OF INDUSTRIES. 41 



And the same depreciation is seen for all im- 

 ported goods, although not always in the same 

 proportion. 



It would be a gross error to imagine that the 

 decline of foreign imports is mainly due to high 

 protective duties. The decline of imports is 

 much better explained by the growth of home 

 industries. The protective duties have no doubt 

 contributed (together with other causes) towards 

 attracting German and English manufacturers 

 to Poland and Russia. Lodz the Manchester 

 of Poland is quite a German city, and the 

 Russian trade directories are full of English and 

 Gorman names. English and German capitalists, 

 English engineers and foremen, have planted 

 within Russia the improved cotton manufactures 

 of their mother countries ; they are busy now 

 in improving the woollen industries and the 

 production of machinery ; while Belgians have 

 rapidly created a great iron industry in South 

 Russia. There is now not the slightest doubt 

 and this opinion is shared, not only by econo- 

 mists, but also by several Russian manufacturers 

 that a free-trade policy would not check the 

 further growth of industries in Russia. It would 

 only reduce the high profits of those manufac- 

 turers who do not improve their factories 

 and chiefly rely upon cheap labour and long 

 hours. 



