194 



SlUEUIA. 



CHAPTKK XII. 

 Manufacturing industry and the home trade. 



Rxcisiihle iiidusliies, spirit, vodka, Leer and nn^ad; beet sugar, tobaccu and match'js: 



non-excisable productions; distribution of trade dues and statement of the tuniover and 



profits of commercial and industrial undertakings; the exchange of wares between European 



Russia and Siberia; trade in the towns; fairs and their importance to Siberia. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the wealth of Sibeiia in the productions of the three natural king- 

 doms, manufacturing industry has not been able here to develop itself to a coiTesponding 

 extent on the one hand, in consequence of the scanty population of this vast territory, and 

 on the other, on account of the lack of convenient and cheap communications. In view of 

 this, in spite of the repeated attempts of the Government and of pri^'ate persons to establish 

 industry on a large scale in Siberia, manufactories and works have been started there only 

 with great difficulty, and only those of them have had success which served to satisfy the 

 local wants of a small population, or produced an article of such value that it might bear 

 the cost of carriage to a great distance with profit. 



The state of spirit distilling in Siberia appears from the following table. 



Spirit in Eastern Siberia is mainly distilled from rye and wheat flour, a poud of the 

 dry material yielding on an average 41 • 12 degrees of spirit. This industry is concentrated 

 for the most part in the Irkutsk government, where in 1891, 20,800,000 degrees were produced, 

 next in the Yeniseisk with 15,300,000 degrees, and in Transbaikalia, 14,200,000 degrees. In 

 the Yakutsk territory distilling is entirely absent. 



