per lb. 3,534,000, making a total value of 20,062,000 roubles. Reckoning twice the value of the silk for the value of the fabric, we obtain a sum of 40,124,000 roubles, to which we must add the value of the fabrics from floss silk. The importution of silk waste of every description amounts at an average (exportation deducted) to 1,188,567 lbs., which may give about 1,000,000 lbs. in fabrics worth 5 million roubles, giving to the total products of this industry a value, in round numbers, of 45 millions of roubles, or thrice the value of the Russian manufacture.

The number of operatives to whom the manufacture gives employment in Russia, may be estimated approximatively as follows:-For 158 factories which were working in 1843, in the government of Moscow, and produced to the value of 5,805,000 roubles, there were reckoned 15,900 hands, which gives a product of 365 roubles per pair of hands. At that rate, to manufacture to the value of 15 millions of roubles, there would be required 41,096 operatives. In Austria there were reckoned in 1841, 33,000 hands employed in this manufacture, of which the product was valued in the official statistics at 19,500,000 conv. fl. = 12,285,000 roub., which gives a product of 372 roubles per operative-coming remarkably near the estimate for ourselves.

It was in the reign of the Empress Catharine II. that the silk manufacture first began to acquire some importance; but its most marked progress dates only from the reign of the Emperor Nicholas: its development has been much slower than that of other manufactures which depend upon a large body of consumers. The following was the average annual importation of the raw material from 1824 to 1851 taken by triennial periods:

Quantity of Silk imported, Raw and Thrown.

From this table we perceive that down to 1841 the impor

tation was pretty stationary at about 12,000 poods. After the

temporary increase of 1830-32 it fell during the next three periods below the average of 1824-26. From 1842, and especially from 1845, it resumes an ascending movement. This, as we have already had occasion to observe, is a marked date in the progress of most of our manufactures. The last triennial period, compared with 1824-26, presents an increased importation of 5805 poods, or more than 46 per cent. The increase is solely upon European silk, for the importation of Asiatic has been almost constantly decreasing: it took a turn in 1845, but the last triennium, compared with 1824-26, presents a decrease of 256 poods, or about 3 per cent., which may be attributed partly to the progress of production in the transcaucasian provinces, and partly to the increasing exportation of Persian and Turkish silk to England. The year 1851, compared with the proceding triennium, presents the large decrease of more than a fourth; it is larger for Asiatic (36 per cent.) than for European silk (17 per cent). The importation of European silk, regarded by itself, has undergone various oscillations; but the cipher of 1848-50, compared with that of 1824-26, exhibits an increase of about 150 per cent. Our foreign commerce in silks since 1824, taken by triennial periods, exhibits the following results:

We perceive from this table, that the importation of foreign silks has more than doubled, whilst our trifling exportation, on a comparison of the first and last triennial periods, has increased by only 20,000 roubles. Our export to Europe has fallen from 13,271 roubles to 2351; that to Asia has risen from 54,809 roubles (average of 1824-26) to 77,753 (average of 1848 50). The large increase of importation under a tariff 1848-50). which taxed foreign silks at from 5 to 25 roubles per lb. shows the backward condition of this branch of industry. The faults inherent in our manufacture have been pointed out by M.

Boutowski, in his report upon the exposition of our industrial products in 1843. One of the principal causes of our inferiority, as compared with France and England, is the bad quality of the raw material. We have already seen that the Russian manufacturers work up 38,300 poods of silk, of which about 20,000, or more than 52 per cent., are Caucasian of very mediocre quality; and 8200 poods, or more than 21 per cent., of Turkish and Persian, very inferior to that of France and Italy; so that of the whole quantity used, little more than 26 per cent. is good European silk. No doubt nine-tenths of the French and Italian silk arrives in a thrown state, whilst the Caucasian, Persian, and Turkish is imported raw, so that the waste from the latter will modify the relative proportions; but we may safely admit that not more than a third, at the utmost, of the silk manufactured is European. It is preferred for the fabrication of plain stuffs, and for the warp of some figured patterns. The preparation of the silk previous to weaving is badly executed. It is handed over raw to a class of undertakers called karassniki, who give it out to winders in the villages, by whom it is also assorted for the warp and the weft. These operations are generally performed in a very negligent manner, and with defective implements. Some progress, however, has been made in the introduction of better apparatus, the first impulse having been given by government, which imported model machines from France, and brought over a master spinner from Avignon to instruct the operatives in their trade. manufacturers have availed themselves of the facilities thus presented for introducing improved machinery. M. Schelkownikow has established a throwing-mill at Moscow which uses chiefly Caucasian silk, forwarded by the society for the promotion of sericulture in the transcaucasian provinces. Upwards of 200 poods of silk may be thrown in this establishment, but the expenses come high-34 roubles per pood for weft, and 68 roubles per pood for warp.

Several

The scouring is performed pretty well. For silk of a dark colour, common Kazan soap, costing 4 roubles per pood, and for light colours a better quality, costing 4 roub. 60 kop. per pood, is used. The quantity used is from 25 to 30 per cent. upon the weight, and the cost of scouring comes to 5 roub. per pood of silk. The silk loses about 25 per cent. of its weight when well scoured. For certain fabrics half-scoured silk is used; but our manufacturers sometimes make an improper use of insufficiently scoured silk, which gives the fabric a certain show of thickness at the expense of its real durability.

The faults in the winding, throwing, and preparation, joined to the inferior quality of the Caucasian and Persian silk, deprive our fabrics of the silkiness, suppleness, and lustre of foreign fabrics; still, the finish of our stuffs is greatly improved, especially in the establishments founded at Moscow by foreigners, of which those of MM. Morel, Amalric, and Damé Brothers are the most important. And upon the whole, within the last ten years marked progress has been made in the manufacture of some sorts of fabrics, especially figured and flowered silks, and figured satin for furniture. A remarkable index to this progress is the rapidity with which the use of the Jacquard loom has been diffused in Russia, and the aptitude which the Russian operatives have displayed in its use. The dyeing has also been greatly improved. Silks dyed in the establishments of Messrs. Damé Brothers, and M. Stefko, at Moscow, are nowise inferior in pureness and liveliness of colour to foreign silks; and the Russian dye-works of MM. Adrian, Bassof, and Schiguine have sent dyed silks of a very fine quality to the last expositions. The cost of dyeing is from 11 to 12 roubles per pood, and nearly five times as much for crimson; for fine rose colours the cost is nearly 4 roub. per lb., or 160 roub. per pood, so that the high prices of our silks need scarcely be wondered at. In the principal Moscow factories, the weaving of figured stuffs leaves little to be desired; but our manufacturers seldom attempt originality of design, confining themselves to the copying of French patterns. It is to be hoped that the schools of design established at Moscow and Petersburg will cause this defect to disappear in time. The school of design founded at Moscow by Count Stroganoff, might be advantageously compared with the best institutions of the sort which we have seen abroad; it has already turned out distinguished pupils, and is in every respect a model establishment. The inferiority in the quality of our fabrics appears chiefly in plain stuffs, where defects are most easily observable. Apart from those which we have noticed in the preparation of the silk, giving rise to inequality of fabric, our weavers have much less aptitude for work of that description- a fact connected with the character of the Russian operative. A fabric varied with lively colours and gay patterns gratifies his taste and excites his interest, whilst the latter dulls upon the hum-drum labour that requires incessant care and continuous attention. One of the principal Moscow manufacturers informed M. Boutowski that out of 100 weavers he could scarcely select one able to weave a plain stuff without faults.

The silk manufacture is chiefly concentrated in the govern

ment of Moscow. According to M. Samoïloff, this government contained, in 1853, 158 silk factories, with 12,570 looms, and 15,910 operatives; the production was then valued at 5,805,000 silver roubles, of which 2,589,000 roubles belonged to the city and district of Moscow. But M. Samoïloff observes that this is exclusive of the single looms scattered over the whole government, and especially the district of Bogorodsk; and that from an approximative calculation, based on the quantity of silk consumed, the value of the manufacture in that government might be estimated at 8 millions. Next to the government of Moscow, it is in that of St. Petersburg that the principal factories are found; very recently the manufacture has been making some progress in the government of Jaroslaw. Amongst the 158 factories designed by name in M. Samoïloff's statistical atlas was one-that of M. Rochefort, at Moscow-which produced to the value of 500,000 roubles, and gave employment to 500 operatives. Since then M. Rochefort has, to a considerable extent, given up the manufacture of pure silks, and turned his attention to fancy fabrics - as crapes, blondes, mixtures, and woollen and semi-woollen stuffs; and now the principal old establishments are those of MM. Kondrascheff, Poliakoff, Tschernischeff Brothers, Effimoff, Zaloguine, Kononoff, Krioukoff, Moussatoff, Solovieff, Schischkoff, and Tomitscheff. These 11 factories produced in 1843 to the value of 2,070,500 roubles, or more than a third of the whole 158 establishments then existing in that government. The principal articles of manufacture are brocades, and gold and silver embroidery for church ornaments, furniture stuffs, satins, and mixtures of silk and cotton. The manufacture of brocades, and of silk stuffs with gold and silver embroidery, is the principal ornament of that branch of industry in Russia, and it is a pity that it was not sufficiently represented at the London Exhibition. In that article we have no competition to fear, whether as regards price or as regards quality. In the same category we may rank the gold and silver galloons, which are as well manufactured in Russia as in foreign countries, and cheaper. The St. Petersburg manufacturers prefer the fabrication of plain stuffs.

The prices of our silks differ greatly, according to the quality of the raw material. Stuffs manufactured from Italian silk are generally double the price, at least, of similar fabrics where the weft is of Caucasian, Persian, or Turkish silk: they are also 25 to 30 per cent. dearer than similar fabrics of foreign manufacture. As the raw material comes but little higher to the Russian than to the foreign manufacturer, it is to other circumstances that the causes of this difference must be referred; and