Lorenz or Lorents Lange (Russian: Лоренц (Лаврентий) Ланг; c. 1690 – 1752) was an official in 18th-century Siberia who dealt with Russo-Chinese trade and diplomacy.
His reports were a major influence on Russian policy and an important early source of European knowledge of Siberia, Mongolia and China.
[1] At this time Russo-Chinese trade and diplomacy went through the western border to “Manchuria” since Mongolia was not fully under Chinese control.
When the Manchus gained control of Mongolia after the First Oirat-Manchu War this created a long undefined border and opened a more practical trade route through the future Kyakhta.
In 1715-17 he was sent by Peter the Great as a special envoy to China, his mission being to promote Russian commercial interests.
In 1739 he proposed that Siberian trade be given over to a private monopoly on the model of the Dutch East India Company.
His state caravan journeys were reported on in Peter Simon Pallas' "Neue Nordische Beyträge" (1781).
Neue Nordische Beyträge 2 (1781): Tagebuch einer in den Jahren 1727 und 1728 über Kjachta nach Peking unter Anführung des Agenten Lorenz Lange gethanen Karawanenreise, pp.
83–159; Tagebuch einer im Jahr 1736 unter Anführung des Kanzleyraths Lange und des Commissars Firsof von Zuruchaitu durch die Mongoley nach Peking verrichteten Karawanenreise, pp. 160–207.