XXXVIII INTRODUCTION. 



utary taxes while in Finland tliere exists tlie income tax of a totally different char- 

 acter. For this reason the total amount of the operations for the whole Empire is 

 higher than that given in the 19"' column of the table. For the comparison, how- 

 ever, of the commercial and industrial activity of the majority of regions in Eussia 

 the data set forth are sufficiently reliable. 



A few mining- share industries and some excise industries enter into the number 

 of industrial undertakings paying percentage taxes (Column 2) while among industrial 

 undertakings paying distributary taxes are included printing offices, photographic stu- 

 dios, bakeries and other similar forms of business, not registered in Eussia among 

 manufactui-ing industries. In consequence thereof this figure is higher than that cited 

 above. Another cause of the discrepancy in the figures is due to the fact that the 

 turnover of the share undertakings (Column 4) was found from the profits by mul- 

 tiplying by twenty, a process which has only a conditional force for the comparison 

 of the turnovers for diff'erent regions of Eussia. 



The considerable magnitude of the total business, per inhabitant in the Balto- 

 Petersburg region is evidenced not only by the fact that certain branches of admin- 

 istrative, industrial and commercial activity are concentrated in St. Petersburg, but 

 also by the fact that here are centered many commercial and industrial enterprises, 

 such as banks and insurance companies, which operate over the whole of Eussia. 

 From the figures quoted above it appears that commercial and industrial operations 

 taken together are most active in the Moscow, Petersburg, Polish, Southern and 

 Eastern regions of Eussia. If the commercial operations of the Petersburg Eegi on 

 prove the greatest, it depends upon the concentration there of the chief capital of 

 extensive monetary operations of many banks, insurance companies, stock companies 

 in general and sea trade. 



The considerable amount of the commercial operations of the Moscow Eegion 

 depends not only upon concentration for many years of large commercial concerns 

 fui-nishing the majority of the provinces with all kinds of merchandise, such as manu- 

 factui'es, tea, sugar and other necessities, but upon the fact that manufacturing in- 

 dustry is here more highly developed than in any of the other regions. Next fol- 

 lows, in respect to the sum total of their commercial operations, the Southern Eegion, 

 the cause of which must be sought for in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea, 

 whose ports carry on an immense home and foreign trade, manufacturing began here 

 only thirty years ago, but promises a rapid growth, thanks to the scarcely touched 

 wealth of the Donets basin whose coal has already begun to attract to itself the 

 iron and chemical industries. In the Polish Eegion, although the works and manu- 

 factories are, on account of the density of the population, much more considerably 

 developed than in the Southern Eegion, nevertheless commercial operations are only 

 one-third of those in south Eussia. This difference in the two regions in question 

 (IX and XI) is the more remarkable that their populations are almost equal, although 

 the area of the Polish Eegion is scarcely one-fifth of that of the Southern, The 

 chief cause of the difference must be sought in the fact that the Black Sea and the 

 Sea of Azov give life to the whole foreign trade of Eussia, especially in reference 

 to the export of grain. 



The fallowing statistics show the importance of the Black Sea ports and of 

 gi'ain freightage in the Eussian export trade: 



