APPENDIX. 411 



Operations of the commerce which passed through the 

 custom-houses of the circle of Siberia in 1830. The trade 

 on the Siberian frontier fills an important space in the whole 

 field of our exterior commercial relations, and its progress is 

 deserving of attention on account of its great influence on our 

 domestic industry. Notwithstanding the small number of 

 Russian merchants that are engaged in it, and the thinness 

 of the population near the frontier, with the vicinity of the 

 Thirghises who separate us from the states of Asia and pre- 

 vent a rapid developement, there has been annually, on the 

 whole, an increase. Our woollen goods, our cottons, our silks, 

 and our wrought metals of different kinds, find advantageous 

 sales on that side. The skins of the cattle which the Asiatics 

 supply to us are converted into leather, and returned again with 

 a profit. In exchange for our various commodities we receive 

 Chinese silver, cattle, furs, which are sent into China, cotton, 

 wool, camel's hair, down of rabbits, as well as some articles of 

 cotton and silk of Asiatic fabrication. The operations at the 

 custom-houses have been as follow: 



Importations. 1829. 1830. 



Roubles. Roubles. 



Custom-house at Petropaulousk 972,556 1,453,624 



at Semipalatinsk 430,344 343,901 



1,402,900 1,807,525 



Exportations. 



Custom-house at Petropaulousk 967,822 1,150,254 



at Semipalatinsk 570,803 505,233 



1,537,625 1,655,487 



Besides this there was imported at Petropaulousk, in 1829, 

 4 poods 25 J pounds of China silver; and in 1830, 6 poods 

 29 pounds; and at Semipalatinsk, 155 poods in 1829, and 

 166 poods in 1830. 



" Moscow, March 31, 1831. 



" The fair of Irbit l this year is said by the traders who 

 have returned from thence to have been more beneficial than 



1 Irbit is a town on the river of the same name, in the Russian government 



