1883.] Professor C. E. Turner. 359 



WEEKLY EYEXIXG MEETIXG, 



Friday, lilay 18, 188 



o 



Eight Hon. The Loed Clao) Hamilton, J.P. Manager, 



in the Chair. 



Professor C. E. Tue^teb, of the University of St. Petersburg. 



Kustarme Proiezvodstco ; or, the Peculiar System of Domestic Industry 



in the Villages of Russia. 



In the earliest stages of civilisation the family forms the social unit, 

 as in modern times the basis of our social organisation is the 

 individual. The elder type has been much longer maintained in 

 Eussia than elsewhere, and most strikingly presents itseK in what the 

 Eussians term Kustarnoe proiezwdstvo. The root of the term is to be 

 found in the word Kusf a bush, and is applied to the members of a 

 family who, when united in some common labour, form as it were an 

 organic inseparable whole and may be compared with a bush. Among 

 the Eussian peasantry there exist two kinds of families, large and small. 

 The latter are composed of a husband, wife, and unmarried children ; 

 but the former include the married sons and daughters who still 

 continue to live with their children in the house of their father. It 

 is amongst the large families that Kustarnoe industry chiefly obtains. 

 In the division of labour, as well as in sharing the profits, a principle 

 of equality, without any difference being made as to age or sex, is 

 observed. The greatest care is taken to confine to each household the 

 particular branch of trade with which it is occupied. The relations 

 existincf between the members of a familv are necessarilv closer and 

 of a less irksome character than can exist between an employer and an 

 apprentice : and in the Moscow Exhibition of 1862, we had numerous 

 examples of the healthy influence exercised by this system on the 

 industry of the country. Though very hard pressed by its unequal 

 concurrence with factory labour, it still very largely prevails in the 

 more important governments of Eussia. The number of workmen em- 

 ployed in the factories of Eussia, excluding those in Poland and 

 Finland, does not exceed 711,000, whilst many of the branches of 

 Kustarnoe industry have taken their rise within a very recent period, 

 and those of an earlier date produce twice or three times as much as 

 they did before the commencement of the present century. It must 

 for a very long time play an imj}ortant part in the economical life of 

 the people, and for this reason its development and extension should 

 be encouraged. For this purpose, the lots of peasant land, which are 

 inadequate to supply the elementary wants of life, should be enlarged ; 

 elementary technical schools should be opened in those districts 

 where Kustarnoe industry is greatly practised ; greater encouragement 

 should be given to the foimation of co-operative associations, or 

 artels, among the peasant classes ; and credit-banks might also with 

 advantage be opened by the government, and the peasant be thus 

 enabled to secure small loans on fair and equitable conditions. 



[C. E. T.] 



