CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. 227 



demand arose for considerable quantities of acids, particularly sulphuric, and for its 

 salts, especially blue copperas and the alums, potassium C3'anide et cetera, produced from 

 local materials, for example, pyrites. Thus, for instance, Ushkov's works on the Kama 

 near Elabouga were founded in the tifties for converting the Ural chrome iron 

 ore into chromic salts, and these works have commenced using Ural copper pyrites 

 in large quantities. So also several sulphuric acid works were started in Baku during 

 the seventies and eighties, for the manufacture of acid from Sicilian and Caucasian 

 sulphur, and for treating the products of the distillation of naphtha. But. as the customs 

 tariff of that period allowed the majority of the foreign chemical products to pass 

 into Eussia either free of duty or with only very small dues, the majority of these 

 goods, especially caustic and carbonate of soda, bleaching powder, pharmaceutical 

 preparations, and dyes, were almost exclusively brought from abroad. This is proved 

 by the fact that the import of chemical products increased more i-apidly at this 

 time than the internal production, which only satisfied a very small portion of the 

 Eussian demand. 



Explanatory notes to the foregoing table. 



1. Besides the import across the European frontier, chemical products are also 

 imported to the Asiatic ports of the Black Sea, especially to Batoum and Poti, for 

 supplying the wants of the Caucasian naphtha industry. For instance, the following 

 amounts of caustic soda were imported through the Asiatic frontier : 



1888; 1889; 1890; 1891; 



216 153 134 142 thousand pouds. 



Under the title of chemical products the customs tariff includes besides soda 

 the import of Straasfurt salts, nitre, sulphur, antimony, arsenic, borax, cream of 

 tartar, barium, strontium, aluminium, alums, ammoniacal and other salts and oxides, 

 acetate of lime, bisulphide of carbon, various acids, copperas and green vitriol, and 

 other chemical and pharmaceutical preparations not especially mentioned ; but 

 phosphorus, ether, soap, cosmetics, glycerine, matches, varnishes, et cetera, are not 

 included. Among dyes and colouring matters the chief objects of import are : 

 indigo, cochineal and other natural dyes, logwood, ultramarine, white lead and cop- 

 per pigments, extracts of dyes and gall, alizarine and other artificial dyes, prepared 

 dyes, ink and wax. 



2. In the statistical reports the value of the yield of the chemical works is 

 given together with the production of dyes, chiefly because many works produce both 

 one and the other. But, as the extent and nature of the chemical industry cannot be 

 accurately defined, there is often much that is contradictory and not clear in the of- 

 ficial reports. 



3. The chief cause of the decline in the value of the import during the seventies 

 was the fall in the price of soda on the foreign markets ; while the rapid rise of 

 the import trade in 1878 is explained by the rise of all the customs duties; and the 

 animated state of manufactures produced a rapid development of the home pro- 



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