Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1328

 972 RUSSIA

belonging to the State. The traffic in 1896 was 3,608,065 x^assengers and 1,434,969 tons of goods. The total cost of the State railways to the end of 1896 was 195,348,043 marks. The total revenue of the same in 1896 was 17,867,386 marks, and the total expenditure 10,799.742 marks,

Finland had 743 post-offices in 1896, and revenue and expenses were respectively 2,393,303 and 2,008,830 marks; united letters and post-cards, 11,123,781; parcels, &c., 1,939,899 ; newspapers, 10,631,868.

The 163 savings-banks had on December 31, 1895, 93,247 depositors, with aggregate deposits of 49,331,796 marks.

Money, Weights, &c.

The markka of 100 penni is of the value of a franc, 9|d. The standard is gold, and the markka, though not coined in gold, is the unit.

Gold coins are 20 and 10-markka pieces. They contain '2903225 grammes of fine gold to the markka.

Silver coins are 2, 1, ^, and | -markka pieces.

Copper coins are 10, 5, and 1 -penni pieces.

The paper currency is exchangeable at par against gold or silver.

The unit of linear measure is the foot, which is - "2969 metre, or very nearly equal to the English foot. 1 verst (3,600 Finn, feet) = nearly | of a statute mile ; 1 tit7inland {56,000 square Finn, feet) = nearly 1^ acre (0 '49364 hectare); 1 tunna (63 ^'a?i?ior) = nearly 4^ bushels (1'6488 hectolitre; 1 sk§,lpund = yVit of Eng. lb, (425 01 grammes); 1 centner (100 ska-lpund = 5 Us2nind) — -^^\ of Eng. ton (45 '501 kilogrammes). Metric measures are now in general use.

RUSSIAN DEPENDENCIES IN ASIA.

The following two States in Central Asia are under the suzerainty of Russia : —

BOKHARA.

A Russian vassal State in Central Asia, lying between N. latitude 41° and 37°, and between E. longitude 62° and 72°, bounded on the north by the Russian province of Turkestan, on the east by the Pamir, on the south by Afghanistan, and on the west by the Kara Kum desert.

The reigning sovereign is the Ameer Say id Abdul Ahad, fourth son of the late Ameer, by a slave girl ; born about 1860, educated in Russia, succeeded his father in 1885. The heir is his son Sayid Mir Alim Khan, born January 3, 1880.

The modern State of Bokhara was founded by the Usbegs in the fifteenth century, after the power of the Golden Horde hadl)cen crushed by Tamerlane. The dynasty of Manguts, to which the present ruler belongs, dates from the end of the last century, Mir Muzaft'ar-ed-din in 1866 proclaimed a holy war against the Russians, who thereupon invaded his dominions, and forced him to sign a treaty ceding the territory now forming the Russian district of Syr Daria, to consent to the demand for a war indemnity, and to permit