defrayed out of the private funds; or in cases of the insufficiency of the latter, by the firms individually.

Such assistance not to exceed six weeks.

Art. 27. Extraordinary assistance of the kind specified in Art. 15 is granted by the administrative commission, as it sees fit, to the relations of deceased persons having no claim to a pension; to workmen who are severely injured, but not incapable of working; or to old and infirm workmen not included in the 4th section of Art. 18.

In any case, the funds of the institution cannot be appropriated to workmen in the employment of firms not associated.

Art. 28. The proprietors of associated establishments are consulted and give their advice upon all demands for pensions or extraordinary assistance addressed to the administrative commission of the institution by workmen or their families.

Art. 29. They transmit every three months to the administrative commission of the institution the amount of the sums due to it.

Art. 30. The pensions are paid fortnightly, and, in every possible case, at the mines where the workman or his family are located.

Art. 31. When the funds of the institution permit, the administrative commission appropriates a portion to the building of schools in the vicinity of the principal mines, into which all the children of workmen employed by associated firms are admitted gratuitously.

CHAP. IV.

Art. 32. Before the publication of the documents alluded to in Art. 12, the administrative commission give annual notice to the general assembly of associated proprietors, who are convened for that purpose. At the same sitting, one-fourth of the members who retire from the commission are renewed.

Art. 33. Each firm has a vote at the general meeting.

Art. 34. No change can be made in these statutes without calling a special meeting of all the associated companies. This meeting is convened by notices sent to the various establishments, and an advertisement of the same is twice inserted in the provincial journals, by order of the administrative commission.

Any modifications must be adopted by three-fourths of the members present, and the latter must constitute the majority of the associated establishments.

Art. 35. These statutes, with any modifications which may be adopted, will be submitted for the Royal approbation.

The Institution is established this day, 30th Sept., 1841.

Notices of the Commerce of Russia. Abstracted from a paper by

A. SLOWACZYNSKI.

[Read before the Statistical Society of London, 21st March, 1842.]

THE want of protection and favour to commerce in Russia, together with the ignorance which there exists concerning the wants, manufactures, and commerce of other countries, constrains the native Russians, like the Jews in Poland, to petty trading in the towns or on the frontier;

leaving foreign merchants to come to their shores in search of what they may require. Next to the maritime commerce of Russia its overland trade with Asia challenges attention; its great mart being the celebrated annual fair of Nijni Novgorod. But it will be desirable first to describe in brief the commercial body of Russia. The following numerical statements are derived from the official publications of the government, but great allowances must be made for inaccuracies, and for exaggerations arising from double entries, especially in the accounts of the inland trade by canals.

It appears that the body of merchants comprised,—

46,209

50,261

(Being the total number of persons devoted to commerce among a population of 56,000,000.

The merchants of the first guild declared, in 1839, to a capital of 44,550,000 paper roubles; the merchants of the second guild, to 37,480,000 roubles; those of the third, to 270,464,000 roubles; and the foreign merchants, to 2,300,000 roubles; making a total of 354,694,000 roubles.

This statement shows, however, only official amounts, guessed from the number of registered merchants, and in proportion to the tax which they pay into the Treasury: a merchant of the first guild may be considered accordingly as possessing a capital of 50,000 roubles; a merchant of the second 20,000; and a merchant of the third 8,000 roubles. These amounts will be found correct if multiplied by the number of merchants. The merchants, however, are taxed at fixed rates, without relation to the capital which they really possess. Foreign merchants always belong to the first guild, and pay taxes accordingly. Each guild enjoys particular privileges. The first guild is composed of two classes. Merchants of the first class are permitted to engage in foreign commerce, to become bankers and contractors, and to be owners of ships; they are entitled to certain distinctions, such as appearing at court on grand occasions, wearing a sword, and having four horses to their carriages: they must, however, give precedence to nobles by birth, the military, and public functionaries. The rest of the merchants of the first guild are allowed only two horses to their carriage, and are not permitted to carry a sword or to appear at court; but they possess the other mercantile privileges of foreign commerce, banks, and contracts. Merchants of the second guild may engage in general commerce, and are restricted to the limits of the empire; but they may trade with foreigners in raw materials for manufacture. They are exempt from corporal punishment, except for high treason, and can purchase estates without serfs; being allowed also to have serfs in their manufactories, subject to an express condition, that they are to be always employed in the same manufactory, and not otherwise. Merchants of the third guild are at liberty to engage in retail trade throughout the country, and in wholesale within the limits

of their respective governments. They may be proprietors of taverns, weaving concerns, and barges; they may attend fairs and markets, contract for government works under 12,000 roubles, and rent farms of a like annual value. In other matters they are upon an equality with the generality of citizens, and are not always exempt from corporal punishment.

The following is the established tariff for the three guilds of native merchants:

Foreign merchants residing in Russia pay the taxes of the first guild, but are not considered members of it, unless naturalized by the Senate. It is absolutely necessary for them to be admitted to the first guild by letters patent, before they can become owners of any manufactory. The value of the imports and exports of recent years is stated as follows:

The following statements show that the increase in the imports consists principally in articles of luxury, and especially in wine and spirituous liquors; and that St. Petersburg receives the largest proportion of the whole imports; being in great part luxuries for the capital, which pay for the raw produce exported from the provinces.

* The bank paper rouble of 100 kopeks, which is the ordinary integer of computation, and the one here used, unless otherwise specified, is worth about 1f. 10c. French, or 11d. English; the silver rouble of 360 kopeks being worth nearly 3s. 3d.

*The pood contains 40 Russian pounds, and is equal to 36lb. loz. 11dr. avoirdupoise. The tchetwert is equal to nearly 6 bushels English (5.952), or three-fourths of a quarter; so that 100 tchetwerts make nearly 75 quarters.

The maratime commerce of Russia is concentrated in the Baltic; and the city of St. Petersburg carries on a much larger trade than any other port. The port generally opens in May, and is closed in the middle of November. In 1840, 1,461 merchant vessels entered Cronstadt, its harbour, of which 675 were English, 270 German, 110 Russian, 89 Norwegian and Swedish, 83 Dutch, 75 Danish, 68 French, and 63 American. 1,445 vessels sailed the same year, 736 of which bore the English flag. In 1838, the imports were valued at 188,437,479 roubles; and the exports at 137,525,838 roubles.

Riga, the second port in the empire, exported, in 1837, to the value of 42,519,620 roubles, of which 24,374,982 were to England. Archangel, in the White Sea, has declined in importance; the number of vessels which entered it in the same year being only 373. Odessa, on the Black Sea, has risen rapidly into importance; being the centre of a coasting trade much more extensive than exists in the Baltic; its exports, in 1839, were valued at 23,000,000 roubles; and its imports at 11,000,000.

it

Inland, the merchants generally transport their goods by water, for may be said that there are scarcely any other means in existence. The government publish, annually, tables of the inland navigation of the country, and of the value of the products thus conveyed. In 1837 the latter was estimated at 1,109,500,000 roubles, of which 149,000,000 roubles were destined for St. Petersburg, 23,000,000 for Moscow, 22,000,000 for Riga, and 11,000,000 for Archangel: 60,277 barks and rafts were employed: and 1,578 barks, and 778 rafts, containing merchandize valued at 16,378,720 roubles, wintered in the interior.

Nijni Novgorod, the seat of the fair which is the great mart for the central parts of Russia in Europe, and for the Asiatic trade, is 1,139 versts* from St. Petersburg, and 441 from Moscow.

It is difficult to conceive any scene more animated than its vast assembly from the different nations of western Europe, from the Frozen Ocean, from the frontiers of China, and from India, to the number of perhaps 600,000. The following is the statement recently circulated by authority respecting the fair of 1841. The day of commencement is the 29th of June, and the fair lasts until the end of the following month.

Asiatic products and merchandise are favoured beyond those of Europe by reduced or discriminating duties. The number of contracts entered into at the conclusion of each fair, in 1839, 1840, and 1841, for storehouses in the more preferable localities for the fair of the ensuing year, a portion of the rent of which, as the binding obligation, must be paid beforehand, was as follows :—