760 



RUSSIA. 



eggs, valued at 431,000 rubles. Of fish and caviar 

 the exports were 5,730,000 rubles in value in 1897; 

 of sugar, 10,315,000 rubles; of gin and alcohol, 

 2,459,000 rubles; of timber and wood manufac- 

 tures, 54,781,000 rubles; of oil seeds and grass 

 seeds, 45,309,000 rubles; of flax, 56,182,000 rubles; 

 of hemp, 11,215,000 rubles; of bristles, hair, and 

 feathers, 11,727,000 rubles; of wool, 8,933,000 

 rubles; of furs, 5,027,000 rubles. The export of 

 illuminating oil was 16,007,600 hundredweight 

 and of lubricating oil 2,844,200 hundredweight, the 

 total value of naphtha exports being 25.158,000 

 rubles. The exports of manufactured goods in- 

 creased in total value from 11,196,000 rubles in 

 1895 to 19,146,000 rubles in 1897, of which 2,717,- 

 000 rubles represent metal goods, 3,972,000 rubles 

 cotton fabrics, 1,869,000 rubles woolens, and 10,- 

 588,000 rubles various manufactures. The ship- 

 ments of manufactured goods to Vladivostok, 

 which are not included in this total, amounted to 

 24,552,000 rubles in 1896. The export of horses 

 in 1897 was in number 58,300; total value of ani- 

 mal exports 17,092,000 rubles. The export of oil 

 cake was 12,769,000 rubles in value. The trade 

 by the frontiers of Asia, including the Caucasus, 

 is not included in the above totals. The imports 

 of merchandise in 1896 were 63,015,000 rubles in 

 value; exports, 77,209,000 rubles, including naph- 

 tha for 22,911,000 rubles, cereals for 14,809,000 

 rubles, and oil seeds for 11,820,000 rubles. 



The importation of precious metals in 1897 was 

 139,378,000 rubles; exportation, 8,493,000 rubles. 



The value in rubles of the commerce in 1897 

 with the various countries by the European fron- 

 tiers and the Black Sea frontier of the Caucasus 

 is shown in the following table: 



In 1898 the total value of imports was 562,000,- 

 000 rubles and of exports 588,000,000 rubles. Ger- 

 many had 35.9 per cent, of the import and 25.2 

 per cent, of the export trade, Great Britain taking 

 the second place with 32.2 per cent, of the im- 

 ports and 19.8 per cent, of the exports. The 

 British share of the export trade has decreased 

 from 36.5 per cent, in 1889, and the proportion of 

 British imports is also smaller, while German 

 trade has increased from 122,500,000 rubles, or 

 31.3 per cent, of the total imports in 1888, to 

 202,000,000 rubles. The British share in the im- 

 ports was 101,250,000 rubles, or 25.9 per cent, of 

 the total, in 1898 and 114,000,000 rubles, or 20.2 

 per cent, of the total, in 1898. The year was a 

 prosperous one for Russian industry, especially 

 in the iron, naphtha, sugar, and cotton branches. 

 The foreign capital embarked in Russian indus- 

 tries is Belgian, French, and German, and to a 

 very small extent British except in the petroleum 

 industry. Russia is making great strides as a 

 manufacturing nation, although agriculture is not 

 advancing. Spinning and weaving machinery is 

 imported from England, but steam engines now 

 come from Switzerland, boilers from Poland, 



steam pumps and machine tools from the United 

 States, and electrical machinery from Germany 

 and Switzerland. Wages in the factories are :T> 

 per cent, lower in winter than in summer, and 

 the rates earned by women 30 per cent. below 

 those paid to men for the same amount of work. 

 The factory laws are very strict. Each workman, 

 whether belonging to an artel or not, is provided 

 with a book in which are set down the conditions 

 and the period of his engagement. The amount 

 of fines is strictly limited, and these must be 

 paid into a fund for the benefit of the workmen. 

 The manufacturers provide barracks for their 

 work people, and furnish fuel and light <. a- well 

 as lodging, for 25 copecks a month or not much 

 more. Food, purchased at wholesale by the 

 starosta of the artel, makes the cost about 2 

 rubles 50 copecks a month, including lodging. The 

 peasant operatives can thus deposit in tin -a v ings 

 bank 40 rubles or more as the result of their win- 

 ter's work. Beginning the development of her 

 industrial resources much later than other na- 

 tions, Russia is putting up factories equipped with 

 the most modern machinery and is adopting the 

 latest perfected methods of manufacture. In this 

 development, which is fostered by the Govern- 

 ment, American enterprise and skill play an im- 

 portant part. To equip freight trains on the rail- 

 roads, as well as passenger trains, with continu- 

 ous air brakes, the Westinghouse Company has 

 erected a large factory in St. Petersburg. Agri- 

 culture in Russia, where the crops have frequently 

 failed in the central and eastern province-, i- in 

 a bad condition. M. I)e Witte advised the ( 

 to make the reorganization of the social and ma- 

 terial well-being of the Russian |>easantry t he 

 chief work of his reign. In 1899 the valley of 

 the Volga and adjoining regions were afflicted ly 

 one of the periodical famines. The failure of the 

 grain harvest and the grass crop of 1898 in the 

 fertile regions of southern Russia was followed 

 by a repetition of the calamity in Kieff, Poltava, 

 Bessarabia, Kherson, and Taurida province- in 

 consequence of heat and drought in the spring, 

 while cold and rain injured the crops in the north 

 and northwest. In the east the province- of 

 Vyatka, Perm, Ufa, Samara, and Kazan had no 

 crops, and west of the Volga the province- of 

 Riazin, Tula, Simbirsk, Saratoff, Voronezh, and 

 Tamboff suffered a total failure of crops. Not 

 only the spring and winter sowings of grain per- 

 ished in most of the localities, but also vegetables 

 and grass. The Government granted 35,000,000 

 rubles to supply six of the provinces that be- an 

 to suffer in the autumn of 1898 with seed, bread, 

 and fodder. The official allowance of 35 pounds 

 a month was given only to the young and the 

 aged. The Czar gave 3,500,000 rubles for relief. 

 In some districts poor people were unable to 

 obtain firewood. When scurvy in an acute form 

 appeared in the outskirts of the city of Ka/an 

 the zvm-stro* and the Red Cross Society, which 

 was distributing relief in the provinces of Ka/an 

 and Samara, organized a medical forqe. Students 

 were employed by the Government to distribute 

 food and seed corn. Road making was ordered 

 by the Government on a great scale to give em- 

 ployment to the able bodied, but this kept many 

 of them away from their fields in seedtime. The 

 sum of 6,800,000 rubles was assigned for the pur- 

 chase of horses and cattle, and 67.800 horses 

 were bought in Siberia and Orenburg for tin 

 tressed provinces. Noblewomen took groii] 

 villages under their special care, and landowners 

 and capitalists whose property was in the st i i< ken 

 region and other persons of wealth gave largely. 

 Notwithstanding these efforts, more than 5,000,- 



