Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/375

Rh and acceptable average would defy every known statistical method. Yet the attempt has been made in connection with the competition from the United States, and the result was published with the official recognition of the Minister of Finance. There is little doubt that this comparison deserves to rank with the curious French and English estimates already quoted—estimates which sought to determine an arbitrary limit of cost below which wheat could not and therefore would not be grown in the United States. It will be of interest to make a record of the Russian estimate, if only for future reference and comparison. "A pood, or thirty-six English pounds, of wheat costs the Russian producer fifty-six kopecks, or twenty-eight cents, whereas the same quantity of American wheat costs the producer sixty-six kopecks, or thirty-three cents. The transportation of this cereal from Russia to London costs about nine kopecks per pood, or four cents and a half, whereas the American exporter pays 9.7 kopecks, or 4.85 cents, per pood to transport his grain to the English markets."

In the black-earth region the cost of production, including rent, was said to range from forty-five to sixty kopecks per pood, and even at the higher cost would have yielded a profit to the cultivator if sold at the market price. This made possible a fall of more than one fifth in the commercial value of wheat between 1881 and 1887, without affecting the production in any noticeable degree. In most cases, however, the profit was apparent, and the debt-burdened landowner derived little benefit.

In 1838 the serfs numbered forty-four out of every hundred in the population of Russia in Europe, but at the time of emancipation the proportion was less, and tended to diminish each year. The serfs on private domain, forming about one half of the total number of serfs in the empire, constituted the readiest asset of the proprietor for obtaining loans from the credit establishments of the state. So far was this practice carried, that at the moment of emancipation two thirds of these serfs were found to be so mortgaged. The act of emancipation transformed the serf into a landowner, and through this ownership and the autonomy of his commune he was supposed to be fully emancipated, at once economically and administratively. As compensation was due to the nobles for the land thus given to the freed serf, the state undertook to loan four fifths of the established value of the land, whenever the serf should wish to request that aid. The advances were made on a basis of a period of fortynine years at six per cent, the annual payment of six per cent covering the interest and finally extinguishing the debt. The process of emancipation is thus still short of completion.