The Fur Merchants

The Russians who first came to Alaska were not part of government-led expeditions. Rather, they were individuals working for private trading companies. Their activities were almost completely ignored by the faraway Russian government, which had little to no official presence in Alaska.

Wealthy Russian merchants put up money to finance trips to various Aleutian islands to trade for furs. The voyages from Siberia to America were expensive. Ships had to be built and outfitted with all the tools and supplies necessary for a multi-year trip. The ships were built in Okhotsk.

And the risks were high. The waters of the Aleutian Islands are notoriously dangerous, and an average of one in three ships never returned. But the profits were also high. One ship could return with a cargo of furs worth a million dollars in present-day money.