The Economic Condition of Russia
THE Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce has issuied a most timely publication 1 on the present economic condition of Russia. It is probably not too mtuch to say that most of what has heretofore been written on that subject in the English language is worse than worthless. Gentlemen very successful in various walks of life where scholarship is not a prerequisite for eligibility, as a rule ignorant of any language but their own, and too busy to familiarize themselves with whatever literature there is on the subject in English, undertake to write on the economic, political, social, religious, and intellectual life of a nation with a territory twice as large as that of the United States, with a population of some one hundred and forty millions, composed of 1nore than a hundred national and racial groups, speaking as mniany languages, and having, in many cases, a long historical career preceding their incorporation in the colossal empire. It is therefore very gratifying that at this moment, when public interest in Russia has been stimulated by the war, the Bureau of Statistics has found among its specialists one able to draw for information upon original sources. The author of the volume in hand, Mr. Morris Jacobson, has given in his monograph a much broader view of the economic condition of Russia than the conventional title Commiercial Rtssia suggests. The principal subjects treated are: industrial development; state finances and public credit; public debt; currency; railways; agriculture; the depression of I900; domestic industries; coal; iron and steel; mineral oils; the textile industries; sugar; foreign commerce and trade with the United States; Siberia; and commercial effects of the Siberian railwav. The appendix contains detailed statistical tables, the most important of which relate to the following subjects: population, according to the census of r897, by geographical and administrative divisions; the movement of population at each of the eleven censuses beginning with that of I722; the population of cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants; the number of schools, teachers, and pupils; the imperial budgets for 1893-I904; area and ownership of land, and area under cultivation; production, exports, and consumption of
- DOI
- 10.1086/251076
- Volume
- 12 (4)
- Pages
- 555-563
- Language
- en
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