Blackwood\'s Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII. by Various
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Various >> Blackwood\'s Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII.
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The arschine is about twenty-eight English inches. The silk manufacture,
of recent establishment only in Moscow, presented the following results,
for that city and the surrounding districts:--
Number of common looms, 10,000
Jacquard, more than 5,000
Producing annually, 15,000,000 arschines of st
Valued at 10,000,000 silver rubles.
The woollen manufactories of Moscow, inclusive of the environs, employed
apart smaller loom shops:--
Looms, 5,139
Producing yearly, 30,000 pieces of superior quality
Do. more than 50,000 do. ordinary for the army
And do. 700,000 arschines of light cloths for China.
The values not given. The imports of merchandise from Moscow by water,
of which alone exact and detailed particulars are stated, amounted in--
1837, to 22,881,000 rubles assignation
1838, 22,074,563 ...
1839, 17,467,391 ...
1840, 28,283,877 ...
Three and a half rubles assignation, are equal to one silver ruble.
Moscow enjoys the advantage of being an internal bonded port, or port of
intrepot, a privilege now seeking by Manchester, so that importers of
foreign merchandise are not called upon for the payment of duties until
the moment when, withdrawing their imports, or any other portion of them
as occasion requires, the payment becomes necessary. Formerly the duties
had to be paid in the frontier ports, and often in bulk. The customhouse
revenue resulting, amounted in--
1837, to 637,074 rubles assignation
1838, 614,464 ...
1839, 626,764 ...
1840, 776,021 ...
1841, 898,398 ...
These returns are proof indisputable of industrial and social progress.
It is unnecessary further to remark upon the great and growing
importance of other branches of industry in Moscow, or to extend the
limits of this notice so far as to comprise a review of the iron and
hardware manufactories, and the numerous tanneries of Tula and Perm. The
active movement of internal commerce, may, however, be inferred from the
returns of products exhibited and sold at twelve fairs held annually,
with one thrice, and another twice, in the year, the total value of
which exposed for sale in 1840, was stated at 101,551,000 silver rubles,
and of the quantity actually sold at 64,326,700 rubles. Of which alone
at--
On Sale. Sold.
Nijny Novgorod, for 47,264,967 38,828,984 silver rubles
Irbit, 12,232,286 7,682,000 ...
Romna, 2d fair 9,001,904 4,454,747 ...
Kharkoff, 1st fair, 5,743,280 2,944,390 ...
Koursk, 7,014,802 2,014,834 ...
The great fair of Nijny Novgorod may rival with Leipzig in the magnitude
of its transactions. In 1841, the general movement of values at this
fair is thus returned:--
Merchandise for sale, 50,506,606 silver rubles, or 176,773,121 rbls. ass.
Sold, 41,704,236 ... 145,964,826 ...
By decree of the government, within the last three years, the public
accounts, before kept in rubles assignation, that is government paper
money, were ordered to be reckoned in silver rubles. For purposes of
comparison with former years, we state them in both. Of the mass of
commodities thus in motion at the fair, there were of Russian
manufactures and indigenous products, to the total value of 37,132,693
silver rubles exposed for sale, and for 29,762,473 sold; some other
chief articles ranging thus;--
For sale. Sold.
Cotton goods, 7,336,665 5,947,865 silver rubles.
Woollens, 3,448,295 2,620,175 ...
Linen and hempen fabrics, 3,126,736 2,375,736 ...
Silks, 3,220,489 2,239,989 ...
Leather, worked and not, 1,043,583 876,083 ...
Produce of mines and
founderies, iron, copper,
hardware, jewellery, 7,600,330 6,450,330 ...
Tea, for 7,107,500 rubles assignation, and other products of China, were
brought to the fair; raw cotton, cotton-yarn, shawls, silks, skins, &c.
from Persia and Asia, to the value of 29,796,819 roubles assignation,
and chiefly sold. Of the products of Western Europe, which make but a
miserable exhibit, the following are the chief:--
Woollen stuffs, for 256,455 silver rubles.
Cottons, 510,830 ...
Linens and hempen fabrics, 192,300 ...
Silks, 423,130 ...
Indigo, 918,000 ...
The growing magnitude of this fair will be appreciated by the following
returns of former years:--
Total commodities
for sale. Rubles assignation.
1829, 104,018,586 of which sold for 50,104,971 rbls. ass.
1831, 129,457,600 ... 98,329,520 ...
1833, 146,207,311 ... 117,210,670 ...
1835, 143,369,240 ... 117,743,340 ...
1837, 146,638,181 ... 125,507,881 ...
1838, 156,192,500 ... 129,234,500 ...
1839, 161,643,674 ... 137,100,774 ...
1840, 165,427,384 ... 135,901,454 ...
The convenience of these fairs for the purposes of interchange, both
between different industries and the populations of different provinces
of the same empire, and with contiguous countries from which so great an
affluence of merchants with their merchandise for exchange was
attracted, has induced the government to decree the establishment of
eleven new fairs in different towns, and fifty-nine others in as many
large villages, which, in growing size, may be already compared with
towns.
The internal commercial communications of Russia are chiefly carried on
by means of those innumerable rivers and canals, that network of natural
and artificial canals, by which she is intersected through all her
extent, and which, taking their rise in various central parts of the
empire, pursue their course singly, or falling into each other, and so
constituting mighty streams, to the White sea and the Baltic, or fall
into the Black sea and the Caspian. The total movement of this internal
navigation in all the rivers, presented the following results:--
Departures from the different ports
in the interior in 1839, 60,277 barques.
( do. 24,421 rafts.
Arrivals at ( do. 46,850 barques.
( do. 17,469 rafts.
They were the convoys of merchandise
dispatched from the ports
to the value of 737,814,276 rubles ass.
Of merchandise forwarded to do. 538,921,730 ...
In 1837 the values dispatched
from, ascended only to 618,990,306 ...
Do. forwarded to 490,505,940 ...
The various and many basins of river and water communication,
scientifically arranged, and showing how all parts of that vast empire
are connected with each other through all and nearly every portion of
its territorial extent, as in the report before us, is a document worthy
of study and more minute analysis, but our limits forbid.
The foreign commerce of Russia presents the following results for
1841:--
Exports to foreign countries, 86,382,179 silver rubles.
Imports from do. 79,429,490 ...
The Russian official tables include, under the head of foreign commerce,
the exports and imports with Finland and Poland; but as they fall within
the range, in reality, of internal commerce, the accounts are better
simplified by their exclusion. The system of separate returns results,
doubtless, from the political arrangements and conventions by which
Russia acquired the possession of those two countries.
The progress of exports and imports may be thus indicated:--
1838. 1839. 1840.
Exports, 85,718,930 94,857,788 82,731,386 silver rubles.
Imports, 69,693,824 69,993,589 76,726,490 ...
The remarkable excess of exports in 1839 resulted from the large demand
for, and shipments of, corn in that year--the official value of which is
stated at 25,217,027 silver rubles; the smallest export, so far as
value, being that of 1841, valued at 10,382,509 silver rubles only.
Exclusive of corn, the exports would stand thus:--
1838 for 70,562,252 silver rubles.
1839 69,640,761 ...
1840 68,704,971 ...
1841 75,999,670 ...
Gold and silver, in bars or specie, are not comprised in these returns.
For 1841 the values thus exported were, 4,023,728 silver rubles.
... ... ... imports, 9,347,867 ib.
It is necessary, however, to travel more backwards in order to a right
appreciation of the progress of the foreign trade of Russia. This
comparison is here instituted with earlier years, premising that the
exports to Poland and Finland, amounting to some ten or twelve millions
of rubles assignation, and imports from, amounting to about three
millions, are included, and therefore swell the amount of the imports
and exports of the following years. However, to facilitate the
comparison, the silver ruble values of 1841 are multiplied into
corresponding ruble assignation values:
Exportations. Importations. Balance in favour of
Russia.
In 1830 268,887,342 197,115,340 71,772,002 rb. as.
1836 283,748,233 237,251,204 13,733,196
1837 264,485,160 251,757,177 12,727,983
1841 302,337,626 378,003,215 24,334,411
Add 11,808,743 rubles assignation for exports to, and 4,792,346 imports
from, Poland and Finland in 1841, and the real comparison would be, for
1841, exports 314,146,349, imports 282,795,561; balance in favour of
1841, 31,350,688 rubles assignation.
The bulk of Russian exportations consists of raw or first materials,
such as flax, hemp, flax-seed, oil, tallow, leather, woad, metals, and
of which to the aggregate value in 1841, of 59,773,354 silver rubles was
exported; an amount nearly stationary as compared with the three
previous years. But the export of Russian manufactures, viz. woollens,
cottons, linens, candles, cordage, and cloths for China, had improved in
aggregate amount from,--
Silver Rubles.
In 1838, 6,527,222
To, in 1841, 10,259,209
It was the trade with China by Kiachta, and latterly also by the line of
Siberia, which, however, had perhaps taken the most remarkable
extension, and was held to be most promising of future progress and
profit. The imports, and therefore the consumption, of tea in Russia,
are growing annually larger; and the exports of Russian products and
manufactures to China, equally in proportion. For by mutual convention,
as dictated by China, for regulating the commercial intercourse between
the two countries strictly limited to that frontier river port, although
now indirectly countenanced by Siberia, the trade is exclusively one of
barter; tea and silks for leather, furs, cottons, woollens, and linens.
A condition, be it observed, which serves to place beyond all doubt the
fact, that it was not the introduction and consumption, with the
deterioration to the health of the population resulting, physically and
morally, from the use of opium, which had so much effect with the
celestial Emperor in provoking the late war with Great Britain, as the
abstraction by export in payment, and the drain so constant, of Sycee
silver. The imports of tea in--
Poods. Silver Rubles.
1838, By Kiachta, were, of good and
ordinary quality, 127,645 value 2,015,189
By the line of Siberia, 10 ... 600
-------- ---------
127,655 ... 2,015,789
-------- ---------
1841, By Kiachta, 168,218 ... 6,976,363
By the line of Siberia and
Caspian Sea, 1,364 ... 66,293
-------- ---------
169,582 ... 7,012,656
Besides which, the imports of an inferior tea, called _brick tea_,
amounted to the value of 359,223 silver rubles in 1841. In three years,
the general trade, China silks inclusive, had therefore more than
trebled so far as value; for it is remarkable, that though larger
quantities of tea are imported, yet prices, so far from declining, had
actually considerably advanced; which proves that the commodity was
becoming a favourite beverage, and gaining into more general
consumption, in Russia. The values of the Russian merchandise, such as
stated, which passed in barter, are said to have been equally sustained.
It may be noted, indeed, as an extraordinary fact, that whilst, as the
official report of the department of commerce observes, the prices and
values of almost all foreign raw products and manufactured wares
imported into Russia, during the three or four years preceding 1841, and
including 1841, entered constantly, and some at considerably depreciated
rates, in the reverse the products of Russia, exported to Europe and
elsewhere during the same period, quantity for quantity, generally
improved in prices and ascended in value.
The foreign commerce of Russia by sea was carried on, during the year
1841, by 2,596 vessels, inwards loaded, tonnage, 452,760
2,174 do. in ballast, do. 410,164
----- -------
Totals, 4,770 862,924
----- -------
4,582 do. outwards loaded, do. 819,232
312 do. do. in ballast, do. 58,046
----- -------
Totals, 4,894 877,278
In the coasting trade in the Northern seas, the number of vessels
dispatched from port to port was 2007, in the Black Sea, 5,275.
The revenue from customs in 1841 amounted to 27,387,494 silver rubles,
or upwards of two-fifths in excess of the receipts of 1830.
In order to exemplify the nature of the trade betwixt Great Britain and
Russia, and exhibit it in its most disadvantageous aspect, we shall add
here, from statements verified as authentic by competent authorities on
the spot, the returns of British trade and shipping with certain Russian
ports for 1842, which we have recently received direct. They will assist
us to a conception of the relative importance of each place in respect
of its commercial connexion with this country.
The commerce of the port of Archangel, omitting from the table Onega,
Kola, Kemi, and Soumsk, the other ports in the White Sea, their traffic
being inconsiderable, is thus represented.
1842.--Total shipping outward, 212, of which,
British, 153, tonnage, 31,704
Total imports, (exclusive of L.13,816
by Norway coasters,) L.18,384
Of which from Great Britain, L.801
Total exports, (omitting L.22,236 to Norway,) L.427,789
Of which to Great Britain, L.305,823
In 1841, 176 vessels exported for
Great Britain the value, L.408,077
Exclusive of cargoes by 2 other vessel, to the amount
of L.7,208, for the Hanse towns and Holland.
In 1840, 250 vessels, tonnage 48,249, exported to
Great Britain the value of L.442,381
Exclusive of 6 British vessels which carried cargoes to
the Hanse towns, France, and Italy,
of the aggregate value of L.12,858.
The commerce with Riga exhibits a somewhat more favourable proportion
between imports and exports, and we are induced, therefore, to give the
return of imports for 1842 in same detail as received.
Nature and value of merchandise imported into Riga from Great Britain
during the year 1842:--
Coffee, L.2,500 0 0
Cotton, 11,011 0 0
Cotton twist, L.21,159, 10s; do. goods, L.1135, 22,294 0 0
Woollen goods, 4,100 16 8
Woollen twist, 19,057 3 4
Indigo and other dyes, 13,764 0 0
Dye-woods, 2,718 6 8
Salt, 53,269 3 4
Sugar, 24,882 10 0
Wines and brandies, 19,200 13 4
Iron and steel wares, 7,025 0 0
Spices and drugs, 13,440 6 8
Non-enumerated articles, 12,527 10 0
-----------
Total, L.205,791 0 0
Countries from whence British vessels have arrived at the port of Riga
during the year 1842:--
No. of vessels. Tonnage. Remarks.
United Kingdom, 387 59,629 With cargoes and in ballast.
Hamburg, 6 1,261 In ballast.
Denmark, 21 3,730 ...
Norway, 13 2,438 ...
France, 5 670 ...
Belgium, 1 484 ...
Holland, 6 1,018 ...
Prussia, 4 562 ...
Sweden, 3 669 ...
--- ------
Total, 446 70,461
Total value of Countries to
exportations whence exported.
1842 exports. Tons. to Great Britain.
British vessels, 446 70,461 L.1,527,810 5 4 United Kingdom.
The commerce of Odessa represents a closer approximation still between
imports and exports; and they would perhaps nearly balance, but for the
large shipments of wheat to this country, which contribute to swell the
exports.
In 1842, 174 British ships entered, tonnage 44,428,
sailed 176 tonnage, L.44,929
Total value of imports by them, 185,870
Of which, from the United Kingdom, 184,370
The remainder by 64 British vessels entering from
Leghorn, Turkey,
Algiers, Amsterdam, mostly in ballast.
Total average of exports, 784,865
Of which, to the United Kingdom, 776,995
The remainder to the countries above named.
1841, Total imports by British ships, 147,950
Do. exports do. 590,570
1840, Total imports by British ships, 130,660
Do. exports do. 859,090
The commerce of St Petersburg is stated, for 1812, imports and exports
together, at the value of 97,795,415 silver rubles. And of 1147 foreign
vessels which left that port and Cronstadt with cargoes, more or less,
515 were British, of 117,793 tonnage--being a rather considerably less
number than in either 1840 or 1841.
The present is the proper occasion to remark upon and explain the system
of official valuation pursued in Russia, by which it will be observed
how the real value, both of imports and exports, is swelled, probably
with a view to the vain display of a greater commerce than is really
carried on. As the system is nearly the same for both imports and
exports, it cannot, of course, materially interfere with, or impeach the
accuracy of the general balance-sheet. It is desirable, however, that
the facts should be fairly represented, for the guidance of those who
may be in the habit of consulting and comparing the official documents
of different countries; and they will serve moreover to explain, in some
degree, the extraordinary discrepancies which have been found betwixt
the declared values of British products and manufactures exported to
Russia, as published in the Board of Trade tables, and the same exports
as exhibited in Russian customhouse returns.
In calculating the annual value of importations, it is the rule in the
Russian customhouses to add the duties paid on the entry of goods to
their original value. This practice in Russia, where the duties are so
high, swells the value of imports far beyond their true amount, and
gives a false and exaggerated view of them.
With respect to the exports, nearly the same practice exists. In
calculating their value, all the shipping charges are added to the cost
of the article; and we are informed by merchants resident in Russia,
that on comparing the annual Government statements of exports for their
establishments, they are found to correspond with the invoices forwarded
to their foreign correspondents, which, of course, include commission,
and all the expenses attendant on the shipping of the goods. The law
also requires that the shipper, on clearing merchandise for export
through the customhouse, should declare its value. With a view of
preserving uniformity, the Russian authorities, from time to time, fix a
standard price at which particular articles shall be valued for export
at the customhouse. To exemplify the evil of this system, it is
necessary only to mention that oats, for example, could lately be
purchased at a Baltic port at sixty silver rubles per last, while the
latest customhouse standard values them at eighty silver rubles per
last. This practice is no way injurious to the merchant, but only
unnaturally swells the tables of exports when annually made up by the
Russian Government. A shipper, therefore, of any of the articles
included in the Russian standard, is compelled to state a much greater
value at the customhouse than he furnishes to his foreign correspondent,
who, of course, only pays the market price of the article, with the
additional shipping expenses.
The difficulty, such as it is, might be obviated, were the masters of
British merchantmen compelled by law to submit their ship's papers, on
arrival and departure, to the British consuls at each port, who would
then be placed on the same footing with the consuls of other countries,
and be enabled to communicate much important statistical information to
their Government, of the opportunity for acquiring and transmitting
which they are now deprived.
Our review of Russian commerce and industry would be more incomplete
than it is, if we were to omit all notice of the vast mining wealth of
that empire. But our limits, already nearly reached, do not admit of
more than a passing reference. Suffice it, that in coal, both bituminous
and anthracite, in iron and other metals, and salt, constituting the raw
materials, Russia is rich enough for all her wants, and indeed supplies
the great bulk of those wants within herself, with to spare in some of
these products for her neighbours and other countries. Her mines are
annually increasing in productiveness and number, as enterprise is
extended and capital invested in them, and as domestic manufactures and
improving agriculture increasingly absorb their produce. The
treasure-yielding progress of her gold mines is one of the extraordinary
events of the age. The existence of gold in Siberia was scarcely
suspected till 1829. The first researches of adventuring individuals
were attended with no success. Feodot Popoff, one of the earliest,
succeeded at length in that year, when all others had abandoned the
undertaking as hopeless, in discovering traces, and procuring some
inconsiderable specimens, of gold--not in quantity, however, to repay
the working; and the doubts before existing seemed confirmed as to the
fruitlessness of further perseverance in the search. Major-General
Kovalevsky, of the engineers of mines, having been appointed governor of
Tomsk, renewed the attempt in 1830; and, at the close of that year, his
indefatigable labours, and more methodical plan of operations, were
rewarded with the discovery of a first considerable stratum of
auriferous sands, which was designated Yegorievsky, (St George.)
Adventurers flocked into the district forthwith, and in numbers, upon
the widespreading news; and excellently did renewed labours recompense
the zeal of the more fortunate; numerous were the discoveries of layers
of golden sands. In one of these, last year, a massive piece of native
gold, weighing 24-1/2 pounds Russian, (the Russian pound is about 1-1/2
oz. less than the English,) was discovered embedded in a fragment of
quartz, and is now deposited in the museum of the School of Mines at St
Petersburg. The yield of the Siberian mines has since been at the
following rate of progression--omitting the intermediate years for
brevity, although in every year there was an increase of quantity upon
the preceding:--
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