Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/58

28 inhabitants of the district was to meet once or twice a year at a big autumn fair in some central spot, where a fur trader could exchange his furs for corn, or a peasant his local produce for boots or clothes. But this old system is fast breaking down, and the advent of the railway was the first step towards bringing Siberia into closer contact with Europe. Wholesale commercial firms in Moscow are now establishing branches in such places as Krasnoyarsk and sell their goods wholesale to the smaller retail firms scattered about the country. Quicker transit, bringing buyer and seller closer together and facilitating a greater volume of trade, is now the order of the day. And so the trade of the annual fairs has fallen steadily year by year, and the warehouses and wholesale depots for the import of Moscow manufactures and the export of local produce have steadily grown. The annual fair still takes place every autumn, chiefly for live stock and grain, but the volume of its business declines year by year. During spring and summer the bazaar square is deserted, except once a week, when a few peasants from the immediate neighbourhood have stalls where they retail local produce for the consumption of the town. The prices current at the fairs are interesting and show how economic laws of supply and demand operate in these distant parts. The long distance by rail to the European markets precludes the profitable export of much local produce, and since the richness of the land floods the market in ordinary years with superabundance, the price of food and local produce is phenomenally cheap. I found the following prices current at Krasnoyarsk in the spring of 1910.