Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/104

 tive gambling which had taken place in Siberia, and having arisen in the lower classes, among populations enjoying relative comfort, it showed from the very beginning an extraordinary force and power.

"The industrial butter-making has developed rapidly in Siberia, and even in 1894 butter-making establishments were increasing with astonishing rapidity. At first they were all in the hands of private owners, but the greed of the merchants and their speculations led to the production of an inferior quality of butter. The reputation of Siberian butter was greatly endangered, and this state of things, full of far-reaching consequences from an economic point of view, threatened to cause an irretrievable loss to the country. The co-operative system, which until that day had been merely desirable, then became a necessity for the population, and the butter-making works promptly passed from private persons to the artels.

"Let us note here the characteristic fact that the buyers were not as grasping as are most private buyers in similar circumstances. Without trying to exploit the