VI IXTKODUCTION. 



Hence it appears that custonis revenues in Eussia form a smaller part of the 

 ordinary Imperial revenue than in the majority of other countries, while the duties 

 levied upon foreign goods in per cents in Eussia reach the extent adopted in the 

 countries of North and South America, that is, in countries with a large home pro- 

 ductive capacity for raw materials, but with a small development of manufacturing 

 industry. In the countries of Western Europe on the other hand, the customs duties 

 form a less perceutnge, namely, 5 to 18 per cent of the value, than in Russia, where 

 the percentage is 32 per cent. The feeble development of manufactories and mills in Eussia, 

 the vast natural resources, especially the abundance of mineral, vegetable and animal 

 raw materials, and the surplus of population requiring other sources of wages than 

 agriculture, explain the above phenomenon, both in resemblance to the countries of the 

 American continent and to the variance with the countries of Western Europe. 



Furthermore the customs duties of Eussia concern, in the main, articles either 

 not forming an indispensable popular demand, as for example, delicacies for the table, 

 articles of luxury, and others, or such as tea which produces twenty per cent of the 

 customs revenue. The latter, like those articles upon which indirect taxes are levied 

 in the form of excise (spirit, sugar, kerosene) are employed in small quantities, and 

 everywhere bear high dues without burdening the consumer. Finally, come those 

 articles which are produced by Eussia itself in sufficient quantities to satisfy the 

 growing home demand, as coal, iron, manufactured goods and salt, with the greatest 

 advantage to the inhabitants, seeing that the getting and treatment of these articles 

 furnish the people with wages. But their production cannot be developed if foreign 

 goods are admitted duty free. The great increase in the home production of cotton 

 goods (Chapter I), cast iron, coal, sugar, the products obtained from the treatment of 

 petroleum, and even gutta-percha goods, already exported to Western Europe(ChapterVII), 

 coinciding with the temporary introduction of protective duties, clearly demonstrates the 

 expediency of the application of the principles of protection with the object of rousing 

 the people to strengthen those forms of industry to which the natural resources and 

 forces of the country correspond, precisely at a time when the change has begun from' 

 the patriarchal agricultural life to the more complex one, consisting in the combination 

 of agricultural activity with mining and manufacturing industry. The constant growth 

 of the latter is evident from a reference to the change in the annual amount of the 

 values of these products (Table 3). In quoting these data, it is necessary to write 

 the reservation that exact statistical registration can only be expected for such forms 

 of industry as bear special duties, as for example, the getting of gold, platinum and 

 other metals, the production of alcohol and other articles subject to excise. The 

 majority of other kinds of manufactures do not possess special organs for the col- 

 lection of statistical information, being gathered by the governors through the ordin- 

 ary police officials, and therefore suffer from incompleteness. This inaccuracy 

 is again increased by the circumstance that the household or small peasant, and indeed 

 all minor forms of production due to the class of half-artisans, occurring in great 

 abundance in different parts of Eussia, are utterly incapable of registration. At the 

 same time these scattered industries, as in the case of the manufacture of articles in 

 wood, boxes, wheels, tar, pottery, leather and nails, are occasionally, from the amount 

 of their production, of great importance both for the development of industry in general, 

 and for the prosperity of the population. It should be noticed that the majority of 



