within the territory of the other party, have full liberty to take and receive into the houses they inhabit, or into their particular magazines, all such commodities as they shall have imported, or as shall be consigned to them; and to this end, they shall be delivered up to them from the public magazines, if required, as soon as conveniently may be, after they shall have paid the duties and other lawful charges thereon; and they shall have full liberty to sell and dispose of the same at their houses and particular magazines as they shall think fit, upon this express condition, however, that they shall not sell them there or elsewhere by retail; and they shall not be charged with any taxes or impositions whatever on account of their enjoying this privilege, or with any other than the most favored nations shall pay.
ARTICLE XII.
To prevent fraud, which might otherwise take place, and to establish a mutual confidence in matters of commerce, it is agreed, that all the citizens and subjects of the contracting parties, whether residents in their own or in the territories of the other party, who shall have arrived to the full age of twentyone years, (being of sound mind, excepting always the Russian peasants) shall be judged capable of making contracts in their own names, and shall, accordingly, be held and obliged to fulfil and perform all contracts and engagements, which they shall so make and enter into, agreeably to the rules of good faith; and this, whether their fathers, or mothers, or both, shall be living or dead at the time of making the contract, or whether they have been portioned or not by them, or either of them. And all the Russian clerks or servants employed in the shops shall be registered in some tribunal, and their masters shall be responsible for them in affairs of trade and commerce, bargains or contracts, which they shall make in their names.
ARTICLE XIII.
When the Russian merchants shall cause to be enregistered at the custom house their contracts or bargains for the sale or purchase of merchandises, by their clerks or factors, or others employed by them, the officers of the customs where these contracts shall be enregistered, shall carefully examine if those who contract for the account of their principals, are authorised by them with orders or full powers made in good and due form, in which case, the said principals shall be responsible as if they had contracted themselves in person. But if the said clerks, factors, or other persons employed for the said merchants, are not provided with sufficient orders or full powers in writing, they shall not be believed upon their word, and although the officers of the customs are charged to watch in this respect, the contractors shall, nevertheless, take care for themselves that the agreements or contracts that they make together exceed not the procurations or full powers, which have been confided to them by their employers, since these last are not held to answer but for the objects and amount for which the full powers have been given by them.
ARTICLE XIV.
The Russians shall be amenable to justice touching all their contracts and engagements between them and the citizens of the United States residing in Russia, in the place where they shall have made them, unless it shall be otherwise stipulated therein, and according to the laws of the same place; and if any process should arise between them in the towns of St Petersburg, Moscow, or Archangel, the College of Commerce alone, to the exclusion of every other tribunal, shall take cognizance thereof, after complaint shall have been duly made; and said College shall cite the person complained against to appear before them in person, or by his attorney, to answer such complaint, allowing a reasonable time therefor; and if he should appear, or fail to appear and answer within the time fixed, upon due proof of the matter in question being produced, the said College shall proceed to pass judgment thereupon against the person complained of, and where it is necessary to carry their judgment into execution against an absent person, shall forthwith when desired by the complainant, at his expense, send an express to the proper Governors or Waywodes, and shall order them to cause the judgment to be executed without loss of time, and thus shall oblige the person condemned, to pay the sums of money specified in such judgment, with reasonable costs.
ARTICLE XV.
But whenever a process or dispute shall take place concerning any contract made between the citizens of the United States and the Russian subjects, in a place where the College of Commerce hath no department, they shall be heard and determined by the ordinary magistrate of the place; and in all such cases, the process shall be conducted in like manner as is agreed in the preceding article, as well with respect to the obtaining of judgment, as to the execution thereof; and the citizens of the United States, in all causes between them and the Russian subjects, which shall be tried by any magistrate of a place where the College of Commerce hath no department, shall have a right to appeal from the judgment of the magistrate to that of the College of Commerce, whenever they shall think themselves aggrieved thereby. On the other hand, the Russian merchants within the territories of the United States shall, in their turn, enjoy the same administration of justice as the native citizens.