CHAPTER VIII.
THE RURAL SURPLUS POPULATION.
The movement of population away from the rural districts, which is an economic law in capitalistic countries, plays a very conspicuous part in modern Russian economy.
Colonization of the border districts and periodical migration in quest of work, are tending to absorb the natural increase of the peasant population:
| Districts. | Ratio to the population of 1858. Per cent. | Ratio to the respective groups of the population of 1882. Per cent. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emigration, 1858-1882. | Surplus of population in 1882. | Adult males working outside, 1882. | ||
| Total. | Males. | |||
| Ranenburg | 10 | 30 | 23 | 20 |
| Dankoff | 9 | 26 | 22 | 21 |
There is thus but a minor fraction of the surplus population that has forever left the native village with the chance of settling somewhere else as farmers.[86] It is still to agriculture that most of the wandering peasantry are looking, not as farmers, however, but as wage laborers, while a vast minority flock to the cities.[87]
As to this class of the peasantry, it is commonly regarded by the Russian press as standing on the lowest round of the ladder of village life. It does not seem generally to occur to the public mind that a regular movement of the working population, like the movement of mercury in the barometrical tube, has to select the line of least resistance. Indeed, it is distinctly shown by comparison that the wages are higher outside than within the village.
| Branches. | Local. | Abroad. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum. | Maximum. | Minimum. | Maximum. | |
| I. Agriculture. | ||||
| Per summer, board provided by the employer. | ||||
| Farm help | 25.00 | 35.00 | 40.00 | 60.00 |
| Ranchmen in the south | 50.00 | 100.00 | ||
| II. Trade and service. | ||||
| Per month, no board extra. | 7.00 | 15.00 | 10.00 | 18.00 |
| III. Capitalistic industry. | ||||
| Per month, no board extra. | ||||
| Factory hands, in winter | 5.00 | 9.00 | ||
| Factory hands through the year | 10.00 | 18.00 | ||
| Turf cutters in summer | 15.00 | 25.00 | ||
| Coal miners, in winter, etc. | 8.00 | 13.00 | 24.00 | 37.00 |
Difference of wages stimulates the movement, which when once started in a village, goes on at an ever increasing rate.[88]