Interesting facts

In the middle of XI century, the third of Jaroslav's the Wise daughters, Anna, had been married to the French King Henry I who had sent for her ambassadors to Kiev Russia. Then, Jaroslav's the Wise generosity played not the last role; he had presented the foreigners with fur clothes, and to Henry I he had sent - as a marriage portion - several carts of the most valuable fur.
In XVI century, in Tobolsk, the black fox was appreciated at a higher price, than sable. For the black fox brought to Tobolsk from other Siberian city, one gave so much, how many silver coins could be placed into it. Then, a white fox (polar fox) was amazing as well.
In XV-XVI centuries, trade in fur abroad was rather dear to Russian dealers - one of the conditions of the Polish authorities, which protected the rights of their merchant class, was an obligatory sale of fur within the territory of Rech Pospolita, what entailed lots of expenses. Along whole transit, Russian dealers paid the various customs duties. They paid for crossing of border, for travel through the bridge; and it was necessary to pay to owners of all lands, which the merchant’s way ran through. Dealers who resorted to illegal transportation of fur, risked to come into hands of robbers.
In 1654, from Ilimsk, there was sent a gift - a skin of the white fox - for the newborn tsarevitch Alexey Alekseevich. When Tsar Alexey Mihajlovich charged to merchants to estimate an animal, they had in writing certified, that "the price cannot be declared", because they had never seen such animal.
In 1592, the Orthodox Church brotherhood from Lvov directed to Russian Tzar Feodor Ioanovich an embassy with the request to give them help for restoration of the burned down Uspenskaya church. To the Lvov townspeople five forties of sables and five forties of martens had been presented. For money, obtained from this sale, members of the Lvov brotherhood had built an imperial gate for church, and the part of means had gone for the repayment of the pawned printing house of first printer Ivan Fedorov and for reestablishment of cyrillic publishing in Lvov.
In XIV-XVII centuries, Ukrainian merchants, who came for large parties of the fluffy goods to Russia, often became victims of a deceit. Russian dealers, having seen the big interest to polar fox from the visitor merchants, quite often gave a hare out for it.
As, for a long time, furs were got mainly by hunting, an enmity often raised between representatives of the nobility because of hunting grounds. So, in XII century, in the first code of laws "Russkaya Pravda" the items were included, concerning hunting rules. In the course of time, hunting became not only a craft, which returned interest, but also entertainment of fashion. Vladimir Monomah equated the hunting feats to feats of arms.
In 1689, the Lvov merchant Jury Bragnovich had bought 488 sables to fair. Besides it, he bought furs from sable backs and belly-pieces, 10 fortis of ermines, 20 skins of wolves, 6 skins of black wolves, 26 skins of white hares, 12 skins wolf belly-pieces. After payment of all customs duties and sales of all brought goods the merchant obtained profit of 4296 Polish zlotys, what was an excessively big sum. For comparison, work of the master of a high class was estimated from 3 up to 6 zlotys a week, and of an apprentice - from 6 up to 8 groshes.
At aboriginals of Siberia and the Far East, sable had no value for long time. Kamchadals, for example, gave for an iron copper so many sables, how many of them could be placed into it.
In XVII century, kalan was discovered, which was also called sea-otter, sea-beaver. For many years, it became one of riches of Kamchatka, Commandore and Aleutian islands – after all, its fur was estimated more highly, than any ground animal’s one. Therefore, the Bering Sea on some maps was named as Beaver Sea.