INTRODUCTION. 



IX 



in Russia not only does not exceed but even falls sliort of that which exists in the 

 majority of transatlantic countries, seeing that in Russia articles of prime necessity 

 support no indii-ect taxes whatever, (salt bears no excise, and grain no custom 

 duties), liuall}' seeing- that high excise duties do not retard the development of the 

 consumption of the corresponding products, and that the bulk of the excise especially 

 on alcohol is paid by the working classes while foreign w^ares are, more or less 

 required b}' all classes of the inhabitants interested in the development of home in- 

 dustry, articles of luxury being chiefly consumed by the upper classes, in which case 

 customs duties to a certain extent equalise the burdens of imperial taxation, therefore 

 the combined excise and customs duties form a perfectly rational basis for the financial 

 resources of the Empire, and the noticeable contraction in the quantity of im- 

 ported foreign goods (Table 1) must be ascribed to nothing else than to the devel- 

 opment of home industry, particularly mining and manufacturing. 



The heavy personal and land taxes which formerly existed are little by little 

 being excluded from the budgets of the Russian Empire and gradually being replaced 

 by taxes upon consumption. The objects of taxation are mainly, directly or indi- 

 rectly, the manufactories, mills and trade. The imperial burdens are thus placed 

 chiefly upon the industrial class of the population, instead of as formerly upon land 

 and the agricultural class. This transfer forms one of the most important iinancial 

 undertakings of modern internal life in Russia. 



The numerical proof of such an assertion clearly follows from the comparison 

 of the total values of the recorded home productions and foreign imports, quoted for 

 the eleven years from 1880 to 1890. 



Table 4. 



YEARS. 



Amount of home 



manufactures. 



(Table 3) 



Value of foreign 

 imports *. 



Total consump- 

 tion of articles 

 not of domestic 

 manufacture. 



1880 



1881 

 1882 



1883 

 1884 

 1885 



1886 

 1887 



1889 

 1890 



Millions of rouble 



1214 



1287 

 1378 

 1349 > 

 1304 

 1309 I 



1325 1 

 1427 

 1572 > 

 1606 I 1517 



1656 ) 



Mean 



1325 



Mean 



604 



541 1 

 568 I 



562 } 

 538 

 434 ) 



Mean 

 529 



Mean 



438 ■ 

 393 

 390 > 



437 415 

 416 ) 



1818 



The figures here quoted refer to the values of goods examined in the customhouses. 



