672 



RUSSIA. 



Russian Government during the Crimean War, 

 when it was unable to transport the mili- 

 tary forces of the empire to the seat of war, 

 for want of railway communication, has not 

 failed to impress the present Emperor with 

 the paramount importance of such means of 

 transportation, in time of peace as well as in 

 time of war. "When he ascended the throne, 

 in 1855, Russia possessed a length of only 

 2,145 versts or 1,437 miles of railroad, the 

 chief lines being the short road from St. Peters- 

 burg to the imperial residence, Tsarskoe-Selo, 

 opened in 1838; the road between Warsaw 

 and Gramca, opened in 1848 ; and the Nicolai 

 road between St. Petersburg and Moscow. 

 Since then, considerable activity has been dis- 

 played, and a plan for an extensive net-work 

 of railroads has been prepared by imperial 

 command. A recent decree of the Czar orders 

 that " every year 500 versts of strategical 

 roads shall be built." The railroad connection 

 between St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Odessa, 

 has been recently completed by two different 

 routes, while an important military road is 

 soon to connect Moscow and Sevastopol. The 

 northern seaports and fortifications have also 

 been connected by railroads with the inland 

 provinces. 



The budget of the postal administration, for 

 1868, reports the total revenue at 7,958,214 

 rubles; expenditure, 4, 239, 894 rubles; showing 

 a surplus of revenue of 3,718,320 rubles. Num- 

 ber of post-offices, 2,451. On January 1, 1869, 

 the telegraph-lines in operation had an aggre- 

 gate length of 25,158 miles; length of wire, 

 48,977 miles. 



The revenue derived from the distillation of 

 spirituous liquors, which may be considered 

 one of the surest indications of the quantity 

 consumed, has greatly increased during the 

 last few years. In 1749, the total revenue 

 from that source amounted to $1,072,173 ; in 

 1849 it had increased to $23,149,766, while in 

 the budget of 1866 it figures with the enormous 

 sum of $69,600,000. This increase of con- 

 sumption is entirely disproportionate to the 

 slow increase of the population. The revenue 

 derived from distillation comprised 46 per cent., 

 or nearly one-half of the entire income of the 

 state; while in Austria, in 1869, it barely 

 reached 10 per cent., and in Prussia somewhat 

 less than 6 per cent, of the aggregate revenue. 

 As the above figures refer to Russia in Eu- 

 rope only, it will be seen that the taxes 

 on alcoholic liquors amount to 1 T W for each 

 inhabitant, women and children included. The 

 consumption of brandy is much larger in the 

 cities than among the rural population. The 

 consumption in St. Petersburg, in 1869, was 

 26 gallons for each inhabitant ; in Moscow, 15 

 gallons ; and in Orenburg, the inhabitants of 

 which city are considered the soberest people 

 in the whole Russian Empire, 4 gallons. The 

 number of liquor-stores, where brandy is sold 

 by the glass, is enormous, 1 to every 293 in- 

 habitants, not counting the beer and wine sa- 



loons, where brandy is also sold at retail. The 

 consequences of this immoderate use of alco- 

 holic liquors are seen in various forms of dis- 

 ease, but above all in the dreadful increase of 

 delirium tremens. The Government was well 

 aware of the injurious influence exercised by 

 this steady increase of intemperance, and vari- 

 ous measures were proposed for the abatement 

 of the evil ; but the only one which found favor 

 with the Minister of Finance was the increase 

 of the license-fee for retail liquor-stores by 50 

 per cent. 



M. Skalkowski, of St. Petersburg, published 

 a highly-interesting statistical pamphlet on 

 the mining industry of Russia, and on the 

 production of the mines, in 1868. He states 

 that the aggregate quantity of gold obtained 

 from the Russian mines was 68,440 pounds; 

 of raw platina, 4,880 pounds ; of argentifer- 

 ous ore, 114,297,440 pounds; of copper-ore, 

 321,886,120 pounds; of iron-ore, 1,615,600,000 

 pounds; of rock-salt, 1,101,286,000 pounds; of 

 naphtha, 70,159,360 pounds; of salt, 1,473,- 

 707,840 pounds. The iron-ore produced 72,- 

 501,760 pounds of cast-iron and manufactured 

 articles of cast-iron; 420,554,400 pounds of 

 iron bars and rails ; 125,480,000 pounds of flat 

 iron bars; and 18,443,400 pounds of various 

 iron manufactured articles. The total value 

 of the products of the mines, during the year, 

 was estimated at $39,000,000; exclusive of 

 the value of zinc and other ores of which no 

 reliable information could be obtained. M. 

 Skalkowski states that the production of gold 

 is increasing from year to year, while silver 

 becomes more scarce, as the principal mines 

 in the Altai Mountains have been exhausted. 

 The copper-mines are worked with great energy 

 in the Caucasus and in the Kirgheez mountains, 

 while those in the Ural are comparatively neg- 

 lected in consequence of foreign competition. 

 The production of iron and cast-iron was sta- 

 tionary, while zinc was obtained in greater 

 abundance in Poland. 



During the year 1869 the port of St. Peters- 

 burg was open to navigation from April 18th 

 to December 12th 2,912 vessels entered, and 

 2,815 cleared. The arrivals were under the 

 following flags: British, 1,206; North German, 

 539; Dutch, 379; Norwegian, 186; Danish, 

 183; Russian, 181; Swedish, 141; French, 69; 

 Belgian, 10; Italian, 9; American, 8; Austrian, 

 1. There were 872 arrivals of steamers, 339 

 of which were from England. The value of 

 imports, according to official report, amounted 

 to 116,444,587 rubles, an increase over 1868 of 

 21,615,371 rubles. The principal articles of 

 import and their relative values were : Cotton, 

 20,540,144 rubles; iron, 14,423,288 rubles; 

 dye-stuffs, 4,316,834; olive-oil, 3,708,405; 

 indigo, 3,215,827; coffee, 2,737,042; wine in 

 barrels, 2,202,202 rubles; wool, 2,162,539; 

 tea, 1,963,137; cast-iron, 1,908,512; tobacco, 

 1,859,512; woollen manufactures, 1,534,657; 

 kerosene-oil, 1,182,883 rubles. The value of 

 the articles of export amounted to 47,327,711 



