X INTRODUCTION. 



In other words, tlie amount of home consumption in reference to goods of 

 domestic production and obtained from abroad or from the home mining industries 

 and from the larger home mills and manufactories, remains almost constant or grows 

 only to a slight extent proportional to the increase of the population. A manifest 

 increase appears onl}' from the year 1887, but it is impossible, not to see an evi- 

 dent although slow growth of the home production at the expense of the foreign 

 imports, which constitutes the prime object of a protective customs policy. The 

 growth of the home manufacturing production, regulated by the Department of Trade 

 and Manufactures is clearly to be seen in Table 3, from the amount of 841,000,000 

 roubles in 1880 and 1,064,000,000 roubles in 1890, for the whole Empire excepting 

 Finland. From Table 4 it appears that the importation of foreign goods for the said 

 years is equal to 604 and 416 million roubles. The amount for 1880 is 841 and 

 604 million roubles, or 1,445 million roubles ; and for 1890, 1,064 and 416, 

 or 1.480 million roubles. But as some of the chief articles of foreign import- 

 ation consist of the productions of mills and manufactories, evidently the de- 

 velopment of the home manufacturing industry of Eussia is now taking place 

 mainly at the expense of foreign productions. Such a growth, of course, only forms 

 the first step in the development of the internal economical forces of the country, 

 the crown of which is formed, on the one hand, by the growth of various require- 

 ments expressed in the amount of expenditure necessary for their satisfaction or in 

 the growth of the buying capacity of the whole people, and on the other hand, by 

 the growth of the export of the surplus of such goods upon which is expended the 

 floating capital or its renewable energy, and not the fundamental capital of the 

 country, as is the case in the export of grain, expending the fertility of the soil, or 

 the export of coal the supplies of which cannot be renewed. 



Thus England receiving cotton and wool and exporting goods made 

 therefrom, Eussia exporting flax, and the United States exporting cotton, expend 

 not the forces of the soil of their respective lands but only the labour of their in- 

 habitants and the work due to the solar heat of the countries. The carbohydrate 

 principles of flax or cotton fibre do not contain soil elements determing fertility. 

 But if Eussia instead of flax, or the United States instead of cotton, exported fabrics 

 prepared from them, evidently the productive forces of these countries would enjoy 

 a higher degree of sufficiency than now. The present industrial policy of Eussia 

 is directed precisely to the end that the productive forces of the country should 

 be turned to the manufacture of the abundant supplies of agricultural and mineral 

 raw materials in the Empire, that the people may obtain new sources of wages 

 and income and that the bujang capacity and wealth of the country may be in- 

 creased. The demand for articles not of domestic production is still small, but it is 

 always better for the inhabitants when they are satisfied by such means as yield 

 them new wages and permit them, even if only partially, to become accustomed to 

 the satisfaction of theii' growing needs at the expense of increasing the development 

 of the natural resources of the country. The growth of their production at the same 

 time forms an increase in the world's supply, and this at last leads to a lowering 

 of prices. With the present course of affairs, the home manufacturing industry is 

 annually widening at the expense of foreign imports at the rate of about 40 mil- 

 lion roubles, although the total demand for manufactured articles grows more slowly; 



