THE RUSSIAN CROWN ESTATES.
While so much is written of the internal economy of Russia, many will be surprised to hear of the extraordinary extent of the lands which form the estates of the Crown. The extent of the possessions of the Russian emperor may be gathered from the fact that the Altai estates alone cover an area of over one hundred and seventy thousand square miles, being about three times the size of England and Wales. The Nertchinsk estates, in Eastern Siberia, are estimated at about seventy-six thousand six hundred square miles, or more than twice the size of Scotland and Wales put together. In the Altai estates are situated the gold and silver mines of Barnaul, Paulov, Smijov, and Loktjepp, the copper foundry at Sasoum, and the great iron-works of Gavrilov, in the Salagirov district. The receipts from these enormous estates are in a ridiculously pitiful ratio to their extent. In the year 1882 they amounted to nine hundred and fifty thousand roubles, or a little more than ninety-five thousand pounds; while for 1883 the revenue was estimated at less than half this sum, or about four hundred thousand roubles. The rents, &c., gave a surplus over expense of administration of about a million and a half of roubles, or about one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. On the other hand, the working of the mines showed a deficit of over a million; hence the result just indicated. A partial explanation of this very unsatisfactory state of things is to be found in the situation of the mines, which are generally in places quite destitute of wood, while the smelting-works were naturally located in districts where wood abounds, sometimes as much as three hundred and four hundred miles distant from the mines. The cost of transport of raw materials became considerable in this way. By degrees, all the wood available in the neighbourhood of the smelting-works became used up, and it was necessary to fetch wood from distances of even over one hundred kilometres. Formerly, the mines were really penal settlements, worked by convicts, who were partly helped by immigrants, whose sons were exempted from military service on the condition of working in the mines. But since the abolition of serfdom this system has been quite altered, and there is now a great deal of free labour on the ordinary conditions.