Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/93

73 THE EUSSIAN GOVERNMENT IN TUEKESTAN. 73 announced that several millions of poods had been exported — during the year 1877 it was assumed, but as the report was careful not to state during what period of time, we are compelled to test its accuracy by reference to other sources of information. JN^o proof of this assertion can be found, and it is evidently, from the state of the revenue, an exaggerated perversion of the facts. It is quite possible that the amount stated was from the commencement of the Eussian govern- ment in Turkestan. Kor can there be discovered in any other article of commerce that rapid progress of which Eussian journals have made so much talk. The Eussian revenue in Central Asia appears to be as hope- lessly stationary as it well can be, and the sources from which it is derived are limited. There is no elasticity to be perceived anywhere ; while the expenditure which is necessary for the maintenance of Eussian rule continues to increase, despite attempts at economy in some of the governments, and notwithstanding special commissions of inquiry to effect that object in them all. The expenditure exceeds the enormous — relatively speaking — sum of nine millions of roubles, and of this sum about five millions, or more than one-half, are devoted to military expenditure of one kind or another. One million roubles are expended upon the civil service in the shape of salaries and expenses. Three-quarters of a million is absorbed by postal expenses ; and half a million figures as extras, of which the greater por- tion is, we imagine, connected in some way with the army expenditure. Thirteen thousand roubles are set aside for the educational purposes of some three