120 RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



The productions and exports of Russia, in general, are many, and 

 very valuable ; viz. furs and peltry of various kinds, red leather, 

 linen and thread, iron, copper, sail cloth, hemp and flax, pitch and 

 tar, wax, honey, tallow, isinglass, linseed oil, pot-ash, soap, feathers, 

 train-oil, hogs' bristles, musk, rhubarb, and other drugs, timber, and 

 also raw silk from China and Persia. The Ukraine may be called the 

 granary of the empire : the best corn, hemp, flax, honey, and wax, 

 come from this fertile province, and 10,000 head of horned cattle are 

 annually sent from its pastures into Silesia and Saxony. 



The annual produce of the copper mines is about 7,350,000 lbs. 

 Upwards of 5,000,000 dollars worth of iron is exported yearly. Tim- 

 ber and boards exported have been valued at $ 1,500,000 per annum. 

 The value of hemp exported in 1793 was 8 6,066,615 ; flax g 4,104,100, 

 with great quantities of hemp and flaxseed, and nearly 2,000,000 gal- 

 lons oil. The value of flax exported in 1802 amounted to nearly 

 8 6,000,000. The exports of sail-cloth in the same year was estima- 

 ted at 8 3,537,856. In 1803 there were exported from the ports on 

 the Baltic and Archangel 34,500 tons of tallow, worth upwards of 

 8 9,500,000. The produce of neat cattle exported the same year was 

 83,118,571. 



Wheat, rye, barley and oats, -the same year, exported to the amount 

 of g 11,496,245. 



The balance of trade in favour of Russia, is said to amount to 

 8 5,000,000 per annum. 



Russia carries on a commerce over land, by caravans, to China, 

 chiefly in furs : and they bring back from thence tea, silk, cotton, 

 gold, Sec. To Bochary, near the river Oxus in Tartary, Russia sends 

 her own merchandise, in return for Indian silks, curled lamb-skins, 

 and ready money ; and also to the annual fare at Samarcand : she 

 likewise trades to Persia by Astracan, across the Caspian Sea, for 

 raw and wrought silk. The late empi'ess, in 1784, issued an edict, 

 permitting all foreigners to carry on a free trade by sea and land with 

 the several countries bordering on the Euxine, which have been 

 lately annexed to the empire. The same privileges, religious and 

 civil, are allowed to them in the ports of Cherson, Sebastopolis, and 

 Theodosia (formerly Caffa) in the province of Taurida, as in Peters- 

 burg. 



Government. ...The sovereign of the Russian empire is absolute 

 and despotic in the fullest extent of those terms, and master of the 

 lives and properties of all his subjects, who, though they are of the 

 first nobility, or have been highly instrumental in promoting the wel- 

 fare of the state, may, notwithstanding, for the most trifling offence, 

 or even for no offence at all, be seized upon and sent to Siberia, or 

 made to drudge for life upon the public works, and have all their 

 goods confiscated, whenever the sovereign or his ministers shall think 

 proper. Persons of any rank may be banished into Siberia, for the 

 slightest political intrigue; and their possessions being confiscated, 

 a whole family may at once be ruined by the insinuations of an artful 

 courtier. 



Laws.. ..The system of civil laws established in Russia is very im- 

 perfect, and in many instances barbarous and unjust; being an as- 

 semblage of laws and regulations drawn from most of the states of 

 Europe, ill digested, and in many respects not at all adapted to the 

 genius of the Russian nation. But the late empress made some at- 

 tempts to reform the laws, and put them upon abetter footing.. The 



