Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/378

362 are not to exceed sixty per cent of the current price for the grain at the nearest market place, and run for six months, or even for one year. A short-time loan, for six weeks or less, may reach eighty per cent of the current price. In every case the rate of interest is at least six per cent, but varies according to the condition of the grain and the nature of the security. Should the borrower default, the grain is sold at public auction by the railroad, which acts as the agent of the Imperial Bank, whence all the loanable capital is derived.

In actual practice the system does not meet with the success anticipated by its framers. Not only is the capital available for advances inadequate, but the ability to loan is given only on grain actually delivered to the railroads or stored in central warehouses on favored routes. For the grain retained in the peasant's hands no provision will apply. The natural result is to stimulate the moving of the grain away from the place of production and, as experience has often proved, away from the market where it may be most needed. To secure the widest application of the loans, the Government entered into arrangements with private banks, supplying them with the capital to advance on grain, and offering them a profit on the venture.

The Government also undertook to facilitate the marketing of grain. The current prices of the leading cereals were published at all railway stations with a view to instruct the peasant of the condition of the market. The railway tariffs were subjected to a severe examination, that there might be no gross discriminations in rates against certain localities, or through differences of distances. The actual freight charged could not at once be reduced to a complete and consistent system; but the power of the Government to control the rates made itself felt wherever an emergency pressed. When Germany excluded the wheat and rye of Russia from her territory, the Russian Government reduced by nearly one third the cost of transporting grain to the Austrian and Roumanian frontiers. This gave a saving of twenty-five dollars a car, or about six cents a bushel, on wheat carried farther than six hundred and sixty-three miles (one thousand versts), and enabled the exporter to sell his grain in markets where he had not found a ready sale because of the cost of transport.

The development of railroads in Russia has been slow, and controlled rather by military than by commercial factors. In 1871 there were 7,750 miles opened to traffic, of which no less than 4,523 miles had been opened between 1868 and 1871. In 1874 the mileage had risen to 10,368, and between that year and 1890 the length of lines in European Russia alone increased to 18,059 miles. Toward the end of 1896 the returns for all Russia gave 25,898 miles open to regular public traffic, of which two thirds were owned