FOREIGN TRADE. 2 1 9 



draught vessels drawing less than fourteen feet of water. Next come the inconreniences of 

 the navigation in the stormy Tartar straits and in the mouth of the firth of the Amour. 

 Finally there is the roadlessness of Transhaikalia. 



The carriage per pond of tea from Ilan-Kow through Irkutsk to Xizhni-Xovgorod. the 

 chief centre of the trade in the tea imported by this route, costs about IS to 20 rouhles. 



Carriage from Ilan-Kow via Thian-Tsin, Pekin and Urga to Kiaklita 7. 2S rouhles 



Expenditure at Kiakhta and carriage to Irkutsk 3. 00 ;> 



From Irkutsk to Xizhni G. <i0 » 



Insurance from Thian-Tsin to Xizhni (2' '4 per cent) 0. 90 > 



Percentage on capital invested i. 43 ;> 



Total. 18. Gl roubles 



The goods sometimes are a year on the road; they require extremely careful packing, 

 the sewing of the tea boxes into leather cases, and watchful supervision in transit; all these 

 circumstances make the tea traders prefer the sea route, even although the freight should 

 somewhat exceed the difference in the duties. 



The cost of the conveyance of tea via Nikolaevsk, Sretensk, Irkutsk and Xizhni, is 

 composed of the following elements: from Han-Kow to Nikolaevsk with packing, insurance, 

 commissions and other expenses, 2.65 roubles; from Xikolaevsk to Sretensk, including tranship- 

 ment and various general expenses, 2.3() roubles; from Sretensk by road to Irkutsk, 5.55 

 roubles, thence to Nizhni 6 roubles; the total, 1G.50 roubles. 



The sea route is considerably cheaper, from Han-Kow to Odessa, including packing, 

 insurance, freight, commissions, customs duties in Odessa, insurance and carriage further 

 by rail to Xizhni, amounts in all to about 6 roubles. Accordingly, a poud of tea in Xizhni 

 brought thither from Han-Kow via Odessa costs 12.60 roubles cheaper than that imported 

 via Kiakhta, and this difference as a matter of fact almost corresponds to the customs 

 difference of 8 roubles gold. 



The customary route, along which from old times tea has passed in transit through 

 Siberia into European Russia, begins at Kiakhta or more exactly at Irkutsk and coincides 

 with the great Siberian tract, which runs from Irkutsk through Tomsk to Tinmen. However 

 the comparative dearness of this route not seldom made the tea tradeis forward their 

 precious freight by more dangerous roads in the hope of a small reduction in the cost of 

 carriage. P'requently the tea caravans were arrested en route in consequence of the early 

 freezing of the Ket, or Chulym or were damaged on the Angara and Yenisei. But notwith- 

 standing all this they even not seldom avoid the great Siberian tract, passing through 

 Bisk by the Chuisk road or from Kalgan to Uliasutai to the upper waters of the Yenisei 

 and thence are floated d(jwn on rafts to Minousinsk. Even when following the great Siberian 

 tract the conveyance of tea with the same view to economy has somewhat changed its 

 character. Formerly tea took this route entirely overland, but now a portion of it from 

 Irkutsk is conveyed by water on the Angara to Yeniseisk, is thence carried in carts to 

 Makovsk on the river Ket, IMeletsk or Berlluz on the Chulym, and then by water to Tinmen. 



