When the dust settled in 1799, the Shelikhov-Golikov Company was left standing and had been granted an exclusive trading monopoly in Russian America. The other companies were given a choice: merge their operations with the new Russian-American Company or liquidate their assets. If it was seen by some as Paul thumbing his nose at his mother’s laissez-faire policies, the action readily recognized the economic realities of doing business so far away in North America. Baranov’s experiences had made it clear that if the British and Americans were to be bested, or at least kept at bay, it would take
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