Shanxi merchants
Initially, the imperial Russian state maintained a complete monopoly on the lucrative trade with China, furthermore the government of the Qing dynasty required a prior preclearance of all exported goods in its capital city of Beijing, this policy initially meant that trade between the two countries was minimal. But in the year 1755, the government of the Qing dynasty dispensed with preclearance. Trade saw another boom when Catherine the Great had opened up the city of Kyakhta to private Russian merchants in the year 1762. By the mid-1800s Shanxi merchants were selling long Boyar caravans full of exported goods that headed to St. Petersburg for resale to the rest of Europe and the Americas. The Shanxi merchants were the dominant Chinese merchants operating in Kyakhta and the rest of Russia along the Tea Road. Both the Russians and the Shanxi merchants benefitted greatly from this trade until the Qing was forced to open up several of its port cities following its defeat in the Opium Wars.