The fort of Nertchinsk dates from 1654, and the town was founded in 1658 by Pashkoff, who in that year opened direct communication between the Russian settlements in Transbaikalia and those on the Amur which had been founded by Cossacks and fur-traders coming from the Yakutsk region. The mutual help thus given proved, however, insufficient, and two years after the fall of Albazin—the chief Russian fort on the Amur—the Russian envoy Golovin, meeting at Nertchinsk the Chinese envoys, who were supported by a strong military force encamped on the banks of the Shilka, signed in 1689 the well-known “treaty of Nertchinsk,” which stopped for two centuries the further advance of Russians into the basin of the Amur. Nertchinsk, which in the following year received municipal institutions and was more strongly fortified, soon became the chief centre for the trade with China. The opening of the western route through Mongolia, by Urga, and the establishment of a custom-house at Kiachta in 1728, diverted this trade into a new channel; so that towards the end of the 18th century Nertchinsk lost its commercial importance; but it acquired a new consequence from the influx of immigrants, mostly exiles, into eastern Transbaikalia, the discovery of rich mines, and the arrival of great numbers of convicts. It ultimately became the chief town of Transbaikalia, andin 1812 was transferred from the banks of the Shilka to its present site, on account of the floods. After the foundation, in 1851, of Tchita, the present capital of Transbaikalia, it was reduced to the rank of a district town, and is now rapidly falling into decay.

NERTCHINSK (in full Nertchinskiy Zavod), a town and silver-mine situated in the government of Transbaikalia, 185 miles E.S.E. of the Nertchinsk noticed above (with which it is very often confounded), on the Algacha river, a few miles above its junction with the Argun. It lies in a narrow valley between barren mountains, and consists of town, silver-mine, and village, with an aggregate of 5000 inhabitants. It is much better built than any of the district towns of eastern Siberia, and its shops carry on an active trade. It has a chemical laboratory supported by the crown for mining purposes, and a first-class meteorological observatory (51° 18' N. lat., 119° 37' E. long., 2450 feet above the sea-level), where meteorological and magnetical observations have been made every hour since 1842. The average yearly temperature, calculated from twenty-six years’ observations, is 24 o, 8 F. Nertchinskiy Zavod is the chief town and administrative centre of the Nertchinsk Mining District, an area of more than 2700 square miles, extending for nearly 270 miles from north to south, and comprising all the silver-mines and gold-fields situated between the Shilka and the Argun, together with a few on the left bank of the Shilka. It is traversed by several parallel chains of mountains which run from south-west to north-east, having their base on the eastern Transbaikalian plateau, while their summits rise to about 4500 feet. These are intersected by a complicated system of deep, narrow valleys, densely wooded, with a few expansions along the larger rivers, where the inhabitants with difficulty raise some rye and wheat. The mountains, so far as they have been geologically explored, consist of crystalline slates and limestones—probably Upper Silurian and Devonian—interspersed with granite, syenite, and diorite; they contain rich ores of silver, lead, tin, and iron, while the diluvial and alluvial valley formations contain rich auriferous sands. Several of the villages that have sprung up around the silver-mines are more populous than the district towns of eastern Siberia.

The Nertchinsk silver mines began to be wrought in 1704, but during the first half of the 18th century their yearly production did not exceed 700 lb. From 1765 to 1777 the annual average was 64 cwts.; and the total amount for the first hundred and fifty years (1704-1854) amounted to 8600 cwts. The lead was mostly neglected on account of the difficulties of transport, but its production is at present on the increase, and recently reached about 2000 cwts. Gold was first discovered in 1830, and between 1850 and 1854 no less than 131 cwts. of gold dust were obtained, but this fell to 24‘3 cwts. in 1860. In 1864, private gold mining having been permitted in the western parts of the district, a large number of auriferous beds were discovered, and the production greatly increased. Until 1863 all the labour in the silver and gold mines of the district was performed by serfs, who were the property of the emperor, and by convicts, numbering usually nearly four thousand. The serfdom was partially abolished in 1851, and finally in 1863, when a great number of mines were abandoned by the crown.