Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/92

72 72 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA. From the European brancli of the community an addi- tional sum of about eight hundred thousand roubles is raised, principally in excise dues, stamps, postage, etc. But more than a third of this amount is raised from excise alone, and this is paid almost exclusively by the Russians themselves. Of late years some con- siderable sum appears to have been derived from the sale of Government lands, but of this source of revenue no certain statement has been published. But in- cluding every impost of the most insignificant kind, the Tashkent exchequer does not receive annually in the shape of revenue three millions of roubles.* And the revenue shows no elements of elasticity. The figures given here are greater than those given by Mr. Schuyler in 1872, simply because Eussia now draws from two additional provinces to those she ruled in that year. That surplus may be found to be an actual deficit when we come to consider the increased expenditure. The excise tax, which falls as a burden on the not over- paid ofiicial Russian world, is the only tax that shows an increase each year. The benefits of Russian civilisa- tion have not as yet resulted in any improvement in the material 'prosperity of Central Asiatics, principally because there has been no effort to produce that result. Glowing reports were circulated of the enormous impulse that had been given to the export of cotton from Turkestan. An official statement was published which compute the rouble.
 * It is doubtful also at what value the various official return