Kyakhta trade
Russia and China came into direct contact after Russians made themselves masters of the Siberian forests between 1582 and 1639.
[1][2][need quotation to verify] Private trade continued, much of it going short distances to places like Urga (present-day Ulaanbaatar) and Qiqihar.
In 1721 Lorenz Lange estimated that the Urga trade alone was four times greater than that of the state caravans.
The fourth, under Ivan Savateev, left Moscow in 1702, used the usual Nerchinsk route but returned via Urga and Selenginsk, which took only 70 days.
[4] It carried a letter from the Lifanyuan (the Chinese regional authority) suggesting that this become the standard route[5] since Mongolia was now under Manchu control and local relations could be managed by the Tushetu Khan at Urga.
The First Oirat-Manchu War of 1687 to 1697 had forced the Dzungar Khanate out of Mongolia and made border control more important.
In 1717–20 Lev Vasil'yevich Izmailov went to Beijing to negotiate a trade treaty, but this attempt failed because of the border problem.
Tsurukaitu never became important because the Kyakhta route was much better than the long journey east from Lake Baikal.
Before the treaty the Russians in the area were centered at Selenginsk and the Manchus worked through the Tushetu Khan at Urga.
Officials on both sides dealt with diplomatic exchanges between the two empires, trade disputes and the usual police matters to be expected on a long border inhabited by nomads who cared little about rules imposed by distant empires.
The chief Manchu official was called the Dzarguchei and Maimaicheng was managed by the Lifanyuan which dealt with the western grasslands.
Much barter was done at Kyakhta during the winter and Chinese goods were shipped west when the rivers melted.
An unknown part of the northbound trade was brought by "Bukharans" as the Russians called Central Asian traders.
The general tea trade in Mongolia was managed by seven companies, the largest of which was the Da Sheng Kui which was based in Hohhot after 1724.
