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.