THE DECENTRALISATION OF INDUSTRIES. 13 



cent. The yearly production of each worker had thus 

 grown from 45 to 117. During the next nine years 

 (1880-89) the yearly returns were more than doubled, 

 attaining the respectable figure of 49,000,000 in money 

 and 3,200,000 cwts. in bulk ; and it must be remarked 

 that, with a population of 130,000,000 inhabitants, the 

 home market for Russian cottons is almost unlimited ; 

 while some cottons are also exported to Persia and 

 Central Asia.* 



True, that the finest sorts of yarn, as well as sew- 

 ing cotton, have still to be imported. But Lancashire 

 manufacturers will soon see to that; they now plant 

 their mills in Russia. Two large mills for spinning 

 the finest sorts of cotton yarn were opened in Russia 

 last year, with the aid of English capital and English 

 engineers, and a factory for making thin wire for 

 cotton-carding has lately been opened at Moscow by 

 a well-known Manchester manufacturer. Capital is 

 international and, protection or no protection, it crosses 

 the frontiers. 



The same is true of woollens. In this branch Russia 

 is relatively backward. However, wool-combing, spin- 

 ning and weaving mills, provided with the best modern 

 plant, are built every year in Russia and Poland by 

 English, German and Belgian mill-owners; so that last 

 year four-fifths of the ordinary wool, and as much of the 

 finer sorts obtainable in Russia, were combed and spun 

 at home one fifth part only of each being sent abroad. 

 The times when Russia was known as an exporter of 

 raw wool are thus irretrievably gone.f 



* The yearly imports of raw cotton attain 4,000,000 cwts. ; out of 

 which 300,000 cwts. from Central Asia and Transcaucasia. These last 

 are a quite recent growth, the first plantations of the American cotton 

 tree having been introduced in Turkestan by the Russians, as well as the 

 first sorting and pressing establishments. The relative cheapness of the 

 plain cottons in Russia, and the good qualities of the printed cottons, have 

 attracted the attention of the British Commissioner at the Nijni Novgorod 

 Exhibition in 1897, and are spoken of at some length in his report. 



f The yearly production of the 1085 woollen mills of Russia and 

 Poland was valued at about ,12,000,000 in 1894. 



