68 SIBERIA 



purchases his milk. In this way the firm that is 

 most likely to outlive the rest is the one that is backed 

 up by a Government subsidy, usually the village 

 council, who are also the owners of most of the 

 cattle and can therefore be trusted to dispose of their 

 milk to the best advantage. 



Only a few years ago the whole of the Siberian 

 butter trade was in the hands of Russian and Danish 

 merchants, who had offices in all the leading butter 

 centres ; but during the last three years at least 

 eleven large London importers have entered into 

 direct business relations with the Siberian dairies, 

 importing butter without any intermediaries. In 

 consequence of a provision of the Russian law which 

 prohibits foreign firms from conducting operations 

 within the Empire unless at least one member of 

 the firm is on the spot to take all responsibility, 

 the name of the British firm's local manager is used. 

 This is generally a Dane who, from long residence 

 in Siberia, possesses some knowledge of the lapguag'e. 

 Ignorance of the Russ;ian languag'e, in fact, has inter- 

 fered with the possibility of many a good English 

 manager being appointed to one of these butter- 

 buying dep6ts, whereas British capital is every bit 

 as truly invested in the country through Danish 

 agents as that of Danish firms, while the British 

 importer is actually buying more extensively. These 

 facts igo to show that our countrymen are not 

 aHogether so backward in realising the possibilities 

 for trade with Siberia as some writers would have 

 us believe. One of these gentlemen has gone so 

 far as to say, that " the Dane rules a Butter 

 Kingdom of 160,000 square miles, or an area about 

 equal to that of Germany." This may have been 

 true at one time, but it is anciejit history now. It is 

 British enterprise that rules the Siberian markets 

 to-day, and it is, moreover, the British capitalist who 



