pervaded the church, which was also accused by the people of having introduced Polish luxury," ," "Polish creed," and the tendencies towards supremacy of the Polish clergy. The patriarch Nikon was a perfect representative of these tendencies. Opposition resulted, and the revision of the sacred books, which was undertaken by Nikon, gave the opposition acute character. The Raskot (lit. "splitting" or "schism ") made its appearance, and gathered under its banner, not only those who accused Nikon of Polish" and "Latin" tendencies, but also all those who were for the old customs, for federative and communist principles of social organization, and who revolted against serfdom, centralization, and the suppres sion of municipal life. A series of insurrections broke out under the banner of the "eight-ends" cross of the Raskolniks. Barbarous persecutions by Alexis, Peter I., and their followers did not kill out an opposition which inspired with fanatical enthusiasm the best elements among the Great Russians, and induced its supporters to submit to the fire by thousands at a time, while others rather than submit went to colonize the forests of the Arctic littoral, or betook themselves to Siberia. Profound modifications have taken place in Russian nonconformity since its first appearance. It would be impossible to enumerate them all here, but the following points of primary importance must be mentioned. (1) The mere protest against Nikon's "innovatious" (novshestvas) led, in the course of two centuries, to a mere servile adherence to the letter of the ver nacular Scriptures-even to obvious errors of earlier translatorsand to interminable discussions about minor points of ritual and about unintelligible words. (2) Another current which now pervades the whole of Russian nonconformity is that proceeding from rationalist sects which had already spread in north-west Russia in the 16th century, and even in the 14th. These have given rise to several sects which deny the divinity of Christ or explain away various dogmas and prescriptions of orthodoxy. (3) Protestantism, with its more or less rationalistic tendencies, has made itself increasingly felt, especially during the present century and in southern Russia. (4) Hostile critics of the Government, and especially of the autocracy, with its army of officials and its systein of conscriptions, passports, and various restrictions on religious liberty, are found more or less in all the nonconforming bodies, which see in these manifestations of authority the appearance of the Antichrist. Several of them refuse accordingly to have any dealings whatever with the official world. (5) Another tendency pervading the whole of Russian nonconformity is that which seeks a return to what are supposed to have been the old communist principles of Christianity in its earlier days. All new sects start with applying these principles to practical life; but in the course of their development they modify them more or less, though always maintaining the principle at least of mutual help. (6) Finally, all sects deal more or less with the question of marriage and the position of woman. A few of them solve it by encouraging,—at least during their "love-feasts, "-absolutely free relations between all "brethren and sisters," while others only admit the dissolubility of marriage or prohibit it altogether. On the whole, leaving the extremer views out of account, the position of woman is undoubtedly higher among the dissenters than among the Orthodox.

These various currents, combining with and counteracting one another in the most complicated ways, have played and continue to play a most important part in Russian history. The mutual assistance found in dissenting sects has preserved many millions of peasants from falling into abject misery, the nonconformists enjoying, he a rule, a greater degree of prosperity than their Orthodox neighbours. The leading feature of Russian history, the spread of the Great Russians over the immense territory they now occupy, cannot be rightly understood without taking into account the colonization of the most inaccessible wildernesses by Raskolniks, and the organization of this by their communities, who send delegates for the choice of land and sometimes clear it in common by the united labours of all the young men and cattle of the community. On the other hand, the nonconforming sects, while helping to preserve several advantageous features of Russian life, have had a powerful influence in maintaining, especially among the "Staroobr yadtsy," the old system of the Moscovite family, subject to the despotic yoke of its chief, and hermetically sealed against instruction.

It is worthy of notice that since the emancipation of the serfs nonconformity has again made a sudden advance, the more radical sects preponderating over the scholastic ones, and the influence of Protestantism being increasingly felt. Nonconformity, which formerly had no hold upon Little Russia (though it had penetrated among Protestant Esthonians and Letts, and even among Moslem Tartars), has suddenly begun to make progress there in the shape of the "Stunda," a mixture of Protestant and rationalistic teaching, with tendencies towards a social but rarely socialistic reformation.

The Russian dissenting sects may be subdivided into (1) the "Popovtsy" (who have priests), (2) the "Bezpopovtsy" (who have none), and (3) numerous spiritualist sects, "Dukhovnyie Khristiane." The Popovtsy (5 to 6 millions) are again subdivided into

two classes, those who recognize the Austrian hierarchy, and those who have only Orthodox "runaway priests" ("Byeglopopov tsy"). The latter have recently received unexpected help in the accession of three Orthodox priests of great learning and energy. Moreover, there are among the Popovtsy about a million of "Edinovyertsy, who have received Orthodox priests on the condition of their keeping to the unrevised books. They are patronized by Government. The Bezpopovtsy embody three large sects the Pomory, Fedoseevtsy, and Filipovtsy—and a variety of minor ones. They recognize no priests, and repudiate the Orthodox ritual and the sacraments. They avoid all contact with the state, and do not allow prayer for the czar, who is regarded as the Antichrist. They may number about 5,000,000 in west, north, and north-east Russia, and represent, on the whole, an intellectually developed and wealthy population. Of the very numerous smaller sects of Bezpopovtsy, the "Stranniki" (Errants) are worthy of notice. They prefer to lead the life of hunted outcasts rather than hold any relation with

the state.

The spiritualists, very numerous in central and southern Russia, are subdivided into a great variety of schools. The "Khlysty," who have their "love-feasts," their "Virgins," sometimes flagellation, and so on, represent a numerous and strong organization in central Russia. The "Skoptsy" ("Men of God," "Castrati") occur every where, even among the Finus, but chiefly in Orel and Kursk, and in towns as money-brokers. The "Dukhobortsy" communities (warriors of the Spirit), chiefly found in the south-east, are renowned as colonizers. They are spreading rapidly in Caucasia and Siberia. The "Molokany" (a kind of Baptists), numbering perhaps about one million, are spread also in the south-east, and are excellent gardeners and tradesmen. Both are quite open to instruction, and have come under the influence of Protestantism, like the "Stunda" in Little Russia and Bessarabia. The "Sabbathers" and the "Skakuny" (a kind of Shakers) are also worthy of notice; while a great variety of new sects, such as the "Nemolyaki" ("who do not pray"), the "Vożdykhateli" ("who sigh"), the "Neplatelshchiki " ("who do not pay taxes"), the "Ne-Nashi" (the "Not-ours "), and so on, spring up every year.

The aggregate number of Raskolniks is officially stated at nearly one million, but this is quite misleading. The ministry of interior estimated them at 9,000,000 in 1850 and 9,500,000 in 1859. In reality the number is still higher. In Perm alone they were recently computed at a million, and there would be no exaggeration in estimating them at a total of from twelve to fifteen millions.1

The old subdivisions of the population into orders possessed of Class unequal rights is still maintained. The great mass of the people, divisions, 816 per cent., belong to the peasant order, the others beingnobility, 13 per cent.; clergy, 0.9; the "meschane or burghers and merchants, 93; military, 61; foreigners, 0.2; unclassified, 05. Thus more than 63 millions of the Russians are peasants. Half of them were formerly serfs (10,447,149 males in 1858),the remainder being "state peasants" (9;194,891 males in 1858, exclusive of the Archangel government) and "domain peasants' (842,740 males the same year).

The serfdom which had sprung up in Russia in the 16th century, and became consecrated by law in 1609, taking, however, nearly one hundred and fifty years to attain its full growth and assume the forms under which it appeared in the present century, was abolished by law in 1861. This law liberated the serfs from a yoke which was really terrible, even under the best landlords; and from this point of view it was obviously an immense benefit, the results of which are apparent now. But it was far from securing corresponding economic results. Along with the enrichment of the few, a general impoverishment of the great mass followed, and took proportions so alarming as to arouse public attention and to result in a great number of serious investigations conducted by the state, the provincial assemblies, scientific societies, and private statisticians. The general results of these inquiries may be summed up in the subjoined statement.

The former "dvorovyie," attached to the personal service of their masters, were merely set free; and they entirely went to reinforce the town proletariat. The peasants proper received their houses and orchards, and also allotments of arable land. These allotments were given over to the rural commune (mir), which was made responsible, as a whole, for the payment of taxes for the allotments. The size of the allotments was determined by a maximum and by a minimum, which last, however, could be still further reduced if the amount of land remaining in the landlord's hands was less than one half of what was allotted to the peasants. For these allotments the peasants had to pay, as before, either by per sonal labour (twenty to forty men's days and fifteen to thirty women's days per year), or by a fixed rent (“ obrok "), which varied from 8 to 12 roubles per allotment. As long as these relations subsisted, the peasants were considered as temporarily obliged (vremenno obyazannyie). On January 1, 1882, they still numbered 1 See Schapoff on Russian Raskol; Sbornik of State Regulations against the Raskolniks; and very many papers printed in reviews, chiefly in Otetch. Zapiski, Dyeto, Vyesinik Evropi, &c., by Schapoff, Yuzoff, Prugavin, Rozoff, &c.

1,422,012 males; but this category is now disappearing in consequence of a recent law (December 28, 1881).

The allotments could be redeemed by the peasants with the help of the crown, and then the peasants were freed from all obligations to the landlord. The crown paid the landlord in obligations representing the capitalized "obrok," and the peasants had to pay the crown, for forty-nine years, 6 per cent. interest on this capital, that is, 9 to 12 roubles per allotment. If the redemption was made without the consent of the peasants-on a mere demand of the landlord, or in consequence of his being in arrear for the pay ment of his debts to the nobility hypothec_bank-the value of the redemption was reduced by one-fifth. The redemption was not calculated on the value of the allotments, but was considered as a compensation for the loss of the compulsory labour of the serfs; so that throughout Russia, with the exception of a few provinces in the south-east, it was-and still remains notwithstanding a very great increase of the value of land-much higher than the market value of the allotment. Moreover, taking advantage of the maximum law, many proprietors.cut away large parts of the allotments the peasants possessed under serfdom, and precisely the parts the peasants were most in need of, namely, pasture lands around their houses, and forests. On the whole, the tendency was to give the allotments so as to deprive the peasants of grazing land and thus to compel them to rent pasture lands from the landlord at any price.

The present condition of the peasants-according to official documents appears to be as follows. In the twelve central governments the peasants, on the average, have their own rye-bread for only 200 days per year,-often for only 180 and 100 days. One quarter of them have received allotments of only 29 acres per male, and one half less than 8.5 to 114 acres,-the normal size of the allotment necessary to the subsistence of a family under the threefields system being estimated at 28 to 42 acres. Land must be thus rented from the landlords at fabulous prices. Cattle-breeding is diminishing to an alarming degree. The average redemption is 8.56 roubles (about 178.) for such allotments, and the smaller the allotment the heavier the payment, its first "dessiatina" (2.86 acres) costing twice as much as the second, and four times as much as the third. In all these governments, the state commission testifies, there are whole districts where one-third of the peasants have received allotments of only 2'9 to 5'8 acres. The aggregate value of the redemption and land-taxes often reaches from 185 to 275 per cent. of the normal rental value of the allotments, not to speak of taxes for recruiting purposes, the church, roads, local administration, and so on, chiefly levied from peasants. The arrears increase every year; one-fifth of the inhabitants have left their houses; cattle are disappearing. Every year more than half the adult males (in some districts three-fourths of the men and one-third of the women) leave their homes and wander throughout Russia in search of labour. The state peasants are only a little better off.

Such is the state of affairs in central Russia, and it would be useless to multiply figures, repeating nearly the same details. In the eight governments of the black-earth region the state of matters is hardly better. Many peasants took the "gratuitous allotments," whose amount was about one-eighth of the normal ones. The average allotment in Kherson is now only 0.90 acre, and for allotments from 2.9 to 5'8 acres they pay from 5 to 10 roubles of redemption tax. The state peasants are better off, but still they are emigrating in masses. It is only in the Steppe governments that the situation is more hopeful. In Little Russia, where the allotments were personal (the mir existing only among state peasants), the state of affairs does not differ for the better on account of the high redemption taxes. In the western provinces, where the land was valued cheaper and the allotments somewhat increased after the Polish insurrection, the general situation might be better were it not for the former misery of peasants. Finally, in the Baltic provinces nearly all the land belongs to German landlords, who either carry on agriculture themselves, with hired labourers, or rent their land as small farms. Only one-fourth of the peasants are farmers, the remainder being mere labourers, who arc emigrating in great numbers.

The situation of the former serf-proprietors is also unsatisfactory. Accustomed to the use of compulsory labour, they have failed to accommodate themselves to the new conditions. The 700,000,000 roubles of redemption money received from the crown down to 1877 by 71,000 landed proprietors in Russia have been spent without accomplishing any agricultural improvement. The forests have been sold, and only those landlords are prospering who exact rackrents for the land without which the peasants could not live upon their allotments.

As showing a better aspect of the situation it must be added that in eighty-five districts of Russia the peasants have bought 5,349,000 acres of land since 1861. But these are mostly villagetraders and grain-lenders (kulaks). A real exception can be made only for Tver, where 53,474 householders united in communities have bought 633,240 acres of land. There has been an increase of

wealth among the few, but along with this a general impoverishment of the mass of the people.

The ancient Scandinavians described Russia as Gardaríki,--the The country of towns,—and until now Great Russia has maintained villago this character. The dwellings of the peasantry are not scattere:l commun over the face of the country, but aggregated in villages, where they ity. are built in a street or streets. This grouping in villages has its origin in the bonds which unite the peasants in the village community-the mir, or the obshchina.

When Haxthausen first described the Great Russian mir, it was considered a peculiarity of the Slavonian race,-a view which is no longer tenable. The mir is the Great Russian equivalent for the German, Dutch, and Swiss "mark" or "allmend," the English township," the French commune, the Polish "gmina, the South Slavonian "zadruga," the Finnish "pittäyä," &c.; and it very nearly approaches, though differing from them in some essential features, the forms of possession of land prevailing among the Moslem Turco-Tartars, while the same principle is found even among the Mongol Buriat shepherds and the Tungus hunters. The following are the leading features of the organization of the mir among the Great Russians.

The whole of the land occupied by a village-whoever be the landlord recognized by law-the state, a private person, or a juridical unity, such as the voisko of the Cossacks-is considered as belonging to the village community as a whole, the separate members of the community having only the right of temporary possession of such part of the common property as will be allowed to them by the mir in proportion to their working power. To this right corresponds the obligation of bearing an adequate part of the charges which may fall upon the community. If any produce results from the common work of the community, cach. member has a right to an equal part of it.

According to these general principles, the arable land is divided. into as many lots as there are working units in the community, and each family receives as many lots as it has working units. The unit is usually one male adult; but, when the working power of a large family is increased by its containing a number of adult. women, or boys approaching adult age, this circumstance is taken into account, as well as the diminution from any cause of working: power in other households.

For dividing the arable land into lots, the whole is parted firstinto three "fields," according to the three-field rotation of crops. As each field, however, contains land of various qualities, it is in its turn subdivided into, say, three parts-of good, average, and poor quality; and each of these parts is subdivided into as many lots as there are working units. Each household receives its lots in each of the subdivisions of the "field," a carefully minute equalization as to the minor differences between the lots being aimed at; and the partition is nearly always made so as to permit each householder to reach his allotment without passing through

that of another.

To facilitate this division, the community divides, first, into smaller groups (vyt, zherebyevka, a "ten," an "eight," &c.), each of which is composed, by free selection, of a number of householders -the community only taking care that each shall not be composed of rich, of poor, or of "turbulents" exclusively. The division of the land is first made among such groups, and the subdivision goes on within these. The division into groups facilitates also the distribution of such work as the community may have to accomplishas when a bridge or a diten has to be repaired, or a meadow mowed -and the work cannot be done by the community as a whole. As sickness, death, removal, and other incidents bring about changes in the distribution of working power among the different households, or when the number of working units in the community has increased or decreased, a redistribution of land (peredyel) follows. Whether the land be a burden (the taxes exceeding its rental value) or a benefit, its division is equalized; the households whose working power has increased receive additional lots, and vice versa. The peredyel may be "partial" or "general." In most cases a mere equalization of lots among several families will serve, and a general redistribution is resorted to only when greater inequalities have arisen. On the whole, these redistributions are rare, and the precariousness of landholding which has been supposed to be a consequence of the mir proves to have been exaggerated. More detailed inquiries have

1 See Yanson's Researches on Allotments and Payments (2d ed., 1881) and Comparative Statistics of Russia (vol. ii.); Statistics of Landed Property, published by Central Statistical Committee; works of the Committee on Taxation, and those of the Committee of Inquiry into Petty Trades (12 vols.); Reports of the Commission on Agriculture; Collection of Materials on the Village Community (vol. 1.); Collection of Materials on Landholding, and Statistical Descriptions of Separate Governments, published by several zemstvos (Moscow, Tver, Nijni, Tula, Ryazan, Tamboff, Poltava, Saratoff, &c.); Kawelin, The Peasant Question; Vasilt chi koff, Land Property and Agriculture (2 vols.), and Village Life and Agriculture; Ivanukoff, The Fall of Serfdom in Russia; Shashkuff, "Peasantry in the Baltic Provinces," in Russkaya Mysl, 1883, lil. and ix.; V. V., Agric. Sketches of Russia; Golovatchoff, Capital and Peasant Farming; Engelhardt's Letters from the Country; many elaborato papers in reviews (all Russian); and Appendix to Russian translation of Reclus's Géogr. Univ.

shown that no redistribution is made without urgent necessity. Thus, to quote but one instance, in 4442 village communities of Moscow, the average number of redistributions has been 2.1 in twenty years (1858-78), and in more than two-thirds of these communities. the redistribution, took place only once. On the other hand, a regular rotation of all households over all lots, in order to equalize the remaining minor inequalities, is very often practised in the black-earth region, where no manure is needed. Besides the arable nmark, there is usually a vygon (or "coinmon") for grazing, to which all householders send their cattle, whatever the number they possess. The meadows are either divided on the above principles, or mowed in common, and the hay divided according to the number of lots. The forests, when consisting of small wood in sufficient quantity, are laid under no regulations; when this is scarce, every trunk is counted, and valued according to its age, number of branches, &c., and the whole is divided according to the number of lots.

The houses and the orchards behind them belong also, in principle, to the community; but no peredyel is made, except after a fire or when the necessity arises of building the houses at greater distances apart. The orchards usually remain for years in the same hands, with but slow equalizations of the lots in width.

All decisions in the village community are given by the mir, that is, by the general assembly of all householders, -women being admitted on an equal footing with men, when widows, or when their male guardians are absent. For the decisions unanimity is necessary; and, though in some difficult cases of a general peredyel the discussions may last for two or three days, no decision is reached until the minority has declared its agreement with the majority. Each commune elects an elder (starosta); ho is the executive, but has no authority apart from that of the mir whose decisions he carries out. All attempts on the part of the Government to make him a functionary have failed.

Opinion as to the advantages and disadvantages of the village community being much divided in Russia, it has been within the last twenty years the subject of extensive inquiry, both private and official, and of an ever-growing literature and polemic. The supporters of the mir are found chiefly among those who have made more or less extensive inquiries into its actual organization and con. sequences, while their opponents draw their arguments principally from theoretical considerations of political economy. The main reproach that it checks individual development and is a source of immobility has been shaken of late by a better knowledge of the institution, which has brought to light its remarkable plasticity and power of adaptation to new circumstances. The free settlers in Siberia have voluntarily introduced the same organization. In uorth and north-east Russia, where arable land is scattered in small patches among forests, communities of several villages, or 'volost' communities, have arisen; and in the "voisko" of the Ural Cossacks we find community of the whole territory as regards both land and fisheries and work in common. Nay, the German colonists of southern Russia, who set out with the principle of personal property, have subsequently introduced that of the village community, adapted to their special needs (Clauss). In some localities, where there was no great scarcity of land and the authorities did not interfere, joint cultiva. tion of a common area for filling the storehouses has recently been developed (in Penza 974 communes have introduced this system and 'cultivate an aggregate of 26,910 acres). The renting of land in common, or even purchase of land by wealthy communes, has become quite usual, as also the purchase in cómmon of agricultural implements.

Since the emancipation of the serfs, however, the mir has been undergoing profound modifications. The differences of wealth' which ensued,-the impoverishment of the mass, the rapid increase of the rural proletariat, and the enrichment of a few "kulaks" and "miroyedes" ("mir-eaters "),-are certainly operating unfavourably for the mir. The miroyedes steadily strive to break up the organization of the commune as an obstacle to the extension of their power over the moderately well-to-do peasants; while the proletariat cares little about the mir. Fears on the one side and hopes on the other have been thus entertained as to the likelihood of the mir resisting these disintegrating influences, favoured, moreover, by those landowners and manufacturers who foresee in the creation of a rural proletariat the certainty of cheap labour. But the village community does not appear as yet to have lost the power of adaptation which it has exhibited throughout its history. If, indeed, the impoverishment of the peasants continues to go on, and legislation also interferes with the nir, it must of course disap pear, but not without a corresponding disturbance in Russian life.1 The co-operative spirit of the Great Russians shows itself further

1 See Collection of Materials on Village Communities, published by the Geogra phical and Economical Societies, vol. 1. (containing a complete bibliography up to 1880). Of more recent works the following are worthy of notice:-Lutchitsky, Collection of Materials for the History of the Village Community in the Ukraine, Kleff, 1884; Efimenko, Researches into Popular Life, 1884; Hantower, On the Origin of the Czinsz Possession, 1884; Samok vasoff. History of Russian Law, 1884; Keussler, Zur Geschichte und Kritik des bäuerlichen Gemeinde-Besitzes in Russland, 2 vols., 1884; and papers in publications of Geographical Society.

in another sphere in the artcls, which have also been a prominent feature of Russian life since the dawn of history. The artel very much resembles the co-operative society of western Europe, with this difference that it makes its appearance without any impulse from theory, simply as a natural form of popular life. When workmen from any province come, for instance, to St Petersburg to engage in the textile industries, or to work as carpenters, masons, &c., they immediately unite in groups of from ten to fifty persons, settle in a house together, keep a common table, and pay each his part of the expense to the elected elder of the artel. All Russia is covered with such artels,-in the cities, in the forests, on the banks of rivers, on journeys, and even in the prisons.

The industrial artel is almost as frequent as the preceding, in all those trades which admit of it. A social history of the most fundamental state of Russian society would be a history of their hurting, fishing, shipping, trading, building, exploring artels. Artels of one or two hundred carpenters, bricklayers, &c., are common wherever new buildings have to be erected, or railways cr bridges made; the contractors always prefer to deal with an artel, rather than with separate workmen. The same principles are often put into practice in the domestic trades. It is needless to add that the wages divided by the artels are higher than those earned by isolated workmen. Finally, a great number of artels on the stock exchange, in the seaports, in the great cities (commissionaires), during the great fairs, and on railways have grown up of late, and have acquired the confidence of tradespeople to such an extent that considerablo sums of money and complicated banking operations are frequently handed over to an artelshik (member of an artel) without any receipt, his number or his name being accepted as sufficient guarantee. These artels are recruited only on personal acquaintance with the candidates for membership, and security reaching £80 to £100 is exacted in the exchange arteis. These last have a tendency to become mere joint-stock companies employing salaried servants. Co-operative societies have lately been organized by several zemstvos. They have achieved good results, but do not exhibit, on the whole, the same unity of organization as those which have arisen in a natural way ainong peasants and artisans.. The chief occupation of the population of Russia is agriculture. AgriOnly in a few parts of Moscow, Vladimir, and Nijni has it been cultures abandoned for manufacturing pursuits. Cattle-breeding is the leading industry in the Steppe region, the timber-trade in the north-east, and fishing on the White and Caspian Seas. Of the total surface of Russia, 1,237,360,000 acres (excluding Finland), 1,018,737,000 acres are registered, and it appears that 399 per cent. of these belongs to the crown, 19 to the domains (udel), 31.2 to peasants, 247 to landed proprietors or to private companies, and 2.3 to the towns and monasteries. Of the acres registered only 592,650,000 can be considered as "good," that is, capable of paying the land tax; and of these 248,630,000 acres were under crops in 1884.3 The crops of 1883 were those of an average year, that is, 2.9 to 1 in central Russia, and 4 to 1 in south Russia, and were estimated as follows (seed corn being left out of account) :-Ryo, 49,185,000 quarters; wheat, 21,605,000; oats, 50,403,000; barley, 13,476,000; other grains, 18,808,000. Those of 1884 (a very good year) reached an average of 18 per cent. higher, except oats. The crops are, however, very unequally distributed. In an average year there are 8 governments which are some 6,930,000 quarters short of their requirements, 35 which have an excess of 33,770,000 quarters, and 17 which have neither excess nor deficiency. The export of corn from Russia is steadily increasing, having risen from 6,560,000 quarters in 1856-60 to an average of 23,700,000 quarters in 1876-83 and 26,623,700 quarters in 1884. This increase does not prove, however, an excess of corn, for even when one-third of Russia was famine-stricken, during the last years of scarcity, the export trade did not decline; even Samara exported during the last famine there, the peasants being compelled to sell their corn in autumn to pay their taxes. Scarcity is quite usual, the food supply of some ten provinces being exhausted every year by the end of the spring. Orach, and even bark, are then mixed with flour for making bread.

Flax, both for yarn and seed is extensively grown in the northwest and west, aud the annual production is estimated at 6,400,000 cwts. of fibre and 2,900,000 quarters of linseed. Hemp is largely cultivated in the central governments, the yearly production being

2 See Isaeff on Artels in Russia, and in Appendix to Russian translation of Reclus; Kalatchoff, The Artels of Old and New Russia; Recueil of Materials on Artels (2 vols.); Scherbina, South Russian Artels Nemiroff. Stock Exchange Artels (all Russian). 3 The division of the registered land is as follows, the figures being percentages of the whole :

above all the want of markets. Russia has not, and cannot have, such foreign markets as tho countries which first attained an,industrial development. Her colonies are deserts, and in the home markets the manufacturer only finds 30 millions of poverty-stricken people, whose wants are nearly all supplied by their petty domestic

industries.

These, that is, the domestic industries which are carried on by the peasants in conjunction with their agricultural pursuits during the long days of idleness imposed by the climate and by the reduced allotments of land, continue, not only to hold their ground side by side with the large manufactures, but to develop and to compete with these by the cheapness of their products. Extensive inquiries are now being made into these domestic industries (kustarnoyie proizvodstvo). 855,000 persons engaged in them along with agriculture (kustari) have already been registered, and an unexpected variety of industries, and a still more unexpected technical develop ment in several of them, have been disclosed by these researches. The yearly production of the 855,000 kustari who have been registered reaches 218,444,000 roubles; while the total number of peasants engaged in the industries, mostly in Great Russia and northern Caucasia, is estimated at a minimum of 7,500,000 persons, with a yearly production of at least 1,800,000,000 roubles, or more than double the aggregate production of the manufactures proper.

Of course the machinery they use is very primitive, and the wages for a day of twelve to sixteen hours exceedingly low. But the industries are capable of being improved, and it has been brought out that "Paris" silk hats and "Vienna" house furniture sold by substantial foreign firms at Moscow are really manufactured in the neighbourhood of the capital by peasants who still continue to till their fields. All these industries suffer very much from want of credit, and the producers become the prey of intermediaries. But their continued existence and their progress under most unfavourable conditions show that they meet a real want, which is itself the consequence of the peculiar conditions under which Russia, the last to come into the international market, has to develop.

In those very governments where two-thirds of the textile manufactories of Russia are concentrated domestic weaving (for the market, not for domestic use) employs about 200,000 hands, whose yearly production is valued at 45,000,000 roubles. In Stavropol on Caucasus it has so rapidly developed that 42, 400 looms are now at work, with a yearly production of 2,007,700 roubles. But no adequate idea could be given of the petty industries of Russia without entering into greater detail than the scope of the present article permits. Suffice it to say that there is no branch of the industries in textiles, leath, woodwork, or metal work, provided it needs no heavy machinery, which is not successfully carried on in the villages. Nearly all the requirements of nine-tenths of the population of Russia are met in this way.

The aggregate production of industries within the empire, inclusive of mining, was stated in 1882 as follows:-European Russia, 1,126,033,000 roubles; Poland, 147,309,000; Finland, 15, 130,000. The chief manufactures in European Russia (apart from Poland and Finland), and their yearly production in 1882 in millions of roubles, were as follows:-cotton yarn and cottons, 208 6; other textile industries, 1035; metal wares and machinery, 1079; chemicals, 66; candles, soap, glue, leather, and other animal products, 614; distillery products, 1560; other liquors, 39'0; sugar, 1409; flour, 740. The remainder are of minor importance. It must be observed, however, that these figures are much below those given for 1879, when the aggregate production of Russian manufactures was computed at 1,102,949,000 roubles, without the mining and related industries, the distillery products, and the flour.

The geographical distribution of manufactures in Russia is very unequal. The governments of Moscow and St Petersburg, with a yearly production of 173 and 134 million roubles respectively, represent together two-fifths of the aggregate production of Russia. If we add Vladimir (91,766,000 roubles), Kieff (73,300,000), Perm (50,500,000), Livonia, Esthonia, Kharkoff, and Kherson (from 30 to 35 millions each), we have all the principal manufacturing centres. In fact, Moscow, with portions of the neighbouring governments, contains half the Russian manufactures exempted from excise duties, while the south-west governments of Kieff, Podolia, and Kherson contain two-thirds of those not so exempted.1

The main wealth of Russia consisting in raw produce, the trade of the country turns chiefly on the purchase of this for export, and the sale of manufactured and imported goods in exchange. This 1 See Orloff's Index of Russian Manufactures, 1881; Timiryazeff's Development of Industry in Russia, and Industrial Atlas of Russia; Materials for Statistics of Steam-Engines, published by Central Statistical Committee, 1882; Historical and Statistical Sketch of Russian Industry, vol. 11., 1883; Annuaire of the Ministry of Finance; Russische Revue, published monthly at St Petersburg by Roettger. On the petty trades, see Memoirs of the Committee for Investigation of Petty Trades, vols. 1. to xil., 1879-84; Recueil of Statistical Information for Moscow Government, published by the Zemstvo, vols. vi. and vil.; Isaeff's Trades of Moscow; several papers in reviews; and an appendix to the Russian translation of Reclus's Géographie Universelle: Resumé of Materials on Russian Petty Trades, 1874 (all Russian); also Thun, Russlands Gewerbe. For the position of workmen in manufactorics see the extensive inquiries of the Moscow Zemstvo in its Recueil, and the reports of the recently nominated inspectors of manufactures, especially Yanjul, Sketches and Researches, 2 vols., 1884.

traffic is in the hands of a great number of middlemen,-in the west Jews, and elsewhere Russians, to whom the peasants are for the most part in debt, as they purchase in advance on security of subsequent payments in corn, tar, wooden wares, &c. A good deal of the internal trade is carried on by travelling merchants (ofeni). The fairs are very numerous; the minor ones numbered 6500 in 1878, and showed sales amounting to an aggregate of 305 million roubles. Those of Nijni-Novgorod, with a return of 400 million roubles, of Irbit and Kharkoff (above 100 million roubles each), of Romny, Krestovskoye in Perm, and Menzelinsk in Ufa (55 to 12 million roubles), have considerable importance both for trade and for home manufactures. The total value of the internal trade, which is in the hands of 681,116 licensed dealers, is roughly estimated at

more than seven milliards of roubles.

The development of the external trade of Russia is seen from the following figures (millions of roubles):

Exports.

1861-65. 18GG-70. 1871-75. 1876-80. 1881. 1882.

66.1 116.9 2001 326-2 261-9 350.6

Articles of food......
Raw and half-manu-
factured produce. 102 S 130-1
Manufactured wares 12.7

Cattle....

Total..

in metallic

15.6

164 6 1974 219.5 232.2 10.1 11.0 13.2 15.S 118 19.1

181 6 262.7 374 9 534 6 5064 617-7

The chief article of export is grain-wheat, oats, and rye(24,870,000 quarters, 321,042,000 roubles in 1882), to which the increase of exports is mainly due. This increase, however, does not correspond to an increase of crops, only 10 per cent. of which were exported in 1870 and about 20 per cent. in 1882. Next to grain come flax, hemp, linseed, and hempseed (129,370,000 roubles in 1882); oil-yielding grains (441,000 quarters); wool, tallow, hides, bristles, and bone (31,120,000 roubles). If we add to these timber (35,044,000 roubles) and furs (4,147,000 roubles), 95 per cent. of all Russian exports are accounted for, the remainder consisting of linen, ropes, and some woollen stuffs and metallic wares (7,172,000 roubles to western Europe, 2,888,000 to Finland, and 5,763,000 to Asia).

The chief imports from Europe were in 1882 as follows:-Tea (48,091,000 roubles), liquors (16,124,000 roubles), salt, fish, rice, fruits, and colonial wares (38,446,000 roubles), various raw textile wares (127,986,000 roubles-cotton 72,417,000), raw metals (32,630,000 roubles), chemicals (57,894,000 roubles), and stuffs (22,428,000 roubles). The imports from Asia-chiefly tea-in the same year reached 32,853,000 roubles. The chief imports were from Germany (214,000,000 roubles) and Great Britain (124,700,000), the chief exports to Great Britain (210,000,000), Germany (178,000,000), and France (54,000,000). Even in her trade with Finland Russia imports more than she exports,-the chief imports being paper, cotton, iron, and butter; prohibitory tariffs were imposed on Finnish wares in 1885.

During 1882 the ports of the empire were visited by 13,638 foreign ships (5,337,000 tons), of which number 1436 were to Asiatic ports (391,200 tons). Of the above total only 2489 vessels (628,000 tons) were under the Russian flag (mostly Finnish), while the British alone showed a tonnage of 2,258,000 and the German 639,000. The coasting trade was represented by 35,083 vessels (6,040,000 tons) entering the ports, chiefly those of the Black Sea. The mercantile marine of Russia in 1882 numbered 6383 vessels (727,000 tons), including 604 steamers; of the total number 1593 (254,000 tons) were Finnish. The chief ports are St Petersburg, Odessa, Riga, Taganrog, Libau, and Reval. Baku has recently acquired some importance in consequence of the naphtha trade.3 The rivers of the empire, mostly connected by canals, play a very Commun important part in the inland traffic. The aggregate length of cation. navigable waters reaches 21,510 miles (453 miles of canals), and 12,600 miles more are available for floating rafts. In 1882 51,407 boats, with cargoes amounting to 153,250,000 cwts., valued at 186,480,000 roubles, left the ports on Russian rivers and canals.