He performed his journey seven different times. It
appears, however, that this channel of trade was soon afterwards abandoned,
till 1741, when it was resumed for a very short time, during which
considerable quantities of raw silk were brought to England by the route
followed by the Russian agent in the sixteenth century. The cause of this
abandonment during the sixteenth century seems to have been the length and
danger of the route; for we are informed that one of the adventures would
have proved exceedingly profitable, had not their ships, on their return
across the Caspian, with Persian raw silk, wrought silks of many kinds,
galls, carpets, Indian spices, turquois stones, &c., been plundered by
Corsair pirates, to the value of about 40,000_l_. The final abandonment of
this route, in the eighteenth century, arose partly from the wars in
Persia, but principally from the extension of India commerce, which being
direct and by sea, would, of course supply England much more cheaply with
all eastern goods than any land trade. Beside the delay, difficulty, and
danger of the route from the Volga, already described, the route followed
in the sixteenth century, till the merchants reached the Volga, was
attended with great difficulty. The practice was to transport the English
goods, which were to be exchanged, in canoes, up the Dwina, from Archangel
to Vologda, thence over land, in seven days, to Jeroslau, and thence down
the Volga, in thirty days, to Astracan.
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