After all expences are paid, the equipment of each vessel ordinarily costs from 15,000 to 20,000 Roubles. And sometimes the expences amount to 30,000. Every vessel is divided into a certain number of shares, generally from thirty to fifty; and each share is worth from 300 to 500 Roubles.
The risk of the trade is very great, as shipwrecks are common in the sea of Kamtchatka, which is full of rocks and very tempestuous. Besides, the crews are frequently surprised and killed by the islanders, and the vessels destroyed. |Profits.|In return the profits arising from these voyages are very considerable, and compensate the inconveniencies and dangers attending them. For if a ship comes back after having made a profitable voyage, the gain at the most moderate computation amounts to cent. per cent. and frequently to as much more. Should the vessel be capable of performing a second expedition, the expences are of course considerably lessened, and the shares are at a lower price.
Some notion of the general profits arising from this trade (when the voyage is successful), may be deduced from the sale of a rich cargo of furs, brought to Kamtchatka, on the 2d of June, 1772, from the new-discovered islands, in a vessel belonging to Ivan Popoff.
The tenth part of the skins being delivered to the customs, the remainder was distributed in fifty-five shares. Each share consisted of twenty sea-otters, sixteen black and brown foxes, ten red foxes, three sea-otter tails; and such a portion was sold upon the spot from 800 to 1000 Roubles: so that according to this price the whole lading was worth about 50,000 Roubles[9].
CHAP. III.
Furs and skins procured from Kamtchatka and the New Discovered Islands.
Furs and Skins brought from Kamtchatka and the New Discovered Islands.
The principal furs and skins procured from the Peninsula of Kamtchatka and the New Discovered Islands are sea-otters, foxes, sables, ermines, wolves, bears, &c.—These furs are transported to Ochotsk by sea, and from thence carried to[10]Kiachta upon the frontiers of Siberia; where the greatest part of them are sold to the Chinese at a very considerable profit.
Sea-Otters.