Paper abstract:

This examination of the trade in rhubarb in the late 18th century shows that the Kazakh people exploited their position of dominance on the Kazakh steppe to facilitate global trade through the region, working it to their advantage. Rhubarb is a plant grown in China and craved by Europeans, who typically purchased their rhubarb from China. The Qing government’s embargo on Russia (both imports and exports) from 1785-1792, caused the price to soar in Russia. Therefore, smuggling rhubarb from Xinjiang to Russia became extremely profitable. However, whereas Andijan merchants and other Turkic merchants who smuggled rhubarb confronted severe punishment from Chinese officials, Kazakh sales persisted. This paper examines correspondence and other Qing official documents pertaining to the Chinese decision not to put an end to rhubarb trade in Kazakh lands. It focuses on Xinjiang’s frontier policies on the steppe frontier in Xinjiang to advance two arguments. First, it shows that the Kazakh-Qing frontier differed from other Qing frontiers, in that policy there was defined not only by trade interest and state security but also by identity. Second, it argues that the Kazakh Khanate was actively connected to global trade, even in the 18th century, and that Kazakhs had the power to force much larger neighboring empires to make compromises for them. Kazakhs won a critical concession from the Qing dynasty—the right to trade with Russians. This enabled them to be mediators of Chinese goods—to visit trade centers from which Russians were banned and purchase the goods for sale to Russian tradesmen.

As the discussion of rhubarb will show, the Kazakh Steppe was not, as some scholars once believed, an isolated land, but a crucial component of global trade and Kazakhs exploited its potential. This study places Kazakhs in the foreground of trade relations in the region and connects China and Russia. It shows how Kazakhs helped bring rhubarb to Europe and shaped early capital circulation on the steppe. In dialogue with the New Qing historians, it shows how the Manchu (Non-Han) identity played a significant role in shaping how borderland issues were handled—and notes how Kazakhs, too, shaped this relationship. In sum, the trade route on the Kazakh steppe did not emerge naturally but was based on the common interest between Kazakhs and surrounding empires.