THE DECENTRALISATION OF INDUSTRIES. 15 



Moreover the above figures, including only those 

 manufactures which show a yearly return of more than 

 200, do not include the immense variety of domestic 

 trades which also have considerably grown of late, side 

 by side with the manufactures. The domestic indus- 

 tries so characteristic of Russia, and so necessary 

 under her climate occupy now more than 7,500,000 

 peasants, and their aggregate production was estimated 

 a few years ago at more than the aggregate production 

 of all the manufactures. It exceeded 180,000,000 per 

 annum. I shall have an occasion to return later on to 

 this subject, so that I shall be sober of figures, and 

 merely say that even in the chief manufacturing pro- 

 vinces of Russia round about Moscow domestic weaving 

 for the trade shows a yearly return of 4,500,000 ; 

 and that even in Northern Caucasia, where the petty 

 trades are of a recent origin, there are, in the peasants' 

 houses 45,000 looms showing a yearly production of 

 200,000. 



As to the mining industries, notwithstanding over- 

 protection, and notwithstanding the competition of fuel- 

 wood and naphtha,* the output of the coal mines of the 

 Don has doubled during the last ten years, and in Poland 

 it has increased fourfold. Nearly all steel, three-quarteis 

 of the iron, and two-thirds of the pig-iron used in 

 Russia are home produce, and the eight Russian works 

 for the manufacture of steel rails are strong enough to 

 throw on the market 6,000,000 cwts. of rails every year.f 



It is no wonder, therefore, that the imports of manu- 

 factured goods into Russia are so insignificant, and that 



in the Urals a duty of 6is. a ton of imported pig-iron is levied. The 

 consequences of this policy for Russian agriculture, railways and State's 

 budget have lately been discussed in full in a work by A. A. Radzig, The 

 Iron Industry of the World. St. Petersburg, 1896 (Russian). 



* Out of the 1246 steamers which ply on Russian rivers one-quarter 

 ire heated with naphtha, and one-half with wood wood is aJso the chiej 

 suel of the railways and ironworks in the Urals.. 



f See Appendix B. 



