108 MANUFACTURES OF KUSSIA. 



riety of goods. The price of ebonite is about 3 roubles per pound and does not de- 

 pend so much upon the expense of the raw materials as upon the costly nfiture of 

 the process of manufacture. 



These materials are either used in the manufactorj'^ for making various goods, 

 or sold to small factories and shops for maldng small rubber articles. These India 

 rubber wares are of almost innumerable variety and may be divided into two groups 

 as follows. 



I. Soft rubber and gutta-pereha g-oods. 



These articles are eithei" of pure India rubber or else of India rubber mixed 

 with other substances such as wood, metal, glass et cetera, or combined with 

 hempen, linen, paper, woollen, jute and other textile fabrics. These goods are either: 

 1. articles employed in different branches of trade, such as belting, hose, hemp and 

 waterproof sheeting, pump valves, buffers and carriage tires ; 2. articles used in the 

 sick chamber; 3. household utensils, such as pails, bags, sacks, photographic baths, 

 mats et cetera. 



These objects vary greatly in price ; small articles of delicate workmanship 

 made of quite pure rubber cost sometimes as mucli as 8, 9 and 10 roubles per pound j 

 whilst commoner objects, not requiring to be made of absolutely pure rubber, cost 

 far less ; the mats for instance contain very little India rubber and sometimes do not 

 cost more than 80 kopecks per pound. Valves cost about 2.50 roubles and syringes 

 about 5 roubles per pound. The prices of soft rubber and gutta-percha goods depend 

 far more upon the workmanship than the cost of the material, as for instance, balls, 

 dolls and toys in general. 



II. Horn rubber g-oods. 



These articles are polished and made of pure horn rubber, or combined with 

 other materials ; they are principally physical, chemical, astronomical, surgical and 

 electrical apparatus and ornaments for furniture. These goods are generally very 

 light and of elaborate workmanship, so that their price by weight is very high, 

 about 2 to 5 and sometimes 10 roubles per pound. 



By recapitulating the foregoing statistics referring to the India rubber industry 

 in Eussia up to 1890, the actual state of the trade is found to be as follows : 



India rubber manufactories, except Finland. 9 



Number of men employed 3,273 



Production of rubber goods 10,312,000 roubles. 



Mean production per factory 1,145,777 » 



Production per workman 3,150 » 



Import of rubber goods 287,114 » 



Export of rubber goods 1,526,542 » 



Annual home consumption 9.072,572 » 



The export, here shown, exceeds the import by 1,239,428 roubles, or is 5.3 

 times as large, and amounts to nearly 15 per cent of the internal consumption. 



