STATISTICS OF THE OIL TRADE. 161 



for 1901 showing an increase of 1,145,161 tons on the 

 previous year, and of 10,467,742 tons on the output of 

 twenty years ago. The capital sunk has of course 

 largely increased, as is shown by the fact that in 

 December 1902 there were 1423 wells yielding oil, as 

 compared with 324 in the same month ten years ago, 

 564 new wells being bored in the course of the year 

 1902, as compared with 200 in 1892, while in 1900 as 

 many as 1010 wells were sunk. 



Oil from Baku naturally travels far, the rival wells 

 of Pennsylvania and Lima being situated at a comfort- 

 able distance on the other side of the globe ; and the 

 first thing I saw on the outskirts of Irkutsk, in far-off 

 Siberia, was a large oil-tank bearing the name of Nobel 

 of Baku, and one of the last things I noticed at the 

 end of my journey was an office of the same firm at 

 Dalni on the confines of the Far East. The huge 

 export, soon to be further assisted by means of a 

 government pipe laid from Baku to Tiflis, similar to 

 the one already existing between Tiflis and Batum — 

 in 1901, 1,198,387 tons of naphtha products were 

 exported abroad from Batum as compared with 51,613 

 tons to Russia — is, however, to a certain extent arti- 

 ficial, the high excise duty of 60 kopecks per pood 

 (about 4|d. per gallon) being responsible for the prices 

 in Russia being as high and sometimes higher than 

 they are in London ! Thus, though the average price 

 of kerosene at Baku^ in 1901 was about Id. a gallon, 

 the excise duty brought it up to over 5d., the price in 

 London in December of that year varying from 6^d. 

 to 6|-d. a gallon. For further comparison take the 

 prices of kerosene in December 1900, which were at 

 Baku 2 1 J-d. a gallon, at Tzaritzin in South Russia 6|^d. 

 a gallon, and in London 5|-d. to 6^d. a gallon. At the 



^ Actual price free on waggon. 2 ibid. 



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