Russian maritime fur trading in the northern Pacific begins after the exploration voyages of Bering and Chirikov in 1741 and 1742, which have demonstrated that Asia and North America are not connected but that sea voyages are feasible, and that the region is rich in furs.

Private fur traders, mostly promyshlenniki, launch fur trading expeditions from Kamchatka, at first focusing on nearby islands such as ...

...the Commander Islands.

These maritime expeditions, unlike fur trading ventures in Siberia, require more capital than most promyshlenniki can obtain.

Merchants from cities such as Irkutsk, Tobolsk, and others in European Russia, become the principal investors.

An early trader is Emilian Basov, who trades at Bering Island in 1743, collecting a large number of sea otter, fur seal, and blue arctic fox furs.

Basov mounts four expeditions to Bering Island, which is the largest of the Commander Islands, and nearby Medny Island.

He makes a fortune, inspiring many other traders.

Northeast Asia (1780–1791 CE)

Expansion of Russian Influence and Maritime Commerce

From 1780 to 1791, Russian maritime exploration and commercial activities in Northeast Asia accelerated further, consolidating Russian presence and administrative control. Fur traders and explorers expanded their voyages throughout the Aleutian Islands, reaching further into Alaskan territories, and intensifying interactions with indigenous peoples. The resulting trade networks significantly impacted local economies, often exploiting indigenous labor and resources.

The strategic port of Okhotsk continued to serve as the main logistical hub despite its inherent disadvantages, including harsh climate conditions, limited agricultural productivity, and challenging terrain. Nevertheless, it remained critical for the supply and provisioning of distant Russian settlements and fur-trading expeditions throughout the region.

Ships typically stopped at the Commander Islands during the early decades of the maritime fur trade, largely to slaughter and preserve the meat of Steller's sea cows, whose range was limited to those islands. This large sirenian mammal had been discovered in 1741 by German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, who was traveling with Vitus Bering. The species, driven rapidly to extinction by overhunting, was completely wiped out by 1768, underscoring the ecological strain placed on local wildlife by European traders.

The continued exploitation of natural resources placed increasing ecological strain on local wildlife populations, particularly the prized sea otters, fur seals, and various fox species, further altering the ecological balance of the region.

This period also saw remarkable intercultural encounters. In 1787, the Japanese castaway Daikokuya Kōdayū and eight other survivors, stranded for five years in the Aleutian Islands, reached Kamchatka after sailing a driftwood craft for a month and a half. Initially disbelieved by Russian officials, their story eventually gained recognition through the writings of French diplomat Barthélemy de Lesseps.

Meanwhile, French explorer Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, explored the Northeast Asian coast, reaching the island of Oku-Yeso (modern-day Sakhalin Island), where the indigenous Ainu people provided crucial geographic information. Lapérouse then sailed through what became known as La Pérouse Strait (between Sakhalin and Hokkaidō), further charting the area and interacting with additional Ainu communities in the Kuril Islands. He reached Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula in September 1787, where he enjoyed Russian hospitality. Lapérouse's expedition would later dispatch Barthélemy de Lesseps on a significant overland journey across Siberia and Russia to carry expedition records back to France.

Russian officials during this period began to emphasize a more structured administrative presence, establishing fortified outposts and trading posts to reinforce control over fur-rich territories. These outposts became key nodes in Russia’s expanding Pacific trade, with furs transported inland to be exchanged primarily at the Chinese border trading town of Kyakhta, maintaining a steady flow of luxury goods and profits.

This era laid a significant foundation for the sustained Russian presence in Northeast Asia and set the stage for deeper engagement and eventual settlement efforts in subsequent decades.

Daikokuya Kōdayū, born in Wakamatsu, Ise Province (Suzuka, Mie, Japan), had been adopted by a merchant, Daikokuya in Shiroko, Ise (also in Suzuka, Mie).

As the captain of the ship, Shinsho-maru, Kōdayū sets sail for Yedo in 1782, but the ship is caught in a storm around Enshū (Western Shizuoka).

Adrift seven months, one man dies.

Just afterwards, the remaining fifteen sailors find and land on the island of Amchitka, the southernmost of the Rat Islands group at the western end of the Aleutian islands chain, where Russians and Aleut people live.

Russian trappers and traders have established settlements on the islands, exploiting the indigenous people, whose population on the island of Amchitka is quickly falling.

According to a later account by Kōdayū, the islanders receive necessities and supplies such as tobacco, ironware, horse- and ox-skins, and cotton in return for hunting otters or seals.

The furs brought by indigenous people are divided into thirds between the Russian Empire, Moscow furrier Vassily Yakovlevich Zhigarev, and Zhigarev's Russian employees.

The castaways are taken care of by Russian employees of Zhigarev and hunt with indigenous people.

A major Aleut revolt occurs on Amchitka in May 1784.

According to what Aleut people tell the Japanese castaways, otters have been decreasing year by year and their share in return for the furs is also decreasing as Russian ships stop coming to the island.

The castaways feel that the people have a sense of crisis in their situation.

There have been some negotiations with higher-ranking Aleut people about necessities that the Russians had run out of and that they had given to Aleuts in return for furs.

Two Russians, Stepano and Kazhimov, by Nevizimov's order, kill the chieftain's daughter and Nevizimov's mistress, Oniishin, because Russians had doubted Oniishin’s loyalty to them.

Hundreds of Aleuts start gathering on a mountain that evening and march to the Russians' houses.

Five Russians open fire, and the Aleuts flee, regrouping in another attempted attack the next day.

Yelling, they move more quickly towards the houses, but start to run away again as the Russians open fire.

The Russians, noticing that all the men are absent from the village and are discussing their strategy on a mountain, take hostage around forty women and children hostage.

The Aleuts surrender.

Four high-ranking Aleut people are executed by the Russians.

The Aleuts begin to move after the incident from Amchitka to neighboring islands.

The leader of the Russians, Nevizimov, is jailed after the incident is reported to Russian officials.

Kōdayū and the eight other surviving Japanese castaways, stranded in the Aleutian Islands for the past five years, have sailed their driftwood craft for one and a half months to arrive in Kamchatka, where Russian officials at first cannot believe the castaways had sailed from Amchitka in a "hand-made boat".

Kōdayū meets Barthélemy de Lesseps, a French diplomat, who will later write about the castaways in his Journal historique du voyage de M. de Lesseps, published in 1790.

Six of the fifteen Japanese castaways had died within three years of their arrival on Amchitka.

Kōdayū's people escape from the island by building a new ship of driftwood with sails made of otter fur.

A Russian captain in Kamchatka leads Kōdayū's people to Okhotsk.

The Japanese castaways, after staying temporarily in Yakutsk, are introduced by the captain to Erik Laxmann, who assists Kōdayū's and his crew in Irkutsk.

Kōdayū departs for Saint Petersburg in 1791 in the company of Laxman to ask to be returned home.