792 



SAMOAN (OR NAVIGATOR) ISLANDS. 



increased from 9,000,000 quarters per annum 

 in 1860-'64 to 10,000,000 quarters in 1865-'69, 

 21,000,000 quarters in 1870-'74, and 33,000,000 

 quarters in 1875-79. In 1880-'85 the average 

 was the same. The crops, though fluctuating 

 from year to year between 156,250,000 and 

 231,750,000 quarters, have not increased on 

 the average. The larger exports have left a 

 smaller quantity for home consumption, not- 

 withstanding the increase in the population. 

 Although many capitalists have grown rich 

 out of the export trade, the average quantity 

 of cereal food consumed by the people is one 

 seventh less per head of the population than 

 it was before emancipation. Wheat-bread is 

 never eaten now by the peasantry. A large 

 part of the rye and oat crop is also exported. 

 The exports of cattle have increased thirteen- 

 fold since 1864, and the number of cattle in 

 the country has greatly diminished. After 

 emancipation the peasants received on the 

 average three or four dessiatines of land, or 

 from eight to ten acres, which was less than 

 their allotments as serfs, and insufficient to 

 supply them with food. With the increase in 

 taxation, they were obliged to pay in taxes as 

 much, and in some provinces double or treble 

 as much, as the product of their land would 

 bring. One half or two thirds of their time 

 they work on the land of the nobles or the 

 large farmers. From one third to one half of 

 their whola income is required for taxes. In 

 years of exceptionally good harvests the peas- 

 ants have more to do on their own land, and 

 the larger cultivators must pay such high 

 wages to harvesters that crops of less than 

 fourteen to one are not reaped in the prov- 

 inces of the middle Volga, though that is 

 double the average yield of grain in that dis- 

 trict. The normal yield throughout Russia is 

 only four bushels of grain to one of seed. In 

 poor years the peasantry travel long distances 

 for work, and wages go down to starvation 

 rates. An ever-increasing proportion of the 

 Russian peasantry are sinking into a state of 

 bondage, from which they can not extricate 

 themselves except occasionally with the help 

 of relatives. The work performed under such 

 conditions is never of the same quality as free 

 labor, but the latter costs several times as 

 much. The employers make up for poor crops 

 by extending the area of cultivation. The men 

 that acquire wealth the most rapidly are the 

 peasant capitalists, who gradually get posses- 

 sion of the village lands, and hold their poorer 

 neighbors in bondage. About one third of the 



population of Russia proper, or 20,000,000 per- 

 sons, equal to the number of serfs existing be- 

 fore emancipation, have sunk into the condi- 

 tion of agricultural proletarians. Agriculture 

 has gone backward, and the condition of the 

 peasantry is much worse than before the free- 

 ing of the serfs. 



Reported Insanity of the Emperor. During the 

 Bulgarian crisis, when the diplomacy of Europe 

 was scandalized by the support given by Rus- 

 sia to the conspirators who abducted Prince 

 Alexander, and by the high-handed proceed- 

 ings of Gen. Kaulbars, reports were spread 

 from Vienna that the Czar, who was known 

 to have taken the direction of foreign affairs 

 into his own hands, had begun to show symp- 

 toms of hereditary insanity. 



Batonm. On July 3 the Russian Government 

 notified the English ministry that it had can- 

 celed the clause in the Treaty of Berlin in re- 

 lation to the fortification of Batoum. At the 

 Berlin Congress the British plenipotentiaries 

 objected to the cession of any Asiatic territory 

 to Russia, and, when they at last acceded, they 

 bound her not to construct fortifications at 

 Batoum, and to make that place a free port. 

 The freedom of trade was abolished in a ukase 

 that went into force on July 17, 1886. The 

 reason for keeping Batoum a free port was 

 declared to have been removed by closing the 

 free transit of goods through the Caucasus to 

 Persia, which had been done two years before. 

 The article in the treaty relating to Batoum de- 

 clared the Emperor's " intention to constitute 

 Batoum a free port, essentially commercial." 

 In revoking this declaration, which was de- 

 scribed as voluntary and spontaneous, although 

 it was the result of long negotiations, the Rus- 

 sian Government contended that it committed 

 no breach of the treaty. English travelers 

 have for several years past called attention to 

 repairs of the Turkish fortifications, and to the 

 accumulation of heavy guns and all the muni- 

 tions of war in the arsenal just outside the 

 free port. In the autumn Krupp guns were 

 mounted on the redoubt at the entrance of the 

 harbor, a new battery was made, and earth- 

 works were thrown up along the shore. 



Rostov. The mouth of the Don has been re- 

 united to the territory of the Don Cossacks. 

 The important commercial town of Rostov, 

 the emporium of the Sea of Azov, is by this 

 decree separated from the government of Ekat- 

 erinoslav, and becomes a part of the Cossack 

 province. The trade has been carried on partly 

 by Greeks, but mostly Jews. 



S 



SAMOA\ (or NAVIGATOR) ISLANDS. For sev- 

 eral years the question of permitting a con- 

 tinuance of the autonomy of these islands has 

 been discussed by the governments of Eng- 

 land, Germany, and the United States ; more 



particularly by Germany, on account of the 

 heavy interest in the islands held by the 

 Deutsche Handels and Plantagen Gesellschaft 

 der Sudsee Inselm zu Hamburg, a German 

 company controlling much of the trade of the 



