Down the Volga. 183 



congregated during the six weeks of the annual fair. Yet we leave with the 

 fixed impression that from the stand-point of an advanced system of political 

 economy the whole thing is 500 years behind our times. 



By the inexorable law of custom the merchant of Astrachan, 1,400 miles 

 down the river, is forced to follow the products and manufactures which pass 

 his door from Persia, Arabia and the Caspian provinces to the far-distant 

 point prescribed for their exhibit and sale by imperious and long-established 

 custom. In like manner the dealers of Perm, and the many cities on the 

 main lines of commercial travel, must follow the wares that pass their doors 

 en route to the great fair. The long and expensive journeys, and still more 

 expensive transport of the goods of buyer and seller, added to the long sys- 

 tem of credits between parties hundreds of miles apart, are only a small part 

 of the evils connected with the old custom. Yet, without a complete revo- 

 lution in system of commerce, for which the people will not be prepared in 

 our century, the fair must continue to exist, and even grow, in all its propor- 

 tions. As incredible as it may seem, it is the hoard of trade of a vast 

 region, and absolutely the ruling price of each year of tea from China, raw 

 cotton from West Asia, wool of East and West Europe, the ores and worked 

 metals of the Ural, and, indeed, all the main products known to the eastern 

 trade, is fixed each year at the Nizhni fair. 



The estimated number of buyers and sellers on the grounds at the time 

 of our visit in 1882 was over a quarter of a million, and the number of 

 nations and tribal divisions represented exceeded one hundred. 



When we came to talk of the steamer excursion down the river we were 

 advised to see the agents of the different companies with a view to securing 

 the best arrangements for stopping at points indicated, the best steamer 

 accommodations, and the lowest possible rates. But we were hardly pre- 

 pared for the active competition of the many companies. We soon grew 

 tired of the long stories, often told in fairly good English, of the unrivaled 

 one hundred and twenty steamers of the Mercury Company, the eighty-five 

 still finer boats of the Volga Company, the seventy incomparable steamers 

 of the Samolet Company, etc. We soon found that fully six hundred steamers 

 are regularly run for passengers and trade on the Volga and its tributaries to 

 varied points on the Caspian. If nothing is said about prices, the tourist 

 will pay the Russian price imposed for the uninitiated in every part of the 

 empire, except on the railways, where the fare is fixed by the government ; 

 but a Yankee system of bartering will secure the best cabin passage to 

 Kazan, 250 miles, for eight paper roubles, equaling about four of our dollars. 



In size, finish and shape of bottom, the passenger boats of the Volga do 

 not differ materially from the best boats of the Mississippi and Missouri, 

 and, indeed, some of them were built by workmen from Pittsburgh and other 

 points in America. It seems strange in this far-off land to find the best 

 steamers with such names as Amazon, Missouri, Ohio and Montana. 



From Nizhni to Kazan the outlook from the upper deck is much like 

 that of the Missouri from St. Joseph to Sioux City, but the breadth of stream 



