THE LARGEST BUSINESS I THE WORLD.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12536, 25 June 1901, Page 2

THE LARGEST BUSINESS I THE WORLD.

“ The Russian State is 'by far the greatest economic unit on the face of the globe” (writes Henry Norman in “Russia of .To* day”). To "ninety-nine readers out of a hundred this statement will doubtless be , startling. It certainly was to me, when I first met with it, yet the facts to justify it are not far to seek. The Russian State , draws an annual net profit of 45,000,000 roubles from its forests, mines, and agricultural property. It receives annually 80,000,000 roubles from its communities of ex-serfs, for the use of land it ceded to or purchased for them. Tt is building by far the longest and most costly railway in the world,, and it owns and works over 20,000 miles'' of railways, the net revenue on which is equal to one-seventh of the net revenue of all the railways of the United States. In .1898 it received £180,000,000 into its coffers, 5 nearly one-half of which sum was not produced by taxation. Its Budget it greater than that of France by more than 200,000,000 dollars. In 1890, when one of the‘banks of London was unable to meet its obligations, the Russian Government bad with it, on current account, a balance of so many millions of pounds that when the Bank of England came to the rescue a request was immediately made to Russia not to dispose of her balance before a certain date, smo? to do so would he to precipitate a financial crisis of the utmost gravity. Finally, besides being a capitalist and a banker, of.. this magnitude, the Russian State is also . a metallurgist and a spirit _ merchant. In a word, the proud claim is made for it that it is the greatest landowner, the greatest capitalist, the greatest constructor of railways, and carries on the largest business in the world. I have said that the above system of “ education protection ” —m plain language, the development of homo industries by means of high duties upon imported manufactured articles and upon raw material which the country itself is able to ’ produce—has been the central idea of M. de Witte’s national policy. ' With the resulting industrial and commercial Russia of to-day he is more closely identified than any other man. In his latest reports to the Emperor he points to this with pardonable pride. Classifying the national industrial production under nine heads—textiles, food, animal products, wood,' paper, chemicals, pottery, manufactured! metal, and . various—from 1878 to. 1887 Russia produced 26,000,000 roubles' worth; I from 1882-1892 the output was 41,000,000 Roubles ; and from 1893-1897 it had risen to no less than 161,000,000 roubles. That is, the progress of the'figures of industrial business—-the, industrial turn-over—during the last quinquennial period was four times thaktof >thp.’pr6todmg period, and- six times that'which ended ten years agoJ The figures,, relating to, the extraction and production of ’ihiinerals are ae striking as those of manufacture. Of coal, petroleum, pig iron, iron,“ and steel, Russia produced in. 1877 a total of 1,700,000 tons; in 1898 She produced close on 24,000,000 tons. Such figures are alone a sufficient justification of M. De Witte’s policy, as, under- the Emperor, he controls the economic and industrial future of Russia,‘and as foreign ■ capitalists will certainly turn their attention more and more to this country. 1