The trade agreement between Russia and Persia in 1717

Importance. The history of Russian-Iranian relations dates back more than one hundred years and throughout the entire period they played an important role in the political and economic spheres of our state. In this regard, the question of how these relations were regulated in international legal documents is very important.

Materials and Methods. The main source are documents from the collections of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts. These documents cover the activities of the Russian diplomatic mission in Persia in 1715–1718, headed by A.P. Volynsky, and the Trade Agreement with Persia concluded during it in July 1717. The embassy’s diary, the text of the treaty itself, and the instruments of ratification formed the source base of the study. In the research process we used methods of analysis, comparative-historical, system-structural, biographical.

Results and Discussion. During the 17th century, Russian-Persian relations experienced serious contradictions related to turbulent domestic and foreign policy events in both countries. In general, against the background of the presence of a common enemy, the Ottoman Turkey, there was a certain political rapprochement between the two states. But in the economic sphere, Russia had a number of problems that it would like to resolve in its favor. In particular, the Russian government was not satisfied with the fact that Russian-Persian trade through Astrakhan was dominated by merchants who were subjects of the Persian Shah. Moreover, there was a most-favored-nation regime in Russia for Armenians and Persians to carry out this trade. In Persia, on the contrary, the Russian merchants were subjected to various oppressions, unfair duties, extortion, etc. To solve these problems, Tsar Peter I sent an embassy headed by A.P. Volynsky in 1715–1718.

Conclusion. The main success of A.P. Volynsky’s diplomatic mission was the signing of a trade agreement between Russia and Persia in 1717. The agreement was concluded on favorable terms for Russia, it was unilateral and contained the obligations of the Persian side to ensure safe and profitable trade for the Russian merchants in Persia. The agreement also led to the establishment of he Russian consular service in Persia, which meant a qualitatively new stage in the development of interstate relations.