After Catherine the Great ascended the throne, she had constantly sought to open the door to the West, exporting goods such as grain, hemp, and timber.
Russia's consul in Marseille was named Peschier. He was a Swiss expatriate merchant, and through his efforts, Ukrainian wheat began to be exported from Black Sea ports to Marseille. Because of France's current special needs, timber also had to be imported from Russia through this consul.
Napoleoni now needed to maintain good relations with the Russians. Even though he knew railways were more durable than wooden roads, he still had to import timber from Russia in large quantities. Besides, timber did not have to be used solely for tracks; it could also be made into masts and charcoal.
In exchange, the Russians wanted to purchase French-made woolen cloth.
This trade had begun in the seventeenth century. By the end of the eighteenth, Marseille could no longer sell large quantities of Languedoc woolens on the Turkish market, because Turkey's national finances had begun to run dry, and Languedoc suffered greatly as a result.
After Alexander the Great I ascended the throne, his first act was to overturn most of Paul I's decrees, restore the privileges of the nobility, proclaim a general amnesty for fugitive serfs, and pardon or exonerate those sentenced during Paul's reign from their places of exile. For now, he had no time to deal with the country's economic problems.
There was no denying that French uniforms were indeed attractive. It did not matter if the woolens were made into Russian military uniforms; as long as the silver coins the French spent buying timber ended up back in their pockets, that was enough.
Over the past five hundred years, Westerners had loved spices because of their preference for strong flavors. One only had