Isaac Abrahamszoon Massa (baptized October 7, 1586, in Haarlem, died 1643)[1] was a Dutch grain trader, traveller and envoy to Russia.

He wrote memoirs related to the Time of Troubles and created some of the earliest maps of Eastern Europe and Siberia.

[4] Massa was witness to the second half of Boris Godunov's reign, during which a civil war broke out, now known as the Time of Troubles.

He survived the capture of Moscow by False Dmitriy I and left Russia in 1609, before the fall of Tsar Vasily Shuysky.

[6] These articles were translated and reproduced anonymously in European languages, because the author's name was removed in early Dutch reissues.

(His contemporary, Jacob De la Gardie, characterized Massa as "extremely artful in learning other people's secrets").

[9] Massa's rendition of the Siberian coast represented an advance in geography; for decades it was the only map of this region.

An average of thirty ships sailed each year to Archangelsk, a harbour near the White Sea – unfortunately during 1619 a fire broke out and destroyed the city completely, thereby ruining Massa's inventory.

He then made successful efforts to gain the interest of Gustaf II Adolf of Sweden to pursue trading grains with Russia.

Massa promoted the idea of setting up a trading cartel similar to the English Muscovy Company, but internal problems in the Netherlands delayed consolidation of traders into 1628.

[16] One of his opponents, Klenck, himself a wealthy merchant trading in caviar, was given Russia's permission to export ten or twelve cargo loads of rye meal.