ISO MANUFACTURES OP EUSSIA. 



supplied. Owing to the poor development of machine building in Russia, the Govern- 

 ment was compelled to put forth the most extraordinary eftorts in order to cover to 

 some extent the defects of the navy and geneial army. During this period the pri- 

 vate manufactories situated near St. Petersburg, with the aid of different small mechan- 

 ical workshops, built in the space of 14 months, 103 steam engines for the navy, 

 3'ielding a total of 15,000 horse powers; but such hurried workmanship at manufac- 

 tories and establishments not properly fitted out for the purpose, of course could not 

 be without many defects of construction. 



At the end of the Crimean war, which coincided with the accession to tbe 

 throne of the Emperor Alexander IT, Russia's productive forces began to develop, 

 increasing the demands for iron and cast iron; this demand increased very consider- 

 ably due to the building of railroads, the development of the navy and the change 

 in the equipment of the army. As the home production of iron and cast iron was 

 not able to supply the growing demands in Russia, in 1857 the Government per- 

 mitted the import by sea of these metals, and which until then had been prohibited, 

 but with a very high duty thereon, considerably lowered, however in 1859. 



Under these conditions, although not furthering the development of machine 

 building to any considerable extent, the number of private machine works, according 

 to official data, rose in 1860 to 92, employing 1,862 hands, the output being valued 

 at 846,215 I'oubles. During that period the smallest figure of import, namely to the 

 value of 513,505 roubles, was in 1854, as is easily explained by the Crimean war, 

 after which it rapidly increased, reaching in 1859 over 11 million roubles; but in 

 1860 it decreased again to 8,526,653 roubles and there remained for several years. 



The growth of the number of factories during the decade above reviewed, 

 with a comparatively small increase of hands employed, is explained by the fact that 

 in the interior of Russia onl}^ small establishments in general were organized, making- 

 agricultural implements and machines, besides ail kinds of repairs. However, some of 

 the powerful Russian manufactories were also established during that period, due 

 chiefly to Government orders and to the increase of private trade companies; but the 

 production of these works was then not definite. 



Of the manufactories founded at that time in St. Petersburg the following are 

 the most conspicuous: the Nevsk, now engaged in ship building, and especially in making 

 locomotives; that of Mackferson, now called the Baltic, engaged in building Men of 

 War; that of San-Galli, which builds steam engines and various other machinery, be- 

 sides producing cast iron building materials; that of Lessner, formerly established for 

 making printing presses and lithographic machines, and now engaged in the more 

 profitable branch of building steam engines and machine tools for working metals. In 

 central Russia the machine works of Bromley were founded, as well as some factories 

 for building steamboats; in Astrakhan the large workshops of The Caucasus and Mercmy 

 Navigation Co. were erected at the mouth of the Volga, the largest of Russian rivers ; 

 another factory was founded by The Russian Navigation and Trade Co., on the coast 

 of the Black Sea at Sebastopol, where during the Crimean war the Russian forces 

 valUantly sustained a long and severe siege ; at the same time Crown workshops were 

 established at Nikolaevsk at the mouth of the Amour. 



From 1860 to 1870 the Government, anxious to further the machine building in- 

 dustry, instituted a series of measures to that end. In 1861 the machine works, run 



