The foreign commerce of Russia presents the following results for 1841:—
| Exports to foreign countries, | 86,382,179 | silver rubles. |
| Imports from do. | 79,429,490 | ... |
The Russian official tables include, under the head of foreign commerce, the exports and imports with Finland and Poland; but as they fall within the range, in reality, of internal commerce, the accounts are better simplified by their exclusion. The system of separate returns results, doubtless, from the political arrangements and conventions by which Russia acquired the possession of those two countries.
The progress of exports and imports may be thus indicated:—
| 1838. | 1839. | 1840. | ||
| Exports, | 85,718,930 | 94,857,788 | 82,731,386 | silver rubles. |
| Imports, | 69,693,824 | 69,993,589 | 76,726,490 | ... |
The remarkable excess of exports in 1839 resulted from the large demand for, and shipments of, corn in that year—the official value of which is stated at 25,217,027 silver rubles; the smallest export, so far as value, being that of 1841, valued at 10,382,509 silver rubles only. Exclusive of corn, the exports would stand thus:—
| 1838 for | 70,562,252 | silver rubles. |
| 1839 | 69,640,761 | ... |
| 1840 | 68,704,971 | ... |
| 1841 | 75,999,670 | ... |
Gold and silver, in bars or specie, are not comprised in these returns.
| For 1841 the values thus exported were, | 4,023,728 | silver rubles. |
| ... imports, | 9,347,867 | ib. |
It is necessary, however, to travel more backwards in order to a right appreciation of the progress of the foreign trade of Russia. This comparison is here instituted with earlier years, premising that the exports to Poland and Finland, amounting to some ten or twelve millions of rubles assignation, and imports from, amounting to about three millions, are included, and therefore swell the amount of the imports and exports of the following years. However, to facilitate the comparison, the silver ruble values of 1841 are multiplied into corresponding ruble assignation values: