The chapter focuses on the era of commercial change that coincides with the reign of Peter the Great, not only from Peter’s interest in expanding Russia’s trade networks to the east and west but also the hostile takeover of the British Russia Company by their fellow Eastland Company merchants. The takeover was managed by the Eastland Company’s ability to exploit a British fear of the collapse of the colonial tobacco market and push for open new revenue streams, particularly ending Russia’s longstanding embargo on tobacco imports. The chapter ends with a consideration of the British men employed in Peter the Great’s government, and the ways in which their “inside” information on Russian commercial activities allowed the new Russia Company to better navigate the Russian marketplace.