Blackwood\'s Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII. by Various

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[40] The cotton piece goods of India were still subject, in
1814, to a duty on importation equal to 85 per cent. This duty
was reduced on the 5th of July 1819, but to L.67, 10s. per cent
only. Finally, in 1825 the duty was again reduced to 10 per
cent, at which it remains. The duty on cotton yarn imported from
India was at the same time subject to a duty of 10d. per lb.,
and so remained till 1831 at least. It must be borne in mind,
that India was the only country in the world which, before and
during the rise of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, was,
or could be, an exporter of cotton fabrics and yarns.

In the course of the discussions which terminated in the treaty of
commerce and navigation with Russia, laid before parliament on the
opening of the session--the stipulations of which, however, chiefly bore
upon the extension of certain reciprocal rights of navigation--the
Emperor Nicholas, in answer to representations pressed upon him from
this country, for a liberal extension of the same principle to the
general commerce of Russia, to foreign imports as well as shipping and
exports--to let in a glimmer of the free-trade principle, in
fact--replied, as we observed in a former article, that "the system,
such as it was, he had received from his predecessors, and it was found
to work well for the interests of his empire." The Autocrat, despot as
he may be, was not singular in the opinion; for even our esteemed friend
Count Valerian Krasinski, distinguished no less for the solidity of his
literary attainments than for the liberality of opinion and the
patriotism which condemns him to the penalty of exile in a "dear
country's cause," who therefore will not be suspected of undue bias in
favour of Russian systems, had written and published in an able article
on Russia, treating _inter alia_ of the rise and progress of her
manufactures and commerce, to the following effect:--"The manufacturers
of Russia commenced, as in other countries, with the beginning of its
political importance, but have been chiefly indebted for their
encouragement and progress to the efforts of the Government ... The
(protective) system has been steadily adhered to with constantly
increasing energy, and _the most brilliant success_, up to the present
time." This was published in 1842. We shall proceed to test the merits
of the case by reference to documents of official origin, Russian and
British--both to the latest dates to which made up in a sufficiently
complete shape for the object in view, and the former in some instances
later than any yet published in this country, and, as believed,
exclusively in our possession. We shall have to deal with masses of
figures; but to the general reader in search of truth, they can hardly
fail to be more acceptable than whole pages of allegations and
assumptions unsupported by proof, however eloquently worked out to
plausible conclusions.

We commence with laying the foundation for a comprehension of the
industrial progression of Russia, by a comparative statement of the
average imports of a few of the chief articles of consumption, raw
materials of manufacture, and manufactures, for two series, of three
years each; the first series being the earliest for which official
records can be cited, or were perhaps kept. Accidental circumstances,
and the special influences which, favourably or unfavourably, may act
upon particular years, producing at one time a feverish excess of
commercial movement, and at another, a reacting depression as unnatural,
are best corrected and balanced by taking averages of years. Thus, the
mean term of imports for 1793, 1794, and 1795, may be thus contrasted
with that for 1837, 1838, and 1839, of the following commodities:--

Annual imports, 1793-95 1837-9
Sugar, 341,356 poods 1,675,806 poods
Olive oil, 42,239 ib. 345,455 ib.
Machines and Instruments
of all kinds, for 111,300 silver rubles 1,025,264 silver rubles
Woollen cloths for 3,978,000 ib. 570,000 ib.
Raw cotton, 10,000 poods 315,000 ib.
Cotton-yarn, 50,000 ib. 600,000 ib.
Cotton fabrics for 2,600,000 silver rubles 3,866,000 ib.

During the first triennial period, a large proportion of the sugars
imported was in the refined state, the number of sugar refineries being
then very limited; in the second period, the imports consisted
exclusively of raw sugar for the numerous existing refining
establishments, which consumed besides 125,000 poods of beet-root sugar,
the produce of the beet-root works established in Southern Russia.
Woollen manufactories have so rapidly and extensively increased, that,
whereas, comparatively a few years past only, the manufacture of
woollens was confined almost exclusively to the coarser sorts for army
use, whilst the better qualities for the consumption of the more easy
classes, and for export to Asia, were imported from abroad, chiefly from
Great Britain; for the fifteen years preceding 1840 the case has been
completely altered. The import of foreign woollens has almost altogether
ceased for internal consumption in Russia, whilst no woollens but of
Russian make are now exported to Asia, and especially China. The export
of these home-made woollens figures far above two millions of rubles
yearly in the tables of Russian commerce with eastern countries. It will
be seen that while the imports of cotton yarn, in the space of forty-two
years, had increased in the proportion from 1 to 12 only, that of raw
cotton had advanced in the proportion from 1 to 32. The facts are
significant of the growing extension both of spinning factories and the
cotton manufactories. It is difficult to understand or credit the
increased imported values of cotton fabrics here represented, knowing,
as we do, the decreased export to Russia in our own tables of values and
quantities. But we shall have occasion hereafter, perhaps, to notice
some peculiarities in the Russian official system of valuations, which
may probably serve to clear up the ambiguity. But although importing
foreign cottons for internal consumption, Russia is moreover an exporter
of domestic fabrics, to the value of about one million of silver rubles,
on the side of Asia. In order to avoid as far as possible the
multiplication of figures by the accompanying reduction of the moneys
and weights of Russia into English quantities, it may be convenient to
state, that the silver ruble is equal to 37-1/2d. sterling, and, in
commercial reckoning, the pood answers to 36 lbs. avoirdupois.

Limiting our views for the present to the trade in cottons, as the
manufacture of cottons is of much more recent growth in Russia than
woollen and other manufactures, we find that the exact imports,
quantities, or values, of cotton and yarn, are thus quoted in Russian
official returns for the three last years to which made up _seriatim_.

1839. 1840. 1841.
Raw cotton, 354,832 398,189 314,000 poods.
Cotton yarn, 535,817 519,189 560,799 ...

The depressed state of the cotton trade in 1841 in this country, with
the very low prices of yarn, from consignments pushed, in consequence,
for sale at any rates against advances, were doubtless the cause of the
increased imports of yarn, and the decrease in raw cotton, exhibited in
the returns for 1841. Otherwise, the import of raw cotton has been
comparatively much more on the increase than cotton yarn for some years
past. Thus, beginning with 1822, when the cotton industry began more
rapidly to develope itself, but omitting the years just given, the
imports stood thus:--

1822. 1830. 1838.
Raw cotton, 55,838 116,314 326,707 poods
Cotton-yarn, 156,541 429,736 606,667 ib.

Now, it will not be denied that the cotton manufacture in this country
has enjoyed supereminent advantages over that of any other in the world,
whether we look at the protective scale of duties maintained for half a
century in its favour against foreign competition, or regard those
glorious inventions and improvements in machinery, of which rigorous
prohibitive laws against export, during the same period in force, long
secured it a strict, and, even to a more recent period, a _quasi_
monopoly, and gave it a start in the race, which seemed to leave all
chance of foreign concurrence, or equal ratio of progression, out of the
question altogether. Neither for spinning nor weaving could Russia, in
particular, possess any other than machinery of the rudest kind, with
hand labour, until perhaps subsequently to 1820. Her tariffs, even by
special treaty of commerce, in 1797, were entirely favourable to the
entrance and consumption of British fabrics. The prohibitory, or
Continental system of Bonaparte, was indeed substituted after the treaty
of Tilsit; but in 1816 a new tariff was promulgated, modifying the
"prohibiting system of our trade," as the Emperor Alexander, in his
ukase on the occasion, expressed it. By this tariff, cotton fabrics of
all kinds were taxed twenty-five per cent in value only; cotton yarn,
seven and a half copecs per cent; fine woollens, 1 ruble 25 copecs per
arschine; kerseymeres and blankets, twenty-five per cent on value;
flannels, camlets, druggets, cords, &c., fifteen per cent. How, then,
has Russia, subject to all these disadvantages and drawbacks, and so
late in the field, fared in comparison with this country, so long and so
far before her? Let us take the Russian data first given for the two
triennial periods, and ascertain the issue.

The mean annual imports of cotton taken for consumption into Great
Britain, deducting exports, may be thus stated in round numbers for the
two terms, 1793-4-5 and 1837-8-9.

Annual imports, 1793-5. 1837-9.
Raw cotton, 22,000,000 lbs. 391,830,000 lbs.

The ratio of progress of the manufacture, therefore, from one term to
the other, of the forty-four years, was not far from eighteenfold.

Reducing the quantities of cotton-yarn imported into Russia into the
state of raw cotton, by an allowance of about three ounces in the pound,
or nearly seven pounds per pood, for waste in the operations of
spinning, we have the following approximate results:--

Annual imports, 1793-5. 1837-9.
Raw cotton, 69,700 poods. 1027,500 poods.

The ratio of increase from term to term being thus the greater part of
fifteenfold.

But as the cotton manufacture, from circumstances referred to of
favourable tariffs for importation--comparatively free-trade
tariffs--did not begin fairly to shoot forth until 1822, it will be only
right to try the question of comparative increase by another list,
namely, as between the returns of the consumption of cotton respectively
in the two countries for that year, and one of the later years, 1839,
1840, or 1841; but say rather an average of the three. We are unable,
however, to strike a corresponding average three years forward from, but
inclusive of 1822, for want of the corresponding Russian official
returns for two of the years. On the other hand, to take the one year of
1839, when the quantity of cotton taken for consumption in this country
was at a low ebb, would be like straining for an effect, which the
impartial seeker after truth can have no object in doing, whilst the
return for 1840 would be as much in excess the other way. Thus the total
quantities of raw cotton taken for consumption in Great Britain were--

For the year 1822, 144,180,000 lbs.
Average of the three years 1839, 1840, 1841, 440,146,000 ib.

The ratio of progression in Great Britain, for the term of eighteen
years, was somewhat more than threefold.

The imports of raw cotton, and of cotton-yarn, rendered into cotton by
an allowance in addition, at the rate of about three ounces per lb. for
waste, or nearly seven pounds per pood, stand thus for Russia in round
numbers:--

For the year 1822, in the shape of raw cotton, 55,838 poods.
... ... Cotton yarn calculated into about 186,900
-------
Total cotton, 242,738
Average raw cotton imports of 1839-40-41 355,673
Id. of cotton yarn calculated into cotton, 643,300
-------
Total cotton, 998,973

The ratio of increase in the cotton manufacture of Russia, for the same
term of eighteen years, was therefore considerably more than fourfold.
And this steady but extraordinary superiority of Russian progression
took place in the face of all those prosperity years, when, from 1833 to
1838, the British cotton manufacture was stimulated, and bloated to
excess, with the high prices resulting from the flash bank-paper and
loan system of the United States, and the mad joint-stock banking freaks
of Lancashire.

The average import and consumption of raw cotton in Russia, and of yarn
calculated into cotton, was at the rate, on the average of the three
years cited, of about, 35,963,000 lbs. per annum;

Which approximates the position of the Russian with that of the cotton
manufacture of France as existing in the year 1818, when the consumption
of raw cotton is officially stated at, 16,974,159 kilogrammes;

And with that of the cotton manufacture of the United States in 1828,
when the quantity consumed at home was stated at about, 35,359,000 lbs.

It will still be insisted, doubtless, as all along it has never failed
to be the cuckoo-note of unreflecting theorists, that the manufactures
of Russia have flourished, and are flourishing, in spite of protection;
that the only effect of protection is to repress their growth and mar
their perfection. The assertion stands ready-made, and ever the stock on
hand; it is a rash and blindfold speculation upon chance and futurity,
at the best; a building without a corner stone; a _chateau-d'Espagne_
nowhere to be found. Where, except in the glowing fictions of
Scheherezade, may the personification of such a phantom be detected?
History, whether ancient or modern, may be ransacked in vain for one
footprint of the realised existence and miraculous economical prodigies
worked upon the absolute free-trade principle, in the spontaneous
creation, the progress unrivalled, the prosperity Pactolean, of
ingenious manufactures. The El-Dorado region has yet to be discovered;
will Cobden, like another Columbus in search of new worlds, adventure
upon the desperate enterprise, and furnish the writer of romance with
apt materials for the frights and freaks of another "phantom ship" on
the wide ocean? If so inclined, indeed, we may commend him to an
undertaking now, at this present writing, in actual progress, as we
learn from assured sources and high quarters, in Paris. A goodly ship of
substantial proportions is now preparing in a French port, richly
freighted for an interesting voyage with the products of French
industry, with destination for the great sea-river of the Amazons, for
navigating its thousands of miles of unploughed course, and exploring
those realms untold of, those interminable wastes recorded, and those
numberless nations as yet unknown, if existing, which coast the vast
expanse of its waters to the utmost limits of Brazil, and the very
confines of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. The King of the French is
himself the patron and promoter of this great enterprise. Hasten, then,
friend Cobden, erratic and chivalrous as Quixote of old, to "swell the
breezes and partake the gale" of an expedition so glorious; for know,
that on the banks of the noble Amazons itself, the magnificent
queen-river, most worthy in the world of such distinction, have poets,
romancers, and chroniclers, undoubting, from all time, sung of and
planted the resplendent empire of the El-Dorado itself.

Our design being to demonstrate, by the force of example and contrast,
the sophistical absurdity of absolute theories, that, however naturally
and harmoniously their parts may be made to correspond in thesis and
system as a whole, according to which the same consequences, upon a
given principle, should inevitably flow from certain causes, yet that,
practically, it is found the same causes do not produce the same
effects, even when circumstances are most analogous; that, for instance,
the protective, or restrictive system of industry, under the rule of
which Spain languishes, notwithstanding the abundant possession of the
first materials for the promotion of manufacturing, and the prosperity
of agricultural interests, proves, at the other extremity of Europe, the
spring of successful progress and industrial accumulation, and renders
Russia prosperous, though proportionally not more largely gifted with
those natural elements of wealth and production which consist in
fertility of soil, in mines of the precious metals, of coal, iron, &c.
We shall pursue our task to its completion before we proceed to draw and
sum up those conclusions which must follow from the premises
established, before we enter in order upon the analysis and dissection
of the one absolute principle or theory, by which, in the conceit of
certain sage travellers on the royal railroad to wisdom, eager for the
end and impatient of the toil of thinking, the economical destinies of
all nations should be cut, carved, and adjusted _secundum artem_, with
mathematical precision and uniformity, according to the rule invariable
of robber Procrustes, the ancient founder of the sect, who constructed a
bed--that is, a system of certain proportions of size--that is, upon a
certain principle--upon which he laid his victims; those found too short
to fit the dimensions of the pallet, he stretched and tortured into the
length required; those too long he fitted by decapitating the
superabundance of head and shoulders, or by squaring off the legs and
feet; just as economists would sever nations with their invariable
system; just as, with their selfish and one-sided, sordid idea, the
junta of Leaguers, rule and plummet in hand, would deal with the British
empire, with its vast possessions in every clime, on which the sun never
sets, peopled by races numerous and diverse of origin as of interests,
multifarious, complicated, often conflicting. "_L'etat_," said Louis le
Grand, "_c'est moi_." "The British empire"--bellows Syntax Cobden--"'tis
_me_ and printed calicoes." "The British government and
legislature"--exclaims Friend Bright--"'tis I and Rochdale flannel."

It is a strange, and, with our qualified and not exclusive opinions, not
less a discouraging complication of affairs with which we have to deal,
that, look among the great nations where we will, we find, to a great
extent, that the protective system of commerce, where in force, or where
it has superseded a _quasi_ free-trade system before in force, has
conduced, in no small degree, to the advancement of material interests.
The Germanic Customs' Union, that peculiar handicraft creation of Lord
Palmerston, is there to confirm the fact, no less than Russia, than
France, than Belgium, and other lands. The League themselves
ostentatiously proclaim it, whilst pretending to impugn the retention of
the very shadow of a shade of the same principle, for the country, above
all others, which has grown to greatness under it--the very breath of
whose nostrils it has been, during the struggles of infancy and progress
to that full-blown maturity, when assuredly it seeks, (and need seek
only,) willingly proffers, and readily accepts, equality of
condition--reciprocity of interchange, with all the world. "The
Manchester manufacturer"--the false _nom-de-guerre_ of a calico printer,
who was not a manufacturer at all, and could scarcely distinguish a
calico from a cambric at the time of writing, who erst was, is yet,
perchance, the trumpeter of Russian policy, Russian principles, and
Russian progress in the East and elsewhere--must be grateful for the
information we have already afforded on the full careering ascendency of
Russian material interests also. His gratitude will expand as he
accompanies these pages.

Peter the Great laid the foundations of Russian manufactures, as of the
Russian empire itself. He founded manufactories in all the larger
cities. But with his death they fell into decay until the reign of
Elizabeth. With that epoch began their revival, and the more rigorous
revival also of the prohibitory system. Their present imposing
appearance and magnitude date, however, from the peace of 1815, the
great parent and promoter of all continental manufactures. In 1812 no
more than 2,332 manufacturing establishments in the whole empire were in
existence, employing 119,000 work-people; in 1835 the number of the
former had reached to 6,015, and of the latter to 279,673, the half of
the free labourers. At the beginning of 1839, says the report of the
department of manufactures and internal commerce--the last which,
hitherto, has been made up or come to our hands--the number of factories
and manufactories had risen to 6,855, an increase over the year
preceding of 405, whilst the number of workmen employed in them was
412,931, an increase over the year before of 35,111. Thus, in the space
of three years, from 1835 to the end of 1838, 810 new establishments had
been organized, and the number of workmen augmented by one-half. These
industrial establishments were non-inclusive of mining works, iron
works, &c., and the people employed in them. They were classed as
follows:--

Woollen manufactories, 606
Silk ib. 227
Cotton ib. 467
Linen ib. 216
Tanneries, 1918
Tallow works, 554
Candle ib. 444
Soap ib. 270
Hardware ib. 486

The seat of Russian manufactures is principally in the central portion
of the empire, in its ancient capital Moscow, and the surrounding
provinces. The progress of Moscow itself may be thus briefly sketched,
after remarking that in the beginning of 1839 there existed in the
government, of which it was the capital city, 1058 manufactories,
employing 83,054 work-people. In the 315 manufactories of the
neighbouring province of Vladimir, 83,655 work-people were employed; in
the equally adjacent province of Kalouga, 164 manufactories gave work to
20,401 workmen. The population of Moscow, the Manchester of Russia,
amounted in 1825 to 241,514; in 1827 it had risen to 257,694; in 1830 to
305,631; in 1833 to 333,260; in 1840 to 347,224. The principal
manufactories were thus classed for the latter year.

Silk manufacture, 68 looms, 2217
Cotton ib. 139 ib. 7252
Woollen cloth ib. 51 ib. 2960
Other woollen stuff ib. 16 ib. 579
Shawl ib. 17 ib. 282

In thirteen of the chief factories there were 263 spinning machines;
three cotton factories alone contained 138. Besides these larger
establishments, 3122 workshops, not considerable enough to be ranked as
manufactories, employed alone 19,638 work-people; and 142 industrial
establishments, such as founderies, breweries, distilleries, tallow and
soap works, &c., gave bread to thousands more.

The consumption of the principal raw materials of manufacture is thus
stated as an average of that and recent preceding years.

Cotton for the twenty spinneries of Moscow, 100,000 poods per an.
Cotton yarn, 300,000 ...
Dyed cotton yarn 200 ...
Raw silk, 30,000 ...
Dye woods, 100,000 ...
Madder, 250,000 ...

The machinery for the manufactories is made for the most part in the
founderies and machine-works of Vladimir, Tamboff, Kalouga, and Riazan,
but, above all, in the city of Tula and the village of Parlovo. In
McCulloch's _Statistical Dictionary_, the number of steam-engines in the
government of Moscow is stated, for 1830, at about 100--in 1820, two
only being in existence. On what authority the statement is given does
not appear; our own documents, to 1841 inclusive, are silent on that
head. For Moscow, with its immediate environs, the total number and the
produce of the cotton looms are thus given:--

Cotton loom, 17,000
Producing annually, 450,000 pieces of calico
Do. 400,000 do. of nankeen
Do. above, 2,000,000 do. of handkerchiefs
In the whole, inclusive
of other goods, such as
muslins, velvets, &c., &c.,
equal to above, 40,000,000 arschines of fabrics
Valued at 7,500,000 silver rubles.

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