Export of Beer from Hamburg. 



39i 



Proposed Regulation of the Grain Trade in Russia. 



A Commission, numerously constituted, and appointed by 

 the Russian Minister of Finance, held several sittings during 

 the winter of 1897-98 for the purpose of considering the 

 whole question of the Russian grain trade and devising 

 means for its amelioration. This question formed the sub- 

 ject of deliberation of a similar Committee in 1893, but no 

 practical results folloAved. The conclusions arrived at by the 

 Committee of 1897-98, which were submitted for approval 

 to the Ministers of Finance and Agriculture, were in the 

 main directed to the establishment throughout the grain- 

 producing districts of small granaries for the concentration 

 therein of grain grown by the peasantry ; and the establish- 

 ment of a series of large grain elevators at certain railway 

 points, at river wharfs and ports, and at the centres of the 

 grain trade in the provinces. They also recommended that a 

 maximum percentage of dross or extraneous matter in grain 

 intended for export should be fixed by law, and that exchange, 

 committees, with the approval of the Minister of Finance, 

 should fix the standards of purity of grain for exportation. 



The above proposals of the Commission have been referred 

 for final drafting to a special Council of the Ministry of 

 Finance and will be submitted to the Council of the Empire. 



In regard to the inspection of grain at ports and harbours 

 which was made optional by the Commission of 1893, much 

 opposition is shown on account of the delays and vexations 

 the trade would suffer from it, and of the great difficulty 

 attending the establishment of purity and type standards for 

 grain, which, wheat especially, is produced in such variety 

 and under such varying conditions of soil and climate 

 throughout the Russian Empire. 



{Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, Ak.2343. Price 5^.] 



Production and Export of Beer at Hamburg. 

 According to Mr. W. Ward, H.M. Consul-General at Ham- 

 burg, there were in 1 898 fifteen large breweries in or near 



