In the end of the 15th century the Novgorodian lands came under the control of the Great Principality of Moscow. Centralization of power allowed aiming the national recourses for establishment of full control over Volga- Baltic passage and elimination of dependence on Ganza. At first in the West a fortress and port Ivangorod was founded and the businesses of European merchants were liquidated. In some time Kazan and Astrakhan were conquered in the East and soon Narva was subdued in the West. Profitable trading was controlled by the government and in 10 years the vessels with the crew of 1000 persons sailed across Volga and delivered goods to the berths of Narva, which by that time had become the main port of Eastern Baltic. Its population increased 10 times while Revel fell into complete decay.
The main commercial partners were the Dutch, the Germans and the Englishmen. It is justly considered that the English and Dutch fleets were built from Russian wood and hemp fiber. The degree of importance of Narva trading is testified by constant presence in the Gulf of Finland of the ships of the English Kingdom that took real battles with small fleets of Polish, Revel and Swedish capers.
Sweden permanently tried to master the control over this profitable trading route that occasionally resulted in devastation of small fleets in complicated conditions of the Gulf of Finland.
Probably this period in particular left for us at the bottom one of the richest and most interesting collections because at that time a great deal of wreckages coincided with tonnage increase of the vessels which carried to Moscow Principality dozens of thousands of articles reflecting the level of technological progress in Europe. Any of such ships may be considered a unique museum.
The principal area for the search of these fragments should be the Western part of the Gulf of Finland for the European vessels and Ladoga Lake for the Russians that shipped cargos to Novgorod. But the most interesting region is undoubtedly the Gulf of Narva. Here the search of monuments should be carried out by the joint Russian-Estonian project since the sunk ships lie down on both sides of the border drawn on the map between Estonia and Russia.