Kinda made a similar post earlier, but I learned a bit and want to revisit
In the 1550s, with the ultimate goal of sailing around Siberia to get to China, the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands reached the harbor of Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery on the Northern Dvina river, near present-day Arkhangelsk. With the northeast passage proving to be a bust, the Moscuvy company was formed. Ivan IV commissioned the Stroganov family to settle Siberia and develop the lucrative Russian fur trade that would ultimately take them to Alaska.
Meanwhile, England was increasingly dependent on Baltic and Nordic countries for lumber. This lead to a trade deficit, which had to be made up in bullion, and this trade was vulnerable to foreign blockades, which eventually did happen during the War of Spanish Succession. These concerns combined with the push towards transportation as an alternative sentence to criminals made North American colonies a more attractive alternative.
Now suppose that, perhaps through bad luck, Native resistance, or Spanish aggression, none of the British North American colonies took off. Britain would be facing a bit of a crisis. Do you think the Muscovy company could have become a colonizing force, like East India Company, chartering land from or fighting against Russia to go into Siberia, sending criminals in and extracting furs and lumber? What would a British run Siberia and Northern Russia look like?
In the 1550s, with the ultimate goal of sailing around Siberia to get to China, the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands reached the harbor of Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery on the Northern Dvina river, near present-day Arkhangelsk. With the northeast passage proving to be a bust, the Moscuvy company was formed. Ivan IV commissioned the Stroganov family to settle Siberia and develop the lucrative Russian fur trade that would ultimately take them to Alaska.
Meanwhile, England was increasingly dependent on Baltic and Nordic countries for lumber. This lead to a trade deficit, which had to be made up in bullion, and this trade was vulnerable to foreign blockades, which eventually did happen during the War of Spanish Succession. These concerns combined with the push towards transportation as an alternative sentence to criminals made North American colonies a more attractive alternative.
Now suppose that, perhaps through bad luck, Native resistance, or Spanish aggression, none of the British North American colonies took off. Britain would be facing a bit of a crisis. Do you think the Muscovy company could have become a colonizing force, like East India Company, chartering land from or fighting against Russia to go into Siberia, sending criminals in and extracting furs and lumber? What would a British run Siberia and Northern Russia look like?