124 I^OTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



the position and the activity of the grain elevators of the govern- 

 ment and the railway companies. 



Sources : 



i) A. XtopoiueHKO : " .'3aeBaTopHoe zitao bt, Pocciii bt. 1915 rojy ,. (A. Doros- 

 chenko : " The Work of the Elevators in Russia in 1915 ") in B'hcTHiiKb OiinaHCOBt, 

 IIpoMMiiiJieHHOCTH H ToprOBJiii (Messenger of Finances,. Industry and Commerce) 

 Nos. 31, 32 — 31 July, 13 August and 7/20 August 1916. 



2) ToprOBO-IIpoMbiinJieHHaH Fasexa (Gazette of Commerce and Industry) Nos. 201, 

 203 — 17,27 and 17/30 August 1916. 



If the two great agrarian reforms, that of 1S61 and that of 1905, had 

 effect, apart from their social and poUtical influences, on factors which bore 

 on agricultural production, the establishment of grain elevators was destined 

 to be among the most important influences which enhanced the commer- 

 cial value and the profitableness of the harvest jdelds when once they had 

 been obtained. Production and markets had to be brought nearer togeth- 

 er, the middlemen eliminated if possible, and grain of better quality' and 

 in a purer state more evenly brought into trade. These ideals were con- 

 ceived in Russia as early as the fortieth year of last centur>' (i), but it was 

 only in its eightieth 3'ear, after the advent of overseas competition, that 

 the idea of covering the Russian State with a system of elevators really 

 gained ground. 



Railway companies and private persons then undertook the erection of 

 grain elevators. The first of them date from 1891 and were four in num- 

 ber, situated in Rjashsk (Government of Rjasan) and Koslov (Government 

 of Tambov) , the warehousing capacity in both these places being of 300, 000 

 ptids (2), and in Dankov and I,ebedjan (Government of Tambov), in both 

 of which the warehousing capacitj' was of 200,000 puds. In 1897 seven 

 elevators were at work and in 1902 twenty-seven. Before March 1897, 

 the date at which the erection of elevators by the means of the State Bank 

 begaU; sixty-one elevators of the railway companies and of private individ- 

 uals existed and their total warehousing capacity was of 23,524,000 puds. 

 In addition there was an elevator of the zemstvo administration of Jeletz 

 (Government of Orel) which could store 672,000 puds of grain. 



The largest of these elevators, eight in ntimber, were erected in the 

 harbours, namely : 



(i) See " Loans granted by the State Bank on Security of Grain and the Establishment 

 of Grain Elevators in Russia, " Monthly Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelligence, March 

 1914, page 85. 



(2) I pud = 40 lbs. 



