Xn INTRODUCTION. 



plied to tliis industry. The demand for goods manufactured from cast iron has not 

 diminished but has ever increased during recent years, while the satisfaction of 

 this demand by home production began to grow only from the year 1883 when effi- 

 cient measures were resorted to in order to enable the home production of cast iron, 

 and iron and steel wares, to grow and compete with the earlier developed foreign production. 

 In the sixties only about 20 million pouds of cast iron were obtained in Eussia and 

 the whole requirements of the country in cast iron, counting one poud of iron equal to 

 one and a quarter pouds of cast iron and one poud of machinery equal to one and one-half 

 pouds of cast iron, unavoidable losses taking place in the course of manufacture, reached 

 50 million pouds of cast iron. Eussia's requirement remained about the same during the 

 whole of the seventies when the home production was not able to satisfy more than 

 40 per cent of the existing demand. During the eighties the total requirement already 

 exceeded 60 million pouds of cast iron per annum while the home production rose from 

 28 million to 56 millions, in other words, satisfied from half to two-thirds of the demand. 

 During the current decade this branch of the industry has been growing still more, 

 reaching in all. inclusive of cast iron, steel and iron, more than 70 million pouds. 

 At the same time the home production is growing much faster than the increase in 

 the demand, so that the import of foreign goods is falling greatly and the time is 

 not far distant when the native production of iron, cast iron and steel will cover 

 the demand and even surpass it. This will inevitably lead to a fall in prices and to 

 a growth in the export which has long existed for Eussian iron. In the same man- 

 ner as in this branch of industry, a growth likewise began not long ago in many 

 kinds of production, both mining and manufacturing, will correspond to the 

 forces and requirements of Eussia. Such a growth is taking place gradually and in- 

 creasing the development of the home wages and wealth among the masses of the 

 people. 



The fate of the Eussian petroleum industry serves as the best proof of the 

 fact that the home mining and manufacturing forces of Eussia are only awaiting 

 an impulse to excite an increased growth. Customs protection here was granted in 

 the sixties. According to the tariff of the year 1868, crude petroleum already paid 

 15 kopecks paper duty, while kerosene and machine oil paid 55 kopecks paper per 

 poud. The petroleum industry being considered further on, in this volume, it wilL 

 be sufficient here merely to point out that already in 1876, Eussia imported a 

 large amount of American petroleum products, in that year 2,666,666 pouds of 

 illuminating oil alone. In the eighties not only the importation of foreign petroleum 

 products ceased, but the export increased greatly, reaching already in 1890, 48 mil- 

 lion pouds. Nor is this all, while the home consumption in 1876, with the excess- 

 ively high prices of all articles of this kind, scarcely attained 4 million pouds, in 

 1890 the consumption within the country of illuminating oil alone rose to more than 

 30 million pouds, due to the rapid fall of prices. In Baku purified lighting oil now 

 costs on the spot not more than 15 kopecks a poud. In view of this cheapness the 

 Government has imposed an excise duty upon the home consumption of kerosene, 

 which in 1890 yielded 10,500,000 roubles of revenue. A similar growth in the coal, 

 iron, chemical and many other kinds of industries, made be expected as soon as the 

 principles of a reasonable protection are applied to the productions of goods of these 

 kinds. The development of the working of many of the natural resources of Eussia 



