RUSSIA. 



781 



. had a total length of 1,876 kilomotnvs. 

 The merchant marine in 1HNH consisted of l,7!i! 



sail \ i .'i.iiii tons, and 880 steam 



, inn.-. There were L6.056 vessels, of 1,985,- 



MS. fin. T.', I and 1CJ7-J, of 'J.irJT.lll ton-, 

 d ai the porls of Finland during l.s!)0. 

 The Trans-Silx-riaii Kail road. The proj- 

 ect of a railroad across Siberia has been in con- 

 templation for twenty years. In 1887 a com mi>- 

 sioii was appointed hy the EinjH-ror to study the 

 suhject, mid preparatory surveys were made. 

 Tho commission unanimously recommended the 

 Construction of the lino both on strategical and 

 on commercial grounds. The Government has 

 decided to build the line at its own expense, re- 

 jecting oilers of foreign capital, unless, perhaps, 

 Gen. Annenkoff's plan for enlisting French capi- 

 tal be ultimately adopted. The railroad is ex- 

 pected to benefit Silx-ria immensely, to promote 

 coloni/iition, lo make Asiatic Russia a source of 

 16 instead nf H drain on the imperial treas- 

 ury, and to consolidate and strengthen Russian 

 extension in Asia, The middle route, rather 

 than the northern or the southern routes that 

 were proposed, has been adopted. The line starts 

 from /latausk and Miask, where the European line 

 terminates at the Ural mountains, and will run 

 close to the fifty-fifth parallel of north latitude 

 as far as the Yenessei river, with branches about 

 GO miles long to connect it with the important 

 towns of Tomsk and Omsk. Thence it will take 

 a more southerly course to Irkutsk, follow the 

 southern shore of Lake Baikal and the valley of 

 the Seeling river, cross the valleys of the Lena 

 and the Amur to Lake Collan, where excellent 

 coal has been found, thence run eastward to the 

 steamboat station of Srjetinsk on the Amur, and 

 along that river southeastward to Khabaroffka, 

 then turn southward along the right bank of the 

 t'ssuri to (JralTsky, and terminate at the port of 

 Vladivostok in latitude 43. The total length is 

 5,613 miles. The lino has been surveyed, with 

 the exception of 828 miles at the western end 

 and 1,525 miles between Srjetinsk and Graffsky. 

 The section from Miask to the river Obi, crossing 

 the rivers Tobal, Ishim, and Irtish, and passing 

 near the towns of Koorgan, Tukalinsk. Kaensk, 

 and Kolivan, is expected to cost $33.500,000, or 

 about $33.880 a mile. The section of 1,114 miles 

 from the Obi to Achinsk will cost $38,820,000, or 

 $34,850 a mile. The Lake Baikal section of 194 

 miles and the trans-Baikal section of 6C9 miles 

 present many engineering difficulties, as they 

 pass through a mountainous country; the edst 

 is estimated at $13.000,000, or nearly $67,000 a 

 mile for the one, and $31,160,000, or $36,580 a 

 mile for the other. The section from Srjetinsk 

 to Graffsky, though it has not been surveyed, 

 passes through a country well enough known to 

 l>ermit an estimate of the expense, which will 

 not exceed $49,780,000. or $32,620 a mile. The 

 last section, from Graffsky to Vladivostok. O.Vi 

 miles, will cost nearly $50,000 a mile, or $12,- 

 750,000 altogether. This section and the short 

 length of 60 versts across the Ural mountains 

 from Miask to Chelabinsk. it was decided, should 

 be built first and begun in 1891. Of 7,000,000 

 rubles allotted to railroad construction in the 

 budget, 500,000 rubles were applied to prelimi- 

 nary work on the western end, 2,900.000 rubles 

 to construction of the Ussuri section, 200,000 ru- 



ble, to BurvejrM between OiHahinhk and T'ii;-k. 

 and 1UO.(MK) rubles to surveys fr.m (im/I-ky t<. 

 Kharabofko. For the UsHuri Bwtion it u- 1 

 sary to transjvort all the materials by w-a from 

 Russia to Vladivostok. The first rail wua laid 

 by the Cxurevich on May 2 I. 1S!H. 



The New Loan. Formerly Russian pccuritim 

 were largely held in London. In rc<,-nt times 

 Berlin has been the banking center f- r Russian 

 commerce and the chief source of Government 

 loans. Tho financial relations between l'rti--ia 

 anil the Russian Empire have been of the mort 

 intimate character for many decades. In 1884 

 the Seehandlung, which is an official financial in- 

 stitution in I'riii-ia. headed the syndicate which 

 placed a loan of $75,000,000. 1 n "l**<;. w hen the 

 Ku-sian scare in England caused British in\<-t- 

 ors to unload enormous quantities of Russian 

 bonds on the Continental bourses, the Berlin 

 financiers sustained the market, preventing a 

 heavy fall, and absorbed the Russian funds nt 

 cheap prices, thereby gaining what was consid- 

 ered a victory over the London bankers. I'p to 

 1887, the year in which Vyshnegradsky became 

 Russian Minister of Finance, the investments of 

 German capital in Government funds, preference 

 shares of guaranteed railroads, and other Rus- 

 sian securities, were estimated at $1,000.000.000. 

 At that time a -Coolness arose in the political re- 

 lations between Russia and Germany, in the 

 course of which Chancellor von Bismarck inst i- 

 gated a campaign against Russian credit abroad. 

 It still stood so high in Berlin that he failed to 

 accomplish his purpose, until he practically pro- 

 hibited transactions in Russian securities by re- 

 fusing to allow the Imperial Bank to accept thorn 

 as collateral for advances. In spite of a constant 

 war carried on in the inspired German and Eng- 

 lish press, which attacked the good faith of the 

 Russian Government, saying that loans raised 

 for the conversion of debt or for reproductive 

 works were used for augmenting and equipping 

 the army or for the construction of strategic 

 railroads, and that interest on the debt was paid 

 out of fresh loans, the credit of the Russian Gov- 

 ernment has steadily improved under the man- 

 agement of M. Vyshncgnulsky, who established 

 a bond of financial friendship with France when 

 he found the markets of London and Berlin 

 closed to him. The German market was not 

 entirely closed, because German investors were 

 most familiar with the strength of the financial 

 position of Russia, and feared only the conse- 

 quences of a war. Many Germans held on to 

 their Russian investments, and when loans and 

 railroad bonds bearing a high rate of interest 

 were converted, assistance was received from the 

 German money market, although the main sup- 

 ply of money came from France. In 1889 and 

 1890 loans to the amount of 1,800,000,000 credit 

 rubles were taken by French syndicates. Hy de- 

 grees the German investments in Russian secu- 

 rities found their way into France, until the ng- 

 regale holdings of the French reached alx-ut 

 .500,000,000 rubles. The English have j-crsNt- 

 ently refused to subscribe to the new Roi 

 loans; but the French support was so efl'icient 

 that few governments have Ix-en able to borrow 

 more cheaply. In 1891 the Russian Finance De- 

 partment called fora new 3-per-cent. gold lonn 

 of 500,000,000 francs for the construction of rail- 



