INTRODUCTION. Ill 



their domestic resources that the preparation for winter of various preserves, beginning with 

 salted and soured vegetables ami ending with the making of confectionery and sparkling 

 drinks, formed part of the business of everj' well to do household. This patriarchal state of 

 domestic economy, preserved with due reverence for the old order of things, here and there 

 to this day prevailed over the whole country even in the middle of the present cen- 

 tury. There was thus little i-oom for the demand for the products of manufacture, a 

 fact which till now serves as the chief explanation of the feeble development of the 

 latter in the Empire. All that there is in this respect is almost entirely new. Mills 

 and manufactories llrst appeared in those places where, from the growth of the popu- 

 lation and from the exhaustion of the soil or the want of land, the conditions per- 

 mitting of the indefinite preservation of the beloved patriarchal system were dis- 

 appearing. Particularly, and earlier than anywhere else, was this the case in localities 

 situated near Moscow, where there is already a very dense population. In that 

 government for example, more than 2,250,000 inhabitants live upon an area of 

 33,300 square kilometres, or about 68 inhabitants to the square kilometre *. At 

 the same time the dwellers in the central or Moscow region of Russia have been 

 distinguished in all respects from the earliest times by the greatest enterprise, and 

 have always been to the fore in seeking out new roads for the lasting develop- 

 ment and strength of their country. With the increase of population in this heart 

 of Russia, for a long time and even to-day, the surplus had colonised the more dis- 

 tant districts of the Empire, but notwithstanding this, here earlier than elsewhere, 

 appeared the conditions necessary for the springing up of mills and manufactories 

 requiring unemployed labour, no longer satisfied with agriculture alone. Accordingly the 

 neighbourhood of Moscow has become the centre for the free and independent growth 

 of many kinds of manufactories and works, where also have been situated from an- 

 cient times the centre of Russia's trade relations, not only with the interior but also 

 with foreign countries and especially with Asia. 



The present volume is intended to acquaint our country's friends in the United 

 States, and those visiting the World's Columbian Exposition, with the economic 

 life of Russia. The conditions then which favoured the visible growth, or at times, 

 as in the case of sugar and petroleum, the very origin of manufacturing industry, 

 began to appear and improve principally in that period of the sixties and seventies, 

 when the serfs were emancipated from forced labour, and the active construction of 

 the system of Russian railways was begun. The causes of the close connection be- 

 tween these internal reforms and the demonstrations of the necessity for the development 

 of mills and manufactories are numerous. The most important cause must be accounted, that 

 the land began to be tilled by free labour and consequently this labour became more pro- 

 ductive than before, and a number of people accordingly appeared seeking for wares, outside 

 of agriculture, although all the peasants had received land allotments, and although 

 the lands of the landholders, both by way of lease and by hired labourers, were 

 brought under more thorough tillage. This latter circumstance was still further helped 

 by the railways which gave an outlet abroad to the grain surplus of many remote 

 regions of Russia. Almost an equal importance is ascribable to certain other causes. 



* For comparison be it observed that in Germany there are about 49.5 million 

 inhabitants to 541 thousand square kilometres, or 91 inhabitants to one square kilometre. 



