August 1, 1898.] THE TROPICA!, AGRICULTURIST. 
121 
In conclusion, I would venture to draw attention 
to the appended list of the Customs duties imposed 
by diiferent nations of the world,* and 
I have the honour to be. Your Excelleney's most 
obedient, humble servant, 
J. Ferguson, Editor, 
[Thirty-seven years resident in Ceylon and the 
Compiler of Books about Tropical Produce and 
Culture.] 
We were greatly encouraged in sending on the 
above by the liussian Consul, Capt. de Frisch, 
who after reading the French original for the 
Minister, was cood enough to write to us : — 
"I have read your letter to our Minister of Finance 
and my opinion is, that he will take great interest 
in your coramunication. He is a very go-ahead man 
and has done already a lot to improve the revenue 
in Eussia and possibly the contents of your communica- 
tion may be new to him and may have the result desired 
by you and the Ceylon tea planters. Over-leaf the pro- 
per address of M. de "Witte." 
But while arranging for the despatch of this 
letter, further encouragement as to the future 
of tea in Kussiu, was afforded by a friend of 
the Chairman of the Planters' Association 
who called his attention from Bombay to a pal- 
per in "Harper's Magazine" with some interest- 
ing references to M. De VVitte's interest in a 
"Spirit Monopoly" and also apparently in the 
encouragement of Temperance workers and the 
establishment of Tea-drinking rooms to win the 
people away from intemperance. It is well 
known that drunkenness is the worst failing of 
the Russian peasant and of the lower classes 
generally in the country. We reprint in full 
all of the paper in "Harper" for June that 
bears on our topic. It will be observed 
that the Temperance Committees which 
establish tea shops in the villages to counteract 
drunkenness are as much under official patronage 
as is the Spirit Monopoly. Indeed M. 
De Witte is apparently aiming at the Gothenburg 
system, and we see that Mr. Stead in the latest 
lievieio of Reviews advocates the United Kingdom 
Alliance sending out a Commissioner to Kussia 
to investigate the working of the new system. 
Tt is just possible therefore that the lessons 
offered from England and Australia as to tea-drink- 
ing may arrive at an opportune moment. In any 
case "tea" is evidently a subject much in the 
thoughts of M. de Witte. One would like to 
know how the Russian Temperance Committees 
get their tea and whether it would be possible 
to supply them direct from Ceylon. Meantime, 
let us hope that M. de Witte may take the 
letter sent on to him in good part, giving it 
some consideration, so that in due season it may 
bear fruit. From England the suggestion has 
reached us that a similar letter ought to be sent to 
the Ministers of Finance in Austria and Ger- 
many. But the tea duty in Germany is only 
6d ; in Austria it is 9d per lb; and in France 
9d to ll^d. A more useful idea would be to 
print the letter in English, French and German 
as a leaflet for distribution with Ceylon tea on 
the Continent in order to help to form a sound, 
liberal opinion and a movement for a reform 
of the tea taiiffs generally on the Continent of 
Europe, little Belgium having led the way by 
abolishing its tea duty altogether. 
* Here was appended the list of Tea Tariffs com- 
piled for the " Ceylon Directory." 
16 
"THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE AT HOME" 
By Julian Ralph, 
how the spirits monopoly and tea 
temperance societies affect the people. 
(From Hcuyer's Magazine for June 1808.) 
The utter hopelessness of the condition of the 
great black mass of peasants which underlies the 
light embroidery of the uniformed class in Eussia 
makes it the drunkenest peasantry in Europe. The 
fact that Eussia is mainly a huge farm brings to 
that mass a winter of idleness. The shortness of 
the daylight over the great northern half of the 
empire in winter tends greatly to increase the drink- 
ing habits of the muzhik. Corn brandy, or whiskey, - 
as we would say, is the staple intoxicant. It is a 
colorless liquid, as transparent as gin, but with the 
almost sparkling clearness of distilled water — fire 
would be a better word for this sparkle, because 
vodka is a liquid which starts a train of tire at 
the palate and blazes its way through one's body 
to one's boots. Sodden drunkenness is what I saw 
most of. The peculiar, hilarious, noisy, exuberant 
intoxication of the whiskey drunkard which I had 
expected to see continually, fell under my observa- 
tion only two or three times in all my journeyinga. 
Among the many important activities of M. Witte, 
the Finance Minister, none is more extraordinary 
than his effort to make the vodka trade a govern- 
ment monopoly. The scheme is attractively subtitled ; 
one to counteract the evil effects of the original 
dram-shops. It aims to provide a purer grade of whiskey 
to the masses, and to break the power of the dram-shops 
which have been so managed in the past as to make the 
pawn-shops as well as public-houses — even to the 
degree that it was possible for a muzhik to lose 
there not only his superfluities and his tools, but 
even his right to a share of village land — evenhia 
profit on his own labor. It was in 1895 that M. 
Witte began the building of the government mono- 
poly scheme by introducing it in the provinces of 
Samara, Ufa, Perm and Orenburg. Eighteen months 
later, in July 1896, it was extended to Bessarabia, 
Volhynia, Ekaterinoslav, Kiev, Podolia, Poltava, the 
Taurida, the Black Sea, and Kherson provinces. 
In these places the excise on vodka is abolished, 
and the government has established central liquor- 
depots in each province, from which supplies are 
distributed in sealed bottles and vessels to retail 
shops set up by the government in the towns and 
country districts. The little local distilleries, once 
so numerous and prosperous, are closed, and the 
drink is supplied to the state (by distilleries oper- 
ated under government control) in quantities and 
at prices fixed by the government. It is the law 
of South Carolina carried out consistently from the 
root — the purchase of the grain and its distillation 
— instead of being begun in the middle, as by Gover- 
nor Tillman. For the public convenience, let ua 
say (of course, not to increase the sale of the liquor), 
licenses are issued to tavern and restaurant keepera 
and grocers to sell the government liquor, the licen- 
sees being selected for trustworthiness and good 
repute, and they having to sign an agreement that 
their licenses are revokabla at the government's 
pleasure. In connection with the scheme. Temper- 
ance Committees are formed in each province under 
the leadership of the Governor, and in the principal 
towns under the Marshal of Nobility, to prevent 
drunkenness and establish attractive tea-shops, to 
wean the people from their taste for liquor — tea, 
by-the-way, being the commodity which it is said 
the government means next to monopolize. 
Wines, beer, and all other intoxicating beverages, 
as well as the government's vodka, may be sold by 
licenses under the same terms as the licenses for 
vodka-selling are given out. 
The government's official announcements, after 
two years of experimenting with the new law, 
are to the effect that it is working very satis- 
factorily. M. Witte made a tour of ten provinces 
iu eastern and aoathern Russia where it ia ia 
