Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/59

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 * Meat (beef) || 4d. per lb. in towns; 2½d. per lb. in villages.
 * Bacon (cured in Siberia) || 5d. to 8d. per lb.
 * Wheat flour || 1½d. per lb. (retail price).
 * Wheat grain || 30 kopuks per pd=¼d. per lb. = 1d 6d. per bushel, autumn price.
 * Butter || 1s. per lb. (the only article exported).
 * Eggs || ¼d. each; ⅛d. in the villages.
 * Rice || 6d. per lb.
 * Beet sugar || 5½d. per lb.
 * Siberian brick tea || 10d. per lb.
 * China tea || 6s. 6d. per lb. (2s. Government duty).
 * Timber || Redwood deals 3 × 11, 1¾d. per ft. cube.
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 * Rice || 6d. per lb.
 * Beet sugar || 5½d. per lb.
 * Siberian brick tea || 10d. per lb.
 * China tea || 6s. 6d. per lb. (2s. Government duty).
 * Timber || Redwood deals 3 × 11, 1¾d. per ft. cube.
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 * China tea || 6s. 6d. per lb. (2s. Government duty).
 * Timber || Redwood deals 3 × 11, 1¾d. per ft. cube.
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I believe that a man can live on the local produce of the country at a very cheap rate, and indeed subsequent experience in the surrounding villages proved that a diet of eggs, bread and tea does not cost more than one shilling per day per person. Nor is the cost of living in a Siberian town much higher than in the villages. On the other hand, everything except pure necessaries is inordinately expensive and very inferior in quality. Siberians are chafing under the monopoly of the Moscow manufacturers who, sheltered by a high protective tariff, sell inferior articles at high prices. Moreover, in the remoter districts clothing, other than the rough Siberian homespun clothes and sheepskin coats, is nearly fifty per cent, in advance of Moscow prices.