FLAX, HEMP AN'l) JITK (iOODS. 25 



time exclusively used. The results nf all these uiifjivuuriible eoudiLions t'nr the liueii 

 trade were, an increased export of flax fibre, which attained 50 per cent between 

 1840 and 185(i, and ;t ii'rodual decrease in the amount of manuf;utured jroods. 



The attention of the GovernmeDt was drawn to the diftieult situation of the 

 linen trade, and from 1837 to 1853, a j,''reat many measures were tnkni for relieving 

 it. Tlius in 1837, uiodel flax cultivation was esta))lished; in 1845 all those who were 

 desirous of studying flax spinning- and weaving by machinery were allowed free access 

 to the Alexandrovsk mill. Finally, in 1S44 to 1846 a special cominission investigated 

 the condition of the linen trade iu Eussian and abroad, which resulted in moi-e atten- 

 tion being given in the agricultural schools to the teaching of more rational methods 

 of cultivating and of dressing flax, in providing the peasants with metal strickles for 

 carding, spinning wheels and metal reeds, and \arious kinds of rewards were 

 promised to the flrst organizers of flax spinneries and factories for making high 

 class linen goods. These measures, and especially the latter, were the means of start- 

 ing, soon after 1850, several establishments for weaving, bleaching and dressijig 

 linen by machinery; but unfortunately the customhouse duties were changed in 1850, 

 and the duty on all linen goods considerably lowered; this brought an enormous influx 

 of foreign goods into the market, attaining the value of 1,000,904 roubles in 1851 

 to 1853, so that the new mill owners found themselves in a very critical situation, 

 which in many cases ended in complete liquidation. 



The Iiemp-spinning and rope-making industries did not cease to increase during 

 the tirst half of the present century, although they were subjected to certain varia- 

 tions, so that instead of the sixty factories with an output of 252.000 ponds of rope 

 and yarn in 1804, there were already in 1850 as many as 160, producing 1,177,000 

 ponds. The export of hempen goods also increased proportionately: thus, from 1824 

 to 1828 and from 1851 to 1853 the mean yearly export rose from 257,000 to 448,000 

 pouds. 



Owing to the increased consumption of linen for the army during the Crimean 

 war business was not only brisker for those mills which had survived the crisis, but 

 several other flax spinning works were started, first in the province of Kostroma and 

 then in other districts. These new mills prospered well at first, especially as the price 

 of the raw material had fallen to 1.30 roubles per pond. After the termination of 

 the war, however, it became difficult to find a market for the yarn and the large 

 consumption of flax fibre had so raised the price of the raw material during the winter 

 of 1861 and 1862, to 4.50 roubles per pond, that the position of flax spinners thus 

 again experienced a change for the worse. Obliged to find a sale of some sort 

 for their goods the manufacturers began to supply the peasants with yarn on 

 credit. This circumstance had also an important bearing upon the development of 

 the linen trade amongst the cottagers of the provinces of Kostroma and Yaroslav ; 

 they entirely gave up hand spinning and took to weaving, bleaching and dressing 

 linen. The cotton crisis, which occurred soon after 1860, not only released the Eus- 

 sian factories from their inaction but was even the means of establishing new flax 

 spinning works. 



In general, during the twenty-five years succeeding the Crimean war, the 

 development of the flax-spinning trade far surpassed that of linen. In 1856 



