Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/60

 30 But this excessive cheapness of Siberian natural produce will not always continue; when the economic demands of the seething populations of Western Europe with their industrial proletariat grow greater, Siberian natural produce, now only a drug on the local markets, will command a real value. At present only such articles as have a sufficiently high value in Europe to bear the cost of a long rail journey will find their way from such far-off places as Central Siberia. Such articles are furs, minerals, dairy produce, and certain valuable kinds of Siberian pine timber. Meanwhile, thanks to the railway and cheaper transport, the present tendency is for prices of Moscow manufactures to sink below the high level of former days, while prices of local agricultural produce, although at present very low, are showing an inclination to rise, and this will probably continue, especially as more and more is exported to Europe.

The economic life of Central Siberia, therefore, is changing slowly from the primitive condition of the past, where each economic unit of the community provided most of its few requirements and disposed of the surplus to its neighbours in the annual fairs at very low prices. With the growing division of labour, the facilities for exchange are increasing; and the whole country is now placed in closer communication with Europe than before. The effect of this is here reflected in the social condition of the people, for under these new conditions the standard of living is becoming higher. Siberians living in those parts where communication by rail or river is fairly easy are now no longer content with homespun hemp clothes, raw-hide boots and wooden spades, but