Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/41

 Rh tion. Many transactions of great national importance could not be executed, thus causing- great losses both to the importer and to the public.

"Trucks" was the cry of Russia, but they were more and more difficult to procure without substantial bribes to high and low officials. All Russia knew that this corrupt traffic was going on, and protested against it loudly; many cases involving high Government officials were broughbrought [sic] before the Courts; yet the selling of "Nariads" for goods trucks could not be stopped until the Revolution.

By that time the dearth of essential articles was so great, and their price in consequence so high, that fortunes could be made by one or two trips to Stockholm or Bucharest with a couple of trunks.