Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/339

Rh countries before the War might be very profitable from this point of view. The following summary of the business methods employed by the three countries with which Russia deals mostly is given by the Weekly Bulletin, published by the Canadian Department of Trade and Commerce.

German manufacturers, after due trial, have abandoned the practice of establishing branch houses in Russia; it proved unprofitable. They subsequently developed the market with travelers, who covered not only the chief cities, like Petrograd, Moscow, Riga, Kiev, Odessa, Rostov-on-Don, etc, but also the larger provincial towns. These travelers carried elaborate collections of samples of a wide range of articles, often representing different industries, and, above all, catalogues printed in Russian, with prices in Russian currency. They quoted f. o. b. Russian port or frontier station, and were ready to meet the provincial wholesale dealer and the local stores by quoting similar terms with duty paid and, if pressed, including delivery at the local station. As a further accommodation they conceded extended credits to suit the individual customer, with the aid of the German banks. German success in Russia started from the ability to supply cheap articles for the peasant population; but they were able, through the circumstances of their competition and their clever adaptation of business methods, to obtain, gradually, the Russian market for better-class articles.

Twenty years ago Great Britain practically monopolized the Russian market for manufactured articles, but it has since been overtaken by Germany, owing largely to the latter country's more generous credit terms. Progress was also hampered by ultra-conservative methods of business and unwillingness to quote in Russian currency and weights and measures or to follow the German example of quoting delivery at the frontier with duty paid. It is said that the use of travelers to keep in touch with customers was neglected, and that British manufacturers declined to intrust their interests to export houses. Thus the direct business became limited to the largest dealers in the Russian centers, and it might be said that the business Great Britain was doing in Russia until recently was due largely to the fact that British goods were actually demanded by customers rather than that they were pushed. Evidences of a change in this respect are now at hand.

The methods employed by United States manufacturers have been either of the two following: To appoint a sole selling agent for Russia and Siberia, or to intrust their export trade to exporting houses in the United States and Hamburg, this second method appearing to be more in favor. United States manufacturers have obtained better results with the Hamburg firms than with those in the United States, because the former worked Russia intensively with travelers along the German lines. For the American house thus relieved of Russian credit risks, the business was easy and convenient, but it was necessarily of