726 



KUSSIA. 



nistic mil' system, have reduced the whole class 

 to poverty and debt. The nobility, owing to 

 their lavish way of living and their ignorance 

 of practical affairs, are in still worse case. Rus- 

 sians say that there is hardly an estate outside 

 of the " black-earth " region that is not mort- 

 gaged for its full value. More blighting even 

 than the vices of the people is the corruption 

 of the officials, who embezzle the funds that are 

 raised for public improvements and draw black- 

 mail from every private enterprise. The grain- 

 crop in 1886 was poor, and in 1887, though the 

 harvest was abundant, prices were very low. 

 Protective duties in Germany and other coun- 

 tries have seriously injured the export trade in 

 Russian cereals. In 1888 the reported yield of 

 autumn wheat, excluding Poland, was 11,445,- 

 000 quarters, being 39 per cent, above the av- 

 erage ; of spring wheat, 18,480,000 quarters, or 

 3 per cent, better than the average; of rye, 85,- 

 400,000 quarters, 9 per cent, more than a nor- 

 mal crop; of oats, 63,160,000 quarters, exceed- 

 ing the average by 4 per cent. ; of barley, 1 6,- 

 284,000 quarters, which was 6 per cent, above 

 the average. Count Tolstoi in 1888 proposed 

 a bill prohibiting peasant proprietors from sell- 

 ing their land. The peasants have in recent 

 years purchased largely of the nobles, whose 

 land was unremunerative in their own hands. 

 The transfers have been facilitated by the Peas- 

 ants 1 Credit Bank, established under Govern- 

 ment patronage, which during 1887 made 5,000 

 loans, 4,300 of them to mirs or rural associa- 

 tions containing in all 590,000 members. The 

 sum of the loans was 50,000,000 rubles, with 

 which 3,400,000 acres were bought. More re- 

 cently the Government has founded a Nobles' 

 Bank to prevent the lands of the hereditary 

 proprietors from passing into the hands of com- 

 mercial men and usurers. The question of 

 constructing grain -elevators was considered in 

 1888 by a special commission, which recom- 

 mended building with Government means ele- 

 vators at the export ports and on the lines of 

 railroad with capacity for 600,000,000 kilo- 

 grammes, the amortization of the required 

 capital of 20,000,000 rubles being provided for 

 by an export tax of half a copeck per pood, 

 yielding 1,500,000 rubles on a minimum export 

 of 300,000,000 poods. This improvement will 

 tend to place it out of the power of traders to 

 control and dictate prices as they do, paying 

 sometimes only half as much for one farmer's 

 grain as for that of his astuter neighbor. 



Navigation. There were 5,373 vessels entered 

 and 5,329 cleared at the ports of the Baltic dur- 

 ing 1886 ; 647 entered and 025 cleared at Arch- 

 angel, on the White Sea ; 4,483 entered and 

 4,481 cleared in the ports of the Black Sea and 

 the Sea of Azov ; and 1.087 entered and 1,005 

 cleared at the ports of the Caspian Sea. Of 

 the 11,590 vessels entered at all ports, 7,204 

 were steamers; and of 11,440 cleared, 7,122 were 

 steamers. Of the total number, 2,485 were 

 Russian vessels, 2,828 English, 1,439 German, 

 1,397 Swedish and Norwegian, 757 Greek, 637 



Turkish, 776 Danish, 639 Austrian, and 185 

 Dutch. The number of coasting- vessels en- 

 tered was 37,656, of which 14,708 were steam- 

 ers. The merchant navy in 1886 numbered 

 2,157 sailing-vessels of 469,098 tons, and 218 

 steamers of 108,295 tons. The Russian marine 

 in the Caspian is rapidly increasing, 10 new 

 iron steamboats having been finished in 1888, 

 making a total of 70 steamers, besides many 

 sailing-vessels. The Government has granted 

 an annual subsidy of 111,000 rubles to a new 

 line of steamers between the Russian Pacific 

 ports and the ports of Corea, Japan, and China, 

 which in time of war will be at the disposal of 

 the Government. 



Railroads. The railroad network completed 

 at the beginning of 1888 had a total length of 

 26,964 kilometres, or 16,745 miles, exclusive 

 of the railroads of Finland and the Transcaspian 

 line of 660 miles. The amount invested in rail- 

 roads at the end of 1885 was 2,800,000,000 ru- 

 bles, and the net revenue they produced was 

 87,400,000 rubles. The Transcaspian Railroad 

 to Samarcand was opened with public ceremo- 

 nies on May 27, the anniversary of the Czar's 

 coronation. When Gen. Skobeleff took com- 

 mand of the Transcaspian territory in 1880 it 

 was with the condition that Kysil Arvat should 

 be connected with the Caspian Sea by a nar- 

 row-gauge railroad. After the conquest of 

 Merv the railroad, on which camels were used 

 instead of locomotives, was extended to the 

 Akhal-Tekke oasis. Gradually the plan ex- 

 panded, and the tramway was converted into a 

 broad-gauge steam-railway, and carried across 

 the newly acquired Turkoman districts into 

 the Turanian khanates on the other side of the 

 Oxus. The ukase authorizing this railroad was 

 issued on May 20, 1885, and within three years 

 the line was built to Samarcand which is des- 

 tined to play an important part in the commer- 

 cial development of Central Asia, as well as in 

 furthering the political and strategical plans of 

 Russia by enabling the Government to store 

 reserves and supplies at Merv, Sarakhs, Penj- 

 deh, Chardjui, and Kerki, and in a short space 

 of time to concentrate an army of 100,000 men 

 on the Asiatic frontier. The railroad is ex- 

 pected to give Russian manufacturers a great 

 advantage over their English and French com- 

 petitors in the markets of Central Asia, and to 

 lead to a large development of the material 

 resources of the Russian dominions in that 

 part of the world, especially of the cotton-cult- 

 ure in Turkistan, Ferghana, and Samarcand. 

 The cost of the line, which has a total length 

 of about 1,000 miles, was $43,000,000 rubles. 

 The embankments and stations are nearly all, 

 however, of a temporary character, and must 

 be replaced by permanent works at a cost of 

 many more millions. The Transcsispian line 

 connects all the trade-routes converging in the 

 Black Sea with Central Asia, and will be joined 

 with the Indian system if English fears will 

 allow. A new railroad from the Vladikavkas 

 line through the Kuban valley to Novoroskoi, 



