RUSSIA. 



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superintends tho judiciary, acts as the court of 

 last resort, and examines into tho general admin- 

 i.-t ration c.f the country ; and this Huly Synod, 

 which superintends religious and ecclesiastical 

 affairs. The minister! in ISiCJ were as follow: 

 President. N.C. Hunge; Minister of the Imperial 

 Household, Count Vorontzoff-Dashkoff ; Minis- 

 ter of Foreign Affairs, Nicolas Carlovich Giers; 

 Minister of War, <ien. I'. S. Vannovsky ; Mini-ier 

 of Marine, Admiral N. M. Tchikhatcheff : Min- 

 ister of the Interior, J. D. Duruovo; Minister of 

 Finance, S. J. Vitte ; Minister of Communica- 

 tions, Krivoshein ; Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion, Count J. D. Delianoff ; Procurator-General 

 of the Holy Synod, K. P. Pobiedonostseff : Min- 

 ister of Agriculture and Domains, A. S. Yermo- 

 loff ; Minister of Justice, N. A. Manassein ; Con- 

 troller-General, T. J. Filippoff; without portfo- 

 lio, D. M. Solski and N. J. Stoianovsky ; also the 

 Grand Dukes Nicholas, Vladimir, Alexis, and 

 Michael. 



Finances. The ordinary revenue for 1892 was 

 970,164,000 rubles, which was 83,020,000 rubles 

 better than the budget estimate. The extraordi- 

 nary receipts amounted to 198,679,000 rubles. 

 The ordinary expenditures amounted to 910,- 

 684,000 rubles, or 984,000 rubles less than the 

 estimate, and the extraordinary expenditures to 

 214,771,000 rubles. In the budget of receipts 

 for 1893 the direct taxes are calculated at 94,- 

 950,680 rubles, of which 44,703,249 rubles are 

 the product of land and personal taxes, 37,732,- 

 431 rubles of trading patents, and 12,515,000 

 rubles of a tax of 5 per cent, on incomes from 

 capital ; the yield of indirect taxes is 535,900,773 

 rubles, of which 134,970,000 rubles come from 

 customs, 339,651,323 rubles from duties on con- 

 sumption (257,393,721 from drinks, 30,043,102 

 from tobacco, 16,041,000 from petroleum, 28,655,- 

 500 from beet sugar, and 7,518,000 from matches), 

 and 61,279,450 rubles from stamp and registra- 

 tion duties and taxes on transportation and travel 

 by express trains, on passports, on fire insurance, 

 etc.; 38.537,114 rubles come from state monopo- 

 lies, 22,677,400 from posts (11,950000 from tele- 

 graphs, and the remainder from mines and the 

 mints) ; 136,322,617 rubles are derived from state 

 property (81,189,000 from railroads, 13,647,282 

 from rent of domains, 10,780,759 from movable 

 property, 827,720 from sales of land, 16,716,680 

 from forests, 9,489.076 from mines and manu- 

 factories, and 3.672,100 from railroad conces- 

 sions); 77,000.000 rubles are paid by peasants 

 for the redemption of land ; and 78.510,959 

 rubles are miscellaneous receipts. The total 

 estimated revenue is 961,222,143 rubles from 

 ordinary and 79,236.242 from extraordinary 

 sources. The total ordinary expenditures are es- 

 timated for 1893 at 947,690,885. and the extraor- 

 dinary expenditures at 92,768,000 rubles. Of 

 the ordinary expenditures, 264,325,647 rubles are 

 for the public debt (including 68,021,242 rubles 

 for railroad loans), 2,115,165 rubles are for the 

 superior government bodies. 11.887,004 rubles 

 for the Holy Synod, 10,5(50.000 rubles for the 

 Ministry of the Imperial Household, 5,2H!I.!IO! 

 rubles for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 232,- 

 937.030 rubles for the Ministry of War, 49,892,- 

 803 rubles for the Ministry of Marine, 12'J..~> ;-..'.- 

 57!) rubles for the Ministry of Finance, 25.458,- 

 305 rubles for the Ministry of Domains, 82,352,- 



659 rubles for the Ministry of the Interior, 

 22,411,434 rubles for tin; Ministry of Public- 

 Instruction, 70,800,814 rubles for the Ministry of 

 Communications, 25.31<),n.'M) rubles for the Min- 

 iMry of Justice, 4,466,043 for the Department of 

 Control. l,:510,l(i:{ rubles for the imperial stud, 

 and 1(5,000,000 rubles for unforeseen uses. 



The Government debts payable in specie on 

 Jan. 1, 1893, amounted to 547,586,500 rubles, 

 besides 2,489.700 sterling. The sum of the 

 debts payable in credit rubles was 2,889,585,622 

 rubles, including 568,527,206 rubles of paper 

 currency not secured by reserves. This does not 

 include the debt of the Kingdom of Poland or 

 the railroad obligations, which raise the total to 

 1,275,399,077 metallic rubles, 3,079,800,785 credit 

 rubles. 2,489,700 sterling, and 541,502.000 francs. 

 A new internal 4J-per-cent. loan of 100,000,000 

 rubles was sanctioned in March, 1893. to cover 

 i lie deficit in the budget for that year and the 

 disbursements of the treasury on account of the 

 famine of 1891. The Government in the same 

 month suspended the coinage of silver rubles on 

 private account, the depreciation in silver hav- 

 ing lowered their exchange value till they were 

 worth less than the paper ruble, which is pay- 

 able in silver or gold. The amount of paper 

 currency which under the law ought to have 

 been destroyed in 1892 was kept in the treasury 

 to tide over the difficulty caused by the famine- 

 relief expenditure. The Minister of Finance 

 resorted to extraordinary measures to check 

 speculation in paper rubles, refusing to allow 

 the Imperial Bank to pay out any except for the 

 purposes of legitimate trade. He asked for the 

 co-operation of bankers in devising regulations 

 to prevent speculation. A law was passed im- 

 posing a tax of 1 kopeck per 100 rubles on cur- 

 rency sent or carried out of the country. Im- 

 portation of foreign silver coins forbidden. 



Commerce and Production. Thetotal value 

 of the imports of merchandise for 1892 was 403,- 

 900,000 rubles, of which 346,600,000 rubles came 

 from Europe, 11,900,000 rubles from Finland, 

 and 45,500,000 rubles from Asia. The total value 

 of the exports was 489,400,000 rubles, of which 

 399.600,000 rubles went to Europe, 21,100,000 

 rubles to Finland, and 68,700,000 rubles to Asia. 

 The values of some of the chief imports by the 

 European frontiers were : Raw textiles and yarn, 

 114.078,000 rubles; metal goods and machinery, 

 36,636,000 rubles : raw metals, 26.458,000 rubles ; 

 tea and coffee, 20,038,000 rubles ; coloring matters, 

 etc., 12,908,000 rubles; coal, 12,122,000 rubles; 

 skins, leather, and peltry, 8,382,000 rubles : 

 winesand spirits. 8,282,000 rubles ; textile manu- 

 factures, 6,388,000 rubles. The principal ex- 

 ports by the way of the European frontiers were : 

 Cereals, 136.025,000 rubles : textile materials, 81.- 

 798,000 rubles: timber, 48,652,000 rubles: lin- 

 seed, 27,077,000 rubles: animals, 15,178.000 

 rubles; skins and peltry, 11,693,000 rubles; 

 sugar. 5,772.000 rubles; textile manufactures. 

 5.398,000 rubles. The principal import from 

 Asia was tea of the value of 18,783,000 rubles, 

 and tho principal exports to Asia were cereals, 

 ti-Mics. and miscellaneous merchandise. The 

 imports of precious metals were 110.531,000 

 rubles from Europe and 3,015.000 rubles from 

 Asia, and the exports were 117.000 rubles to 

 Europe and 4,316,000 rubles to Asia. The Gov- 



