MACHINES AND IMPLEMKN'TS. iSl 



by steam and water propellers, were allowed to import their iron and cast iron, to the 

 extent required, free of duty. In 1866 an order was issued exacting the home manu- 

 facture of all railway appliances, notwithstanding the difliculties that might be engen- 

 dered thereby. In 1869 a customs tariff for machiner}'^ was introduced; but the import of 

 agricultural implements and machines used in the working up of materials employed in 

 cloth manufactories and paper mills, as well as of printing presses, however, was left 

 duty free. The taxes were in general very light, 30 kopecks per poud, 9.57 dollars 

 per ton. of cast iron and iron machinery, and 75 kopecks per poud, 24 dollars per ton, 

 of locomotive engines, brass apparatus and brass parts of machinery. These small duties 

 did not have any great influence upon the development of machine building in Eussia by 

 themselves, but when the fact that the franchise granted in 1861 to some manufacto- 

 ries to import iron and cast iron free of duty still remained in force, is considered, 

 another view presents itself. Due to the latter influence, as well as to the growth 

 of railway lines, and to the constant orders from the Crown, the activity of the ma- 

 chine works in Eussia visibly increased. The emancipation of the serfs, happily accom- 

 plished in 1861 in the name of justice and humanity by the noble hand of Alexander II, 

 also CO itributed greatly to the promotion of machine building in the Empire. This 

 humane act removed the great obstacle in the way of the growth and development 

 of machinery for agricultural purposes, namely, the gratuitous labour of the serfs, 

 since which time the demand for such machines has greatly increased. Although the 

 feeble local production of machines and implements of husbandry could not satisfy 

 the home demand, and although a large field was opened to the import of such goods, 

 still the increasing demand turned many small factories, which were formerly engaged 

 only in repairs, to the building of new machinery, and formed a somewhat consid- 

 erable group of works wholly engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements 

 and without the aid of the Government, which was given only in 1885. 



Of the most considerable manufactories established between 1860 to 1870 in 

 St. Petersburg and existing until now, are the Machine Works of Nobel, and the 

 Oboukhovsk Steel Casting and Gun Manufactory; in Moscow, the factories of List, 

 Perenood and Veihelt, for different kinds of machinery; near Moscow, that of Struve, 

 now called the Kolomensk, where at the present time locomotive engines are 

 produced on a large scale, as well as railway cars and various railway appliances; 

 this manufactory also formerly produced portable engines and machines of husbandry. 

 Many factories were established at that time also in the south of Eussia; and near 

 the Urals, the Perm Crown Works for manufacturing guns and for casting steel were 

 then organized. 



According to official data there were in all European Eussia in 1870, 145 pri- 

 vate machine factories with 27,117 hands employed, and with an output of 27,391,755 

 roubles, 16,746,434 dollars, per year. During this time the constantly growing- 

 import of foreign machinery raised to 37,576,654 roubles, or 28,987,177 dollars, the 

 foreign exchange of the paper rouble being at that time 77 cents. The period from 

 1870 to 1880 proved equally favourable to the development of machine building in 

 Russia, excepting such kinds of machinery as were imported duty free. Among the 

 measures favourable to the machine industry, already protected by a customs tariff, 

 together with the franchise of receiving iron and cast iron free of duty, should be 

 mentioned the order of the Government, issued in 1876, concerning the increase of 



