What does it mean ".. economy began to look eastwards"

Question

The growth of St Petersburg also had far-reaching consequences for the economic development of Finland. The political division into a western Swedish and an eastern Russian Finland did not have its equivalent in respect of trade. It was not only the economy of the Vyborg guberniya which slowly but surely began to look eastwards towards the city on the Neva. The greater the demand from the St Petersburg market became, the greater the city’s pull on the south coast of Finland still belonging to Sweden.

(bolds by me)

A history of Finland by Henrik Meinander

My version is: The economy of Vyborg began to be dependent on the economy of the city on the Neva (St. Petersburgh).

Is this correct?

Answer 1

There's a couple phrases here used metaphorically.

"East" here, means Russia --Neva in particular-- because Russia is east of Finland, contrasted with Sweden, which is west.

"To look [in some direction]" means to consider doing changing things in the way of that direction.

Like, if I'm doing business with Amazon, but I'm not happy with how things are going, I might say, "I'm looking towards Google." It has nothing to do with relative power, so the USA could "look towards Burkina Faso" as an economic opportunity.

So here, "the economy...began to look eastwards" means "the economy began to consider doing more business with Neva, rather than with Sweden". It doesn't necessarily mean they did, and certainly doesn't imply they became dependent.

To be clear, there is no standard English expression, "to look eastwards", if that's part of your uncertainty.

Answer 2

No. Your interpretation is not correct. What is meant is

The economies of both Russian-ruled Finland and of the southern part of Swedish-ruled Finland became increasingly tied to St. Petersburg as that city grew.

The distinction being made is that the increasing economic importance of Russia in Finnish life was broader geographically than Russia’s political rule in Finland.