Tsarist Russia's resold profits exceed ten times, rhubarb becomes a weapon of China's sanctions

Everyone in Russia knows that there is a product made in China. If it is operated privately without a license from the tsarist government, the consequences will be extremely serious-death penalty! In contrast, smuggling of opium is really "wet and broken", nothing more than confiscation and fines.

This kind of deadly China product is rhubarb, a traditional Chinese medicine used to eliminate fire, detoxify, relieve constipation and treat plague. If used in large quantities, it can be fatal. It, together with monkshood, are both called "good generals" in medicine. Together with the two "good phases" of ginseng and rehmannia, they are collectively called the "Four Dimensions in Medicine."

In the meat-eating Western world, there seems to be no medicine that can replace the functions of rhubarb, which has made rhubarb the best-selling commodity in China in the West-tea is an everyday drink, and rhubarb is an everyday medicine.

Compared with tea, rhubarb cannot withstand moisture. This delicate innate gift makes it more suitable for traveling to Europe by land rather than crossing the ocean. The Europe-China Business Road that runs through Russia has therefore become the Yellow Road. In 1706, or perhaps even earlier in 1657 or 1658, the tsarist government implemented a national monopoly system of rhubarb, which was monopolized by the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. Smugglers faced a more severe death penalty than smuggling arms.

Zhao Yi's "Yi Yi's" Miscellaneous Notes on Estuary Exposure "in the Qing Dynasty records: " Russia uses China's rhubarb as the top medicine. Otherwise, the sick cannot be treated. In the past, it used to pass tribute envoys and allow them to trade. The entrance said: Chaktu." In transactions at the Chaktu Port, tea and rhubarb are the mainstream of China goods. Chaktu even has a rhubarb trading market with a border office. Russian scholar Xilin said in his book "Chaktu in the 18th Century":"In the 18th Century), there was some prosperity in Chaktu trade in the late 1930s, which was largely due to the beginning of regular rhubarb trade. Promote."

Compared with tea, the profits of rhubarb are more exciting. Research by Soviet scholar Sladevsky showed that in the 1730s, the purchase price of rhubarb in Chaktu was 12 rubles, but when shipped to St. Petersburg, its value was as high as 110 rubles, a 10-fold increase. Other researchers in Russia also said that since then, the price of Chaktu of rhubarb will be 20 rubles per port, and can be sold for 208 rubles when shipped to Western Europe, with a gross profit of about 10 times. Sradowski calculated that this alone could generate 150,000 rubles per year to the national treasury.

The Russians did not wait around in Chaktu, but extensively mobilized Bukhara, a Bukhara native in Central Asia, now in Uzbekistan, to go deep into Xining and other places to purchase rhubarb, and then to Chaktu to hand it over to Russian merchants, which is equivalent to forming their own procurement team.

Russia attaches great importance to the quality of rhubarb. The government has sent a special pharmacist to conduct identification in Chaktu. All rhubarb that has been bitten by insects will not be collected, and any damaged or rotten rhubarb will be removed. All eliminated rhubarb will be burned to prevent Chinese businessmen from passing it off next time. Chaktu's acceptance standards, whether rhubarb or tea, are much higher than those at Guangzhou Port. In addition, the preservation status of land transportation is much better than that of sea transportation. Therefore, rhubarb and tea re-exported through Russia are of the best quality in the European market., the highest quality.

In order to make more money from trafficking, Russia has even lowered its local consumption of rhubarb. German G.F. Miller recorded in his "The Conquest of Siberia and Early Russia-China Exchanges" published in 1842 that in 1777, only 6 pts were consumed in Russia, while more than 1000 pts were sold to Europe; in 1778, domestic consumption was 680 pts, and re-export was as high as 1055 pts.

For this special commodity related to economic strategy, Russian intelligence agencies also tried every means and even unscrupulous means to steal rhubarb seeds from China at an asking price of as high as 400 rupees per Russian pound. This also led to being deceived by some illegal businessmen, and some even used mustard seeds to deceive Russians.

Sino-Russian rhubarb trade plays an important role in Russia's economy, politics and society, similar to tea trade in Britain. When there is a dispute between China and Russia, the Qing Dynasty always finds it very complacent that there is still a rhubarb in its hand, which can be used as a weapon for trade sanctions against Russia.