FLAX, HEMP AND JUTE GOODS. 



31 



eral import during- the period from 1877 to 1881 was very considerable, namely, 

 ()61,000 pouds, with a total value of 4,264,000 roubles. In Begetzk, in the govern- 

 ment of Tver in 1870, as many as 2,500,000 linen sacks were made, being always 

 in great demand for the wheat trade ; in 1879 only 900,000 were turned out, and in 

 1880 the amount further decreased to 500,000 pieces. 



When the customhouse duties were raised in 1881 the quantity of sacks imported 

 began to decrease, although not without some fluctuations : from 1882 to 1886 the import 

 fell to 38.5 per cent of that of the previous five years, and during the next five years 

 still furtlier diminished 40 per cent, so that the mean yearly import during 1887 to 1891 

 was only 15.5 per cent of that from 1877 to 1881. The value of the import during 

 that decade decreased still more, namely to 12.5 per cent. It must be observed that 

 as the import of jute sacks declined, the export of raw jute began to increase; that 

 is to say, the home production of jute began to develop. From 1887 to 1891 the 

 mean yearly export was 513 thousand pouds. Taking the average waste in manufact- 

 uring jute goods as 15 per cent, the average yearly output of the jute factories would 

 be equal to about 436,000 pouds, which is 4.3 times more than the mean yearlv 

 import of all the above mentioned goods during the last five years. 



Thus the general value of the yearly import through the European frontier of 

 all the goods enumerated from 1888 to 1891 was, on the average, 1,551,000 roubles, 

 which is about 5.5 per cent of the total production of the Russian flax-spinning 

 linen cloth mills, and ropewalks; this was abundantly covered by the export of similar 

 goods from Eussia, as may be seen from the following table: 



The Russian export consists almost entirely of hemp yarn, and only a few 

 hundred pouds of flax yarn. Concerning the textile fabrics it is found that the prin- 



