RUSSIAN FINANCE 495 



look upon the optimists as living in a fool's paradise, and 

 think that a revolution which will sweep away every 

 vestige of rank and wealth may happen any day. I 

 cannot think that any such movement is possible in any 

 part of Russia with which I am acquainted, but the 

 condition of the people in South Russia may be quite 

 different, and a blaze once lighted, the fire would 

 probably sweep across the whole country and carry 

 everything before it. 



The financial condition of Russia is most unsatis- 

 factory. The Crimean War, by increasing the indebted- 

 ness of the nation to foreign countries, brought down the 

 value of the paper rouble from 38^. to about 32^. The 

 Turkish War, from similar causes, still further reduced 

 it to i^d. The philosophy of the exchange is easy of 

 explanation. Russia has to export every year, in gold, 

 an amount said to be fifteen millions sterling, to pay 

 the interest of the national and private debts held out of 

 the country. After exhausting the produce of her gold 

 mines, roughly estimated at seven millions sterling, the 

 balance must be the excess of exports over imports. If 

 this be not enough, the price of bills on Russia (payable 

 in paper roubles) m.ust fall until they are low enough to 

 tempt merchants to buy them for the sake of purchasing 

 with them Russian produce, which they can sell in 

 Europe at a profit, and thus make up the exports to the 

 required amount. 



Under these unfavourable circumstances Russia is 

 obliged to discourage imports as much as possible, and 

 cannot adopt free trade. The finances of the country 

 are in a diseased state, and cannot digest the wholesome 

 food of free trade, but must resort to protection as a 

 medicine. Some plausible physicians suggest a different 

 remedy. They assert that Russia should honestly admit 



