FOREIGN TKADE. 221 



abolished in 1868; and besides this, a free import of Kiakhta teas iDto the government of 

 Turkestan was granted with the unconditional prohibition against the import of any kind 

 of tea thence into the Russian Empire, a duty being also levied upon any tea imported 

 into Turkestan from any of the neighbouring Khanates. On the same grounds, and also in 

 consequence of the impossibility of European merchandise penetrating into Russia by this 

 route and in order to facilitate commercial intercourse with the Khanates of Central 

 Asia, the importation of all kinds of goods from there was allowed free of duty. Experience 

 however, soon proved that the free import of Kiakhta teas into the region of Turkestan did 

 not justify the hopes which had been originally entertained as the inhabitants of Central Asia 

 acquired the habit of using Indian teas and cheap and harmless native substitutes which 

 found a ready sale among the inexacting consumers. The teas of Kiakhta, on account of there 

 comparatively high price were beyond the reach of inhabitants, the majority of which were 

 extremely poor. At the same time it was discovered that a large amount of Kiakhta tea 

 imported duty free into Turkestan, was not consumed in that country but secretly conveyed 

 from there into Russia, thus occasioning considerable loss to the fair-trade. Apart from 

 this, in course of time, the region to which the free import of tea had been granted became 

 changed; it had originally consisted of the provinces of Syr-Darya and Semirechinsk to which 

 the province of Ferghana, the Zaravshansk district and the department of the Amou-Darya 

 were subsequently annexed, and the province of Semirechinsk was incorporated into the 

 domains of the new Governor-General of the steppes. 



The economic and political aspects of this border land of Russia also underwent 

 certain essential alterations; Kuldzha which was occupied by the Russian forces in order 

 to terminate the revolt of the Dungans and Taranchlns was receded to China and the 

 treaty of St. Petersburg in 1881 accurately determined the frontier between Russia 

 and western China, and also the points for the admission of goods and regulated the 

 interchange of merchandise. The Insurrection in western China little by little subsided; 

 the traces of it are beginning to disappear and a regular and busy trade has estab- 

 lished Itself between Russia and China. Russian manufactured goods have not only pen- 

 etrated into Kashgar, but have even supplanted the English wares, and Russia has in 

 this way obtained a fairly lucrative distant market. In Kuldzha, in the district of Tarbaga- 

 taisk and in western Mongolia Russian goods have competed with equal success against those 

 of England. On account of the considerations already mentioned, and also in consequence of 

 the Impossibility of establishing a customhouse cordon between Turkestan and the Russian 

 Empire, and also in order to put an end to the abuses in the free tea trade, it was found 

 expedient to cancel the above mentioned privelege in 1888. In order to attain the object in 

 view a customhouse Inspection was simultaneously instituted on the frontier betw^n Semi- 

 rechinsk and China, as China teas might otherwise be Imported from Kuldzha into that prov- 

 ince free of duty or hindrance. 



The high duty on tea renders it profitable to convey it from very distant 

 places so that tea upon which no duty had been levied could easily make its way into 

 the provinces of Semirechinsk and Semipalatinsk, and thence to Tomsk and even pe- 

 netrate into the interior of I^uropean Russia and thus cover a very extensive region. 



