724 



RUSSIA. 



Finances. The financial account for 1887 

 makes the total ordinary receipts 829,661.000 

 rubles, and the extraordinary receipts 144,- 

 543,000 rubles. Of the ordinary receipts 41,- 

 102,000 rubles were derived from the land 

 and forest taxes, 28,862,000 rubles from pat- 

 ents, 11,677,000 rubles from the income-tax, 

 257,624,000 rubles from the tax on drink, 24,- 

 093,000 rubles from the tobacco-tax, 23,162,- 

 000 rubles from the sugar-duty, 107,425,000 

 rubles from customs duties, 18,242,000 rubles 

 from stamps, 10,282,000 rubles from registra- 

 tion fees, 24,417,000 rubles from various indi- 

 rect imposts, 29,397,000 rubles from the post- 

 office, telegraphs, and royalties, 51,298.000 

 rubles from railroads, forests, and mines, 88,- 

 957,000 rubles from payments for land redemp- 

 tion, and 108,727,000 rubles from other sources. 

 The total expenditures for ordinary purposes 

 in 1887 amounted to 835,850,000 rubles, and 

 the extraordinary expenditures to 95,093,000 

 rubles. Of the ordinary expenditures, 280,- 

 908,000 rubles were for the public debt, 210,- 

 953,000 rubles for military purposes, 109,067,- 

 000 rubles for financial administration, 40,359,- 

 000 rubles for the navy, 72,576,000 rubles for 

 the Interier Department, 25,834,000 rubles for 

 highways, 20,684,000 rubles for public instruc- 

 tion, 20,443,000 rubles for the judiciary, 22, 

 350,000 rubles for domains, 10,999,000 rubles 

 for the Holy Synod, and 10,560,000 rubles for 

 the court. 



The gold value of the paper ruble in the 

 spring of 1888 fell to 45 per cent, below par, a 

 lower point than it had yet reached. Only 

 20 per cent, of the depreciation is due to infla- 

 tion, the remaining 25 per cent, being ac- 

 counted for by the fall in silver. The ex- 

 change market for the ruble is in Berlin, 

 where Russian currency has become an object 

 of speculative manipulation, which interferes 

 seriously with the foreign trade of Russia, and 

 has lately caused distrust of the paper ruble in 

 Russia, although it has hitherto passed freely 

 from hand to hand amid all fluctuations. The 

 exchange rates are raised or lowered on the 

 Berlin Bourse by corners and false rumors in 

 connection with enormous speculative dealings 

 in the Russian internal loans. The metallic 

 ruble in March was worth 1*80 paper ruble, 

 against 1'67 in 1887, and 1'50 in 1886. The 

 Government in 1881, and again in 1887, de- 

 creed the redemption of all paper currency not 

 guaranteed by a metallic reserve, and has re- 

 peatedly declared its intention to recall and 

 destroy the 266,000,000 rubles of paper money 

 that were issued during the Turkish war. In 

 February, 1888, the new Minister of Finance 

 presented a project for establishing a metallic 

 standard. On July 20 the minister was em- 

 powered by an imperial ukase to issue 15,000,- 

 000 rubles of additional paper currency against 

 deposits of gold, merely as a temporary meas- 

 ure to facilitate the large export movement of 

 grain. Another issue of credit-notes of the 

 same amount was decreed in October. 



The internal debt, payable in paper rubles, 

 amounted on Jan. 1, 1888, to 3,104,899,764 

 rubles. In addition, the Government owed at 

 that date 391,505,969 metallic rubles, 66,068,- 

 000 Dutch florins, 122,271.720, and 552,081,- 

 000 francs. There were in circulation 780,032,- 

 238 rubles of paper money, of which 211,472,- 

 495 rubles were protected by a reserve. A new 

 loan contracted in 1887 yielded 81,068,000 ru- 

 bles, of which 45,093,000 rubles were applied 

 to the construction of railroads and harbors. 

 A 4-per-cent gold loan of 500,000,000 francs 

 for the conversion of old 5-per-cent. debts was 

 offered in Paris on December 10, and found 

 subscribers for six times the required sum. 



The Army. The peace strength of the Rus- 

 sian army in the beginning of 1887 was 659,274 

 men. The war effective of the regular army 

 is about 1,689,000 combatants, including 36,600 

 officers, with 3,776 guns and 204,390 horses. 

 The Cossack troops, a great part of which have 

 been incorporated in the regular army, have 

 a peace strength of 47,150 men, and a war 

 strength of 140,033 men, inclusive of 3,644 offi- 

 cers. The irregular forces, comprising Tartars, 

 Georgians, and Turkomans, number 5,769 men, 

 of whom 1,420 are infantry and 4,349 cavalry. 

 The opoltcheme or militia, which is about equal 

 in numbers to the rest of the armed forces, 

 brings up the total military strength of the 

 empire to nearly 4,000,000 men. 



In accordance with an imperial ukase pub- 

 lished on July 13, the recruit of the army for 

 1888 was 250,000 men, an increase of 15.000 

 over the previous year. A second law fixes 

 the duration of military service at eighteen 

 years, of which five are spent in the active 

 army, and the remainder in the two classes of 

 the Landwehr, the second of which can only 

 be called into active service by a proclamation 

 of the Czar. Although the legal period of serv- 

 ice in the active army is shortened by a year, 

 the actual term of service with the colors will 

 probably be a year longer than under the old 

 law, when the men were furloughed on the 

 average two years out of the six. The entire 

 period of military service is made three years 

 longer, increasing the strength of the regular 

 army on the war footing by 750,000 men nomi- 

 nally, and in reality by not less than 400,000. 



In the latter part of 1887 the movement of 

 Russian troops toward the western frontiers 

 and unprecedented activity in building bar- 

 racks, fortifications, and military railroads cre- 

 ated alarm in Austria and Germany, and neces- 

 sitated the strengthening of the frontier gar- 

 risons in Prussia and Galioia. The Russian 

 Government explained the dislocation of troops 

 as the execution of a plan that had been in ex- 

 istence for a long time, and while Prince Bis- 

 marck accepted this assurance with equanimity, 

 M. Tisza declared in the Hungarian Chamber 

 in January, 1888, that measures would betaken 

 by the Austro-Hungarian Government for con- 

 tingencies that might imperil the sec-urity of 

 the frontiers. The Russian forces on the west- 



