Explorations in Muscovite History

Studies on the 16th and 17th-century explorations and voyages of discovery, and on the economic circumstances that led to the opening of direct commercial relations between Muscovite Russia and Elizabethan England.

The main themes of this volume are the explorations and geographical discoveries, and the economic circumstances that lay behind the establishment of commercial relations between Muscovite Russia and Elizabethan England. It also includes four hitherto unpublished studies, together with additional notes to other articles. In the opening pieces Samuel Baron pursues his researches into socio-economic history, with particular reference to the development of commerce and mercantilism in Russia during the 16th-and 17th-centuries. The following section then deals with the discovery of the sea route round the north of Norway, looking on the one hand at the position of seafaring in Russia and the role the Russians themselves may have played in these explorations, for instance in the discovery of Spitsbergen, and on the other at the English quest for a northeastern passage to China. Other articles examine the spread in the West of geographical knowledge about Muscovy, as revealed by the development of cartography, and finally focus on the work of Herberstein and its importance as a stimulus for the English expedition of 1583 that led to the opening of direct Anglo-Russian relations. Les explorations et les découvertes géographiques, ainsi que les circonstances économiques à la base de la création des rapports commerciaux entre la Russie moscovite et l’Angleterre élisabéthaine forment les thèmes principaux de ce volume. Quatre études jusqu ici inédites sont aussi inclues, ainsi que des notes supplémentaires. Samuel Baron débute cet ouvrage en poursuivant ses recherches sur l’histoire socio-économique et se réfère en particulier au développement du mercantilisme en Russie durant les 16e et 17e siècles. La section suivante traite de la découverte de la voie maritime passant au Nord de la Norvège; y sont examinés d’une part, le rôle des Russes quant à ces explorations, comme celle, par exemple, qui mena à la découverte de Spitsbergen et, d’autre p