On the basis of newly-discovered Russian and British archival sources, Kaplan makes important scholarly contributions to eighteenth-century economic history. He conclusively demonstrates that there was not only a symbiotic economic relationship between Russia and Great Britain, but also that Russia contributed greatly to Britain's industrial revolution and its imperial strategic military and political power during the second half of the eighteenth century.

Kaplan is the first to estimate the real balance of payments between the two countries in a detailed analysis of a subject treated hitherto only in an impressionistic fashion. The conceptual framework is sophisticated and the interpretations are based on an enormous array of data culled from contemporary customs and commercial archival manuscripts. Kaplan's meticulous analysis of Anglo-Russian commercial treaties as well as Russian tariffs, which were intended to undermine them, reveals policies that both countries undertook to advance their respective maritime and mercantile power.

Finally, Kaplan persuasively argues that Britain's military supremacy crucially depended on its receiving an uninterrupted supply of Russian manufactured and natural resources.