登陆注册
5382300000279

第279章 CHAPTER XXXVI(1)

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND THE PROLETARIAT

Russia till Lately a Peasant Empire--Early Efforts to Introduce Arts and Crafts--Peter the Great and His Successors--Manufacturing Industry Long Remains an Exotic--The Cotton Industry--The Reforms of Alexander II.--Protectionists and Free Trade--Progress under High Tariffs--M. Witte's Policy--How Capital Was Obtained--Increase of Exports--Foreign Firms Cross the Customs Frontier--Rapid Development of Iron Industry--A Commercial Crisis--M. Witte's Position Undermined by Agrarians and Doctrinaires--M. Plehve a Formidable Opponent--His Apprehensions of Revolution--Fall of M.

Witte--The Industrial Proletariat.

Fifty years ago Russia was still essentially a peasant empire, living by agriculture of a primitive type, and supplying her other wants chiefly by home industries, as was the custom in Western Europe during the Middle Ages.

For many generations her rulers had been trying to transplant into their wide dominions the art and crafts of the West, but they had formidable difficulties to contend with, and their success was not nearly as great as they desired. We know that as far back as the fourteenth century there were cloth-workers in Moscow, for we read in the chronicles that the workshops of these artisans were sacked when the town was stormed by the Tartars. Workers in metal had also appeared in some of the larger towns by that time, but they do not seem to have risen much above the level of ordinary blacksmiths. They were destined, however, to make more rapid progress than other classes of artisans, because the old Tsars of Muscovy, like other semi-barbarous potentates, admired and envied the industries of more civilised countries mainly from the military point of view. What they wanted most was a plentiful supply of good arms wherewith to defend themselves and attack their neighbours, and it was to this object that their most strenuous efforts were directed.

As early as 1475 Ivan III., the grandfather of Ivan the Terrible, sent a delegate to Venice to seek out for him an architect who, in addition to his own craft, knew how to make guns; and in due course appeared in the Kremlin a certain Muroli, called Aristotle by his contemporaries on account of his profound learning. He undertook "to build churches and palaces, to cast big bells and cannons, to fire off the said cannons, and to make every sort of castings very cunningly"; and for the exercise of these various arts it was solemnly stipulated in a formal document that he should receive the modest salary of ten roubles monthly. With regard to the military products, at least, the Venetian faithfully fulfilled his contract, and in a short time the Tsar had the satisfaction of possessing a "cannon-house," subsequently dignified with the name of "arsenal."

Some of the natives learned the foreign art, and exactly a century later (1856) a Russian, or at least a Slav, called Tchekhof, produced a famous "Tsar-cannon," weighing as much as 96,000 lbs.

The connection thus established with the mechanical arts of the West was always afterwards maintained, and we find frequent notices of the fact in contemporary writers. In the reign of the grandfather of Peter the Great, for example, two paper-works were established by an Italian; and velvet for the Tsar and his Boyars, gold brocades for ecclesiastical vestments, and rude kinds of glass for ordinary purposes were manufactured under the august patronage of the enlightened ruler. His son Alexis went a good many steps further, and scandalised his God-fearing orthodox subjects by his love of foreign heretical inventions. It was in his German suburb of Moscow that young Peter, who was to be crowned "the Great," made his first acquaintance with the useful arts of the West.

When the great reformer came to the throne he found in his Tsardom, besides many workshops, some ten foundries, all of which were under orders "to cast cannons, bombs, and bullets, and to make arms for the service of the State." This seemed to him only a beginning, especially for the mining and iron industry, in which he was particularly interested. By importing foreign artificers and placing at their disposal big estates, with numerous serfs, in the districts where minerals were plentiful, and by carefully stipulating that these foreigners should teach his subjects well, and conceal from them none of the secrets of the craft, he created in the Ural a great iron industry, which still exists at the present day. Finding by experience that State mines and State ironworks were a heavy drain on his insufficiently replenished treasury, he transferred some of them to private persons, and this policy was followed occasionally by his successors. Hence the gigantic fortunes of the Demidofs and other families. The Shuvalovs, for example, in 1760 possessed, for the purpose of working their mines and ironworks, no less than 33,000 serfs and a corresponding amount of land. Unfortunately the concessions were generally given not to enterprising business-men, but to influential court-dignitaries, who confined their attention to squandering the revenues, and not a few of the mines and works reverted to the Government.

The army required not only arms and ammunition, but also uniforms and blankets. Great attention, therefore, was paid to the woollen industry from the reign of Peter downwards. In the time of Catherine there were already 120 cloth factories, but they were on a very small scale, according to modern conceptions. Ten factories in Moscow, for example, had amongst them only 104 looms, 130

workers, and a yearly output for 200,000 roubles.

While thus largely influenced in its economic policy by military considerations, the Government did not entirely neglect other branches of manufacturing industry. Ever since Russia had pretensions to being a civilised power its rulers have always been inclined to pay more attention to the ornamental than the useful--

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 时空商铺系统

    时空商铺系统

    新书【万界之时空道路】,欢迎来看哦眼睁睁看着双亲被杀,却又无能为力,渴望得到力量报仇的端木寒,吸引了正在穿越的系统,从此在万界开商店。萧炎:“端木先生,我要买一只皮卡丘送给熏儿。”……路飞:“我要学忍术。”……索隆:“我要一个无尽酒壶。”……托尼:“端木先生,我要一副飞影铠甲。”……时空商店里应有竟有,无所不能,你想要什么样的东西呢,快来看一看吧!ps:新人新书,感兴趣的可以看看!后面的世界由你们来续写!!!欢迎加入时空都市,群聊号码:920971494
  • 秦时之仙

    秦时之仙

    这是一个人回到秦朝的故事,到达秦时,他成为了一个仙人,于是一位通晓古今的仙人出现了。群号:866355079
  • 龙武狂帝

    龙武狂帝

    上古龙纪,诸天龙道,可挥动星河,逆转轮回!如今不过昙花一现,武道称尊!……万年前,狂帝历锋于宴席之上,遭受红颜兄弟毒杀。于万年后,边陲小城重生,势要再度破竹,狂歌猛进,踏上巅峰!接受龙典传承,背负振兴龙道使命,成为那通天彻地的龙道武者。“吾辈,甘愿血染青天!龙武搅风云!”这里有最强势的主角,最恢弘的场景,最感人的柔情……傲娇、腹黑、红颜、兄弟一样也不会少。
  • 史上最强绿巨人

    史上最强绿巨人

    穿越成了布鲁斯.班纳。在母体中吞噬了浩克,天生就有这强大的力量,本以为自己将过上人生赢家的生活,可是他发现,这个世界已经乱套了,先是自己被霍格沃兹招收,成了一位强大的魔法师,接着又是超人啊,不从之神啊,圣杯降临啊,还有复仇者联盟和系列的漫威英雄相继出场。看着眼前一帮家伙班纳仰天大喊“天啊,我只想做个安静的美男子罢了,你为什么要这么对我、”群名:史上最强绿巨人群号:562898106
  • 快穿逆袭:反派驾到

    快穿逆袭:反派驾到

    “哎哎,你等等,你这个节奏不对哈,我才是反派,是应该我把你带坏,你应该听我的!”男人一边跳脚一边狂追前面风姿独立的温婠。“宿主,他在追你哎,要不要等等......”一脸讨好的系统瞄着温婠笑的谄媚。“都没我崩,都没我坏,还让我听他的!”温婠挠挠耳朵,一脚将圆润的系统送上天际,耳根终于清静了!
  • 凤回巢

    凤回巢

    新书《一品容华》发布了,欢迎老读者们跳坑。顾莞宁这一生跌宕起伏,尝遍艰辛,也享尽荣华。闭上眼的那一刻,身心俱疲的她终于得以平静。没想到,一睁眼……--------小情建了书友群,群号六九三九二六八四九,欢迎大家加群~(#^.^#)~
  • 有女为姝

    有女为姝

    莲步轻移,越过重重红杉锦屏,清泠笑意传入人耳,是难得的佳曲。京中人人皆道薛家二女是个玻璃人物。实则她看见死人时比看财神爷还亲。别人幽会花前月下,薛傅二人命案现场。新人新书、“清汤寡水”,男女主身心1v1,携手度过风雨的感情往往更珍贵。
  • 世界文化博览(第四册)

    世界文化博览(第四册)

    《世界文化博览》精选了大量世界文化与自然遗产,以精炼的文字从多方面加以说明与介绍。揭开历史,一窥背后的故事,将人类历史上的里程碑和转折点,冲突和战争、创造和发现、崛起和衰落等,一一呈现在读者面前。其内容涵盖了原始社会、传媒通讯、人类军事武器的产生、数学宝库、西方文明的产生、人类走向宇航时代等。带你领略世界文化的博大精深,感受文化的力量和魅力,享受精神的盛宴,浓缩世界文化知识精粹。旨在为读者提高文化修养、丰富人生内涵、添加知识储备、准备写作素材、增加聚会谈资……
  • 大眼睛探秘百科:挖呀挖,挖出一个大房子!

    大眼睛探秘百科:挖呀挖,挖出一个大房子!

    神秘的百慕大、金字塔,神奇的恐龙世界,千奇百怪的动植物,还有遥远的太空及外星人,以及历史上数不清的传奇人物和故事,对孩子来说,都有着莫大的吸引力。根据调查研究表明,中、小学生对历史知识、生物知识、未解之谜等特别感兴趣,而探究这方面的知识,有利于孩子增加阅读量,加强知识的储备,更重要的是孩子能主动寻找问题的答案,对小学生思维的训练和潜能开发起着重要的影响。
  • 这个明星来自地球

    这个明星来自地球

    尚在拼搏奋斗的影视小编剧韩觉,一觉醒来发现不仅自己变了,连世界都变了。这里的华夏,娱乐产业之发达超过大洋彼岸的好莱坞。华夏金牛奖已成为全世界含金量最大的电影奖项。《歌手》作为歌手顶级赛场,已经出到第十季;《华夏好声音》三年一季,每次都是全民狂欢;《蒙面歌王》每周一期永远不缺被埋没的声音。街上很容易可以看到:拍节目的剧组,举着手机的主播,恶作剧路人的视频网红……这里是文娱从业者们最好的时代。现世作为一个过气偶像明星的韩觉,身处这娱乐盛世的边缘,已经完全不想当明星了好吗?他只想美滋滋地在精神粮食的海洋中徜徉,做一个安静的宅男。群1:579483758群2:160824139