Odessa Grain Trade. 



8? 



to the trade of the city of Odessa. It appears that there are 

 signs of increased business activity at the port, although the 

 grain export trade is itself decreasing. In this connection it 

 is stated that the grain available for exportation from 

 Russia does not represent an actual surplus above the local 

 requirements, but rather the quantity which the farmers sell 

 in order to meet the many claims of direct and indirect 

 taxation. Indeed, it is held that if the underfed and im- 

 poverished peasants were to consume the same amount of 

 food as a Western European labourer there would be little or 

 no grain left for exportation. This artificial state of things 

 is said to be well understood by the Russian Government, 

 which for more than a third of a century has been seeking 

 some solution to the problem by adopting protectionist 

 measures in order to foster home industries and, by 

 making the country self-supporting, to render the poorer 

 classes less dependent upon agriculture for their livelihood. 

 This transition from agriculture to industry has to a certain 

 extent been realised, and its effect is visible in the present 

 condition of Odessa, where, as already stated, the export of 

 grain has decreased ; and, agriculture having to some degree 

 given way to industry, there has been a greater internal 

 consumption of grain in conseqnence. 



Several other factors, moreover, prevent the development of 

 agriculture. In the first place, the climate is represented as 

 the most formidable obstacle to an increased production of 

 grain, owing to the many extreme changes of temperature 

 and the insufficiency of rain and snow at critical periods of 

 the year. Even when the crops have escaped destruction by 

 the frosts or droughts and yielded an abundant harvest, the 

 Russian peasant is at the mercy of middlemen who abound 

 in agricultural districts, and by whom the bulk of the profits 

 are greedily swallowed up. 



It is therefore feared that for some time to come the 

 Russian peasant will remain a stranger to prosperity, al- 

 though the Government is endeavouring to provide remedies 

 by the abrogation of customs duty on fertilisers, agricultural 

 machines and implements, and other agricultural requisites ; 

 by the establishment of stores for their sale on a system of 



F 2 



