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CHAPTER IX
THE ECONOMIC RESOURCES OF RUSSIA WITH
SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BRITISH INDUSTRIAL
AND COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES *
In order to place British opportunities in Russia upon a
more practical footing in Russia it is necessary to investigate
her tremendous productive forces and natural resources
which have been hitherto rather neglected. For the purpose
of showing the economic resources of the Russian State it
is more important to refer to the years preceding the war
than to the present time when the normal economic
conditions of the country are out of gear. I have used as the
chief source of my information the official publication edited
by the Central Statistical Committee of the Russian Home
Ministry, converting Russian poods into Biitish tons, and
Russian dessiatinas into British acres, the pood being taken
as equal to 36.11 lb., and the dessiatina being taken as
equal to 2.7 acres.
Means of Communication.—The rational exploitation of
the economic potentialities of a country lies in the
development of her means of communication. According to the
Russian Statistical Annual published in 1915, the length of
railways of general importance was in 1914 only 62,912
kilometres—namely, 1.1 kilometre to every 100 square kilometres
of territory, and 4.1 kilometres to every 10,000 inhabitants
of the Empire, while Great Britain can boast of 12.0
kilometres of railway to every 100 square kilometres of territory,
and 8.1 kilometres to every 10,000 inhabitants. The United
States have more than five times the length of railways
* Extract from a Paper read at the Royal Statistical Society in January
1917.
100
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