Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/80

 It is for this reason that the memorable period which ushered in the reign of the Emperor Alexander the First is, from the Russian point of view, notable in the field of foreign relations, not only for the struggle with Napoleon, but also as carrying on Catherine the Second's policy of Russian organic expansion towards the South. The Ministry of Commerce, which was then founded, first of all directed its attention to New Russia, to the development of its trade and its general economic life. Generally speaking, this was a period when new economic ideas—ideas coming from different sources and widely differing in character—penetrated