Religion and Identity in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Festschrift for Paul Bushkovitch

The Perils of Profit: Patrons and Protection in Muscovite Trade

Religion and Identity in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Festschrift for Paul Bushkovitch. Nikolaos A. Chrissidis, Cathy J. Potter, David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, and Jennifer B. Spock, eds. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers, 2011, 43–61.       The Perils of Profit: Patrons and Protection in Muscovite Trade Maria Salomon Arel The Trading Diaspora and the Culture of the Personal Communities  of  “strangers”  or  resident  aliens  have  received  the  most  atten-­‐‑ tion   in   the   works   of   anthropologists,   ethnologists,   and   sociologists.   Among   historians,   interest   in   the   subject   has   not   been   absent.   However,   until   rela-­‐‑ tively   recently   the   focus   of   historical   analysis   has   been   on   the   organization   and  operation  of  the  trading  diaspora,  its  economic  objectives,  resources,  and   activities.   In   the   past   two   decades,   this   perspective   has   been   shifting.   The   landmark  work  of  Philip  Curtin  has  prompted  historians  to  re-­‐‑think  the  way   they   traditionally   conceived   of   alien   merchants.   Increasingly,   this   group   is   being  treated  as  a  distinct  historical  type  confronted  with  a  special  set  of  prob-­‐‑ lems  characteristic   of  alien  resident  communities  engaged  in  “cross-­‐‑cultural   commercial  interaction.”1  The  emphasis  here  is  on  the  encounter  between  two   cultures—that  of  the  stranger  community  and  that  of  the  host  society.   Traditionally,  social  scientists  have  discussed  success  among  these  groups   from  a  social  organizational  perspective,  focusing  on  their  internal  properties   or  “immanent  characteristics”  (their  distinctiveness  within  host  societies,  their   intra-­‐‑group  relations,  their  values).2  The  anthropologist  Karl  Yambert  argued   that   the   “political   economy   of   alien   commerce”—the   multiple   relationships   aliens   constructed   with   various   groups   in   their   host   society—must   also   be   considered.   And   within   these   relationships,   the   “nexus   of   institutional   ar-­‐‑ rangements   in   which   [trading   diasporas]   were   enmeshed,”   it   is   the   inter-­‐‑ course  with  ruling  elites  that  appears  to  be  most  salient.3  In  other  words,  the   strangers’  relationship  to  power  dictated  to  a  considerable  extent  the  contours,                                                                                                                             1  Philip  D.  Curtin,  Cross-­‐‑Cultural  Trade  in   World  History  (New  York:  Cambridge  Uni-­‐‑ versity  Press,  1984),  12.     2  A  useful  overview  and  assessment  of  this  school  of  thought  is  provided  by  Karl  A.   Yambert,  “Alien  Traders  and  Ruling  Elites:  The   Overseas  Chinese  in  Southeast  Asia   and  the  Indians  in  East  Africa,”  Ethnic  Groups  3  (1981):  173‒78.  The  term  “immanent   characteristics”   in   this   context   was   coined   by   A.   Leeds   and   E.   Leeds   in   their   article   “Accounting  for  Behavioral  Differences:  Three  Political  Systems  and  the  Responses  of   Squatters   in   Brazil,   Peru,   and   Chile,”   in   The   City   in   Comparative   Perspective:   Cross-­‐‑ National  Research  and  New  Directions  in  Theory,  ed.  John  Walton  and  Louis  H.  Masotti   (Beverly  Hills,  CA:  Sage  Publications,  1976),  193‒248.   3  Yambert,  “Alien  Traders  and  Ruling  Elites,”  176,  178‒79,  193‒94.   44 MARIA SALOMON AREL content,  and  success  (or  failure)  of  the  group’s  experience  on  alien  soil.  From   this   perspective,   the   diaspora’s   understanding   of   the   host   society’s   political   culture  and  its  ability  to  position  itself  advantageously  within  it  was  a  deci-­‐‑ sive  element  to  long-­‐‑term  viability.     Yambert’s  emphasis  on  relations  with  ruling  elites  as  key  to  understand-­‐‑ ing  why  and  how  alien  merchant  communities  flourished  raises  an  interesting   question:  when  the  political  culture  of  a  host  society  made  status,  safety,  op-­‐‑ portunity,  and  fortune  dependent  to  a  significant  degree  on  personal  connec-­‐‑ tions,  on  webs  of  favor,  obligation,  and  service  woven  around  ties  of  kinship   and  community,  as  well  as  patron-­‐‑client  relationships  grounded  in  these  most   primordial  of  social  collectivities,4  how  did  strangers  fit  in?  How  did  the  out-­‐‑ sider   become   an   insider   and,   therefore,   capable   of   exploiting   relations   with   the  host  power   to  his  advantage?   And  how   open   was   the   system   to  letting   him  in?  For  Western  European  trading  diasporas  such  as  the  Muscovy  Com-­‐‑ pany   in   the   16th   and   17th   centuries,   these   questions   were   fundamental.   In   Russia,  English   merchants  found  themselves  in  a  society  where,  despite  the   growth  of  an  “impartial,  impersonal  public  sphere  [based  on]  the  rule  of  law   and   bureaucracy,”   pre-­‐‑modern   conceptions   and   modes   of   action   revolving   around  the  personal  continued  to  flourish.5  The  privileged  status  enjoyed  by   Muscovy  Company  men  in  Russia  under  successive  tsars  between  1553  and   1649  and  the  continued  vigor  of  their  economic  activities  in  this  period  sug-­‐‑ gest  that  the  English  managed  to  find  their  place  in  alien  Muscovy,  as  “insid-­‐‑ ers”   of   sorts.   This   article   is   a   preliminary   investigation   into   how   this   was   achieved.   All in the Family—Royal Kin, Royal Patrons To  be  an  “insider”  in  a  pre-­‐‑modern  setting  meant,  fundamentally,  to  belong.   As  a  member  of  a  kinship  network...