It is received from the Bucharian merchants at Kiachta in exchange for furs; and the prime cost is rated at 16 roubles per pood. By adding the pay of the commissioners who purchase it, and of the apothecary who examines it, and allowing for other necessary expences, the value of a pood at Kiachta amounts to 25 roubles; add to this the carriage from the frontiers to St. Petersburg, and it is calculated that the price of a pood stands the crown at 30 roubles. The largest exportation of rhubarb ever known from Russia, was made in the year 1765, when 1350 pood were exported, at 65 roubles per pood.
Exportation of Rhubarb from St. Petersburg.
EXPORTATION of RHUBARB
From St. Petersburg.
| In 1777, 29 poods 13 pounds | at 76-1/4 Dutch[188] dollars, or 91 roubles, 30 copecs per pood. |
| In 1778, 23 poods 7 pounds, | at 80 ditto, or 96 roubles. |
In 1778, 1055 poods were brought by the Bucharian merchants to Kiachta; of which 680 poods 19 pounds were selected. The interior consumption of the whole empire of Russia for 1777 amounted to only 6 poods 5 pounds[189].
Superiority of the Tartarian over the Indian Rhubarb.
The superiority of this Tartarian Rhubarb, over that procured from Canton, arises probably from the following circumstances.
1. The Southern parts of China are not so proper for the growth of this plant, as the mountains of Little Bucharia.
2. There is not so exact an examination made in receiving it from the Chinese at Canton, as from the Bucharians at Kiachta. For the merchants, who purchase this drug at Canton, are obliged to accept it in the gross, without separating the bad roots, and cutting away the decayed parts, as is done at Kiachta.