Russian trade caravans of the 18th century, also called Chinese caravans, expeditions, went to Beijing from Moscow and brought furs, cloth, iron, books, letters. They returned back with silk, tea, tobacco, medicines, objects of Chinese art, scientific materials. Based on archival sources, published documents, analysis of monographs and articles of the 18th-21st centuries. the influence of Russian-Chinese caravan trade on the exchange of correspondence between St. Petersburg scientists and Beijing Jesuits, on the collection of museum collections for the Kunstkamera, delivery from Qing China to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences of ethnography, geography, language, history, culture of the peoples of the Far East, on development domestic science of the XVIII century.