So, Professor Thomas Salmon, in his "Modern History, or the Present State of All Nations" of 1735, reports that once Russia has mastered the subtleties of navigation and the other sciences, nothing can prevent her from becoming the foremost commercial pow
Russia produces goods without which other nations, and maritime powers in particular, would find it very hard to subsist. From Russia come pitch, tar, hemp, planks and round timber. Thanks to the canals between the Volga and the Baltic Sea, Russia is able to supply grain at low prices. The Dutch alone load up to a thousand ships with grain in the Baltic every year.
Add to this that Russia is not dependent on other nations…