NOTICES REIvATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAI, II 



the production of linen, silk, laces and cotton ; the production of fur, 

 leatherv\^ork, metalwork, the production of fanc}' articles, work in horn, 

 potten,' etc. 



Present circumstances have brought certain of these industries more 

 or less into the foreground and somewhat overshadowed others, thus ad- 

 justing all of them to the present demands of the countr}-. The total value 

 of the articles annually produced by home industry is about two thousand 

 million roubles (i) and is therefore a very important element in Russian 

 political economy. 



Home industry is in Russia as ancient as agriculture, but it became 

 an object of State care onl}^ in the seventieth year of last century, when a 

 special commission for its study was established in the Council of Trade 

 and Industr5^ 



In 1888 the regulation of home industry was subjected to the supreme 

 authority of the Ministry of the State Domains ; and in 1894 to that of the 

 reorganized ]\Iinistr\' of Agriciilture, where a committee for home industry 

 was called into being as part of the lately founded Section for Agriculture 

 and Agricultural Statistics. This supreme authority is very notably sup- 

 ported by the public corporations — the zemstvos, the agricultural societies 

 and the local committees established in various places. 



The annual grants of the government to home industry have reached 

 considerable sums of late years, as appears from the following figures : 



Year Roubles 



1888 30,000 



1903 100,000 



1909 492,415 



19^0 773,547 



I9II 1,045,826 



I916 2,429,699 



For 1917 the Ministry of Agriculture is asked to give 2,459,734 rou- 

 bles. 



The raising of the standard of the technique of production by home 

 industry and its development form a constant aim : trade and industrial 

 schools are founded ; large workshops are set up ; courses of instruction 

 are given ; museums are established ; and exhibitions are held. In '1912 

 there were 120 such exhibitions. The admission to the all-Russian exhibi- 

 tions held in Petrograd in 1902 and 1913 was of particular interest. The 

 formation of co-operative societies for collective supply and marketing 

 among those engaged in home industries, the Kiistari, is also forwarded 

 by the Section for Agriculture and Agricultural Statistcs. 



In order to render possible the marketing of the products of home in- 

 dustry abroad, a representative of the section was sent with specimens of 

 these products to the United States at the end of 1915. Already orders 



(i) I rouble = about 2s. i ^Ind. at par. 



