Mr. Curtius has sold 600 lasts of the finest Tula wheat, 200 lasts of the best linseed, 300 stone of Livonian flax, to Mr. O'Higgins. Those 600 lasts of wheat have imposed heavy burdens upon as many peasant families. With the argument of the stick many a poor Russian was driven to the field on account of that wheat ; and many of the hardy httle race of horses, so numerous in the north, have sunk at last under the burden of hard work and harder blows. In harvest time all hands were at work day and night — mother and children, girls and boys ; the infants screamed unheeded in the damp grass, the sick sighed uriteuded in their huts. All this is nothing to O'Higgins and Curtius, who, leaving the hard-hearted landowners to make up their account with heaven, are bent only on making up their own with their correspondents in London, where there are always more hungry people than in all Russia taken together ; and so at last the crust of bread finds its way to the mouth of the English beggar, who, as he eats it, might thus soliloquize : ' If our lordly landholders were not so marble-hearted, and if the St. Petersburg merchant did not require so large a profit for his daughters' equipage and his own wine-cellar, my crust would be a little larger.''
Besides bread for the English, wood for the Dutch, tallow for the Scotch, flax and hemp are the two most important articles on the exchange of St. Petersburg ; and yet more is shipped from Riga, whose Dwina passes through the very centre of the flax producing countries. The ropes and cords shipped from St. Petersburg are to be found in the smallest shop of the smallest town in Germany. It may be literally asserted that half Europe lies in Russian bonds. A third part of all European chains are forged from Russian iron, from the enormous possessions of the Demidoff's, Jakowleffs, and other Russian grandees, who are masters of whole branches of the Ural mountains. The value of the export of this bulky article, amounts, on an average, to 150 millions of rubles yearly. The tallow makes about a third of the export. After tallow, come linen, linseed, hemp, and cordage, about a fifth ; com as much ; iron and copper, about a tenth : hides a twentieth ; wood, not much less ; and potash and oil in considerable fractions.
The value of foreign merchandise brought to St. Petersburg, in from 1500 to 1700 vessels (half of them English), surpasses that of the native goods destined for exportation, by 30 to 40 millions. This relation of the imports to the exports is correct only in reference to St. Petersburg, as all other Russian ports export incomparably more than they import. Among the chief articles of import are sugar and English cotton goods, these two articles forming nearly one-half; the next in amount is champagne, of which a larger quantity circulates through Russian veins, than through those of any other people. St. Petersburg, and that half of the empire whicb the capital supplies, does not consume so much cofl'ee as the kingdom of Bavaria alone. Tea lias almost sui)erseded it. Tobacco is imported to the amount of eight millions, silk four millions, fruit two millions, cheese one million. JNIany of these articles may appear insignificant in amount, considering the extent of country furnished with them from the capital ; an extent comprising one-half of
Yearly alwut 600,000 bottles, wliich in Russia arc sold for 9,000,000 rubles.
the empire ; but it is exceedingly large, when we consider that they are destined for the consumption of a few hundred thousand of the opulent classes, who alone enjoy these articles of luxury. On an average, these imports pay 33 per cent, duty, a third of the whole value.
There can be no question, but that if this third, in the shape of duty, were done away with, the trade would be double or triple what it now is. A man in moderate circumstances would Hve three times as cheap as he does now, millions more would be enabled to partake of these foreign comforts of life, and the raw produce of Russia would be much cheaper, and exported in much greater quantities than it now is. Agriculture, the breeding of cattle, and the growth of timber, would improve the population, the income of the private man would increase, the powers of the soil be augmented, roads and canals would become better, the land would rise in value, the enormous estates would be divided, and even the treasmy of the emperor would gain in the end, though it might suffer a little at first.
The uimatural and costly manufactures, which after all are most imperfect in their results, would be given up, and the energies of the people would naturally direct themselves to the improvement of those branches of industry suited to them and to the circumstances of the country.