# Siberia (Price)/Chapter 8

CHAPTER VIII
PRESENT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF WEST- ERN AND CENTRAL SIBERIA
I. GENERAL GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS
THE writer hopes in the following chapter to convey some impressions of the present economic state of that part of Siberia which is most closely in touch with European commercial influences, and to indicate the probable lines along which its economic development will proceed. He hopes that the following review will be of some academic interest to the economic student of these districts, as well as of some practical use to any readers who may purpose to engage in the commercial enterprises for which Western and Central Siberia offer in the near future so remunerative a field.
It is often said that geography is the basis of history, but it is not less true to say that the geographical conditions of a country form the framework, upon which the economic life of its inhabitants is built. Siberia, which forms but part of the great inheritance of the Russian people of to-day, is a vast territory, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the south by the outposts of the Chinese Empire along the Mongolian frontier, and stretching from west to east 6000 miles from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Within its borders the most ​diverse physical conditions are found—fertile plains of black earth, boundless grazing steppes, rolling downs, rugged plateaus, gloomy forests and frozen toundras. Here it is proposed to give an account, from an economic standpoint, of only one-third of this great territory, which includes the four main provinces of Western and Central Siberia. These districts, which, as has been said, comprise the parts of Siberia nearest to Europe, are of chief importance from the economic point of view, for here the wave of Slavonic immigration in its eastward course first impinged, and here European commercial influence is most widespread and most deeply rooted.
Geographically, the Ural Mountains, which are a range of rocky downs averaging about 1500 feet in altitude, are the natural barriers between the low plains of East European Russia and those of Western Siberia. The plains of Western Siberia stretch across the continent for nearly 1200 miles, without a break to the Altai Mountains, in the plateaus of which the great rivers of Western and Central Siberia take their rise. The Altai system itself consists of a complex mass of mountains, snowy ridges and plateau valleys which together form the north-west edge of the great Central Asiatic tableland. The edge of this tableland crosses Siberia from south-west to north-east, and presents its most rugged aspects in its south-western extremity, where, in the Siberian Altai system, mountains of 15,000 feet are met with. But as this tableland crosses the continent in a north-easterly direction the mountain masses become less complex and lower in altitude, till they finally sink in rolling downs to the sea-level in the north-eastern territories of Siberia. The provinces of ​Western and Central Siberia, with which I am dealing here, comprise the great plains, of over 1000 miles in length from east to west, which are watered by the Obi, Irtish and Yenisei rivers, and also include a part of the north-west edge of the Central Asiatic plateau, in what is generally known as the Siberian Altai system. Western and Central Siberia, therefore, contains both plains and plateaus, and the physical features of the country are affected by two factors—namely, the latitude and altitude; for the same physical conditions are found in northern latitudes at low altitudes as are found in the southern latitudes at higher altitudes. In other words, climatic zones of considerable regularity occur all over Western and Central Siberia and are directly dependent upon two factors, latitude and altitude.
2. WESTERN SIBERIA AND THE ALTAI
Physical Zones, Administrative Areas, Population and Immigration
This great stretch of country lying nearest to European Russia contains the drainage area of the Irtish and Obi rivers, which take their rise in the Altai Mountains and flow north-west across the great plain of Western Siberia. The physical and climatic zones in this region are as follows:—
In the far north, bordering the Arctic Sea down to latitude 62 degrees, there is an immense area of level mossy waste called toundras. Farther south, between latitude 57 and 62, comes a great forest belt and fur-bearing zones, inhabited chiefly by a few Siberian fur traders and by the native Finnish tribes. ​This forest is very rich in unexploited timber, but much of it is covered by impassable swamp, of which the "vasyugan" area is typical, and extensive communication is only possible along the natural waterways. In the southern part of this forest area there is a certain amount of cultivation along the banks of the rivers, and rye crops can be profitably grown. South of this forest zone, between latitudes 55 and 57, comes the black earth zone, or so-called "lyeso-steppe." This zone, where the forest gradually merges into the steppe, is the most favourable for agricultural colonization, and it is here that the emigration from European Russia is rapidly extending. South of this zone and below latitude 55 come the dry steppes, inhabited largely by nomad Kirghiz Tartars with large herds of live stock. The country here borders on the province of Akmolinsk and the great Kirghiz steppes, which merge imperceptibly into Turkestan.
This great plain of Western Siberia terminates in the foothills of the Altai uplift, and here, between the altitudes of 500 and 1400 feet, and between the latitudes of 51 and 54, there is another area of black earth belt, which is probably the richest in all Siberia and possibly in the world. Here also at 8000 feet a large area of Alpine meadow is found, providing rich summer grazing for the nomad Altai Tartars, who inhabit these plateaus in a state of semi-Russification.
The administrative provinces of Western Siberia are four in number. The Tobolsk Government lies in the north-west, just east of the Urals and in the low plains of the Obi and Irtish. South of this come the governorships of Akmolinsk and Semipalatinsk, comprising the dry steppe areas of the Upper Irtish ​watershed. To the east of these two provinces, in the watershed of the Obi, comes the Government of Tomsk, which includes also the whole of the Siberian Altai.
As stated above, the best agricultural land is found in a belt between the sub-Arctic forest and the dry steppes between latitudes 55 and 57. It is not improbable that the sub-Arctic forests and swamps once extended farther south than they do now. There are, moreover, indications that the dry steppes have encroached upon the southern fringe of the forest zone, forming a belt, the so-caUed "lyeso-steppe" or "woodland steppe." This belt, which is about 100 miles wide from north to south, and 1000 miles long from east to west, and is partly traversed by the Siberian railway, consists of scattered birch scrub interspersed with open grassy areas. Here the soil is covered several inches deep with a layer of peaty mould, desiccated remains of what probably were once sub-Arctic mossy wastes. It is to this belt that Russian agricultural colonization has been directed within the last half-century, introducing itself as a wedge between the forest zone on the north and the Tartar steppes on the south. In the two provinces of Tobolsk and Tomsk it is estimated that there are 190,000 square miles of this type of country suitable for agriculture; and of this 80,000 square miles lie in the southern and western parts of the Tobolsk Government in the watershed of the Ishim and Tobol. Here lies the district of Kurgan which, in spite of its fertility, has an average population of no more than thirty persons to the square mile, while the rest of this zone in the Tobolsk Government has less than ten persons per square ​mile upon it. In the south of the Tomsk Government and along the north-west foothills of the Altai there are roughly 60,000 square miles of this black earth zone. Here, in spite of the attraction of fertile land, in close proximity to the mountains with their Alpine meadows, the greatest density of population is not more than twenty per square mile. In the central parts of the Tomsk Government and on the middle reaches of the Obi there is another area of 50,000 square miles of land, known as the Baraba steppe, fit for colonization and agriculture. Here again the population is probably below ten persons per square mile.
The present undeveloped state of the country can well be imagined when it is remembered that of the whole of this 190,000 square miles only three per cent., or under 6000 square miles, is at present settled with colonists engaged in agriculture. But emigration from European Russia has proceeded rapidly during the last twenty years. Between 1894 and 1903, 590,000 immigrants, or on an average about 60,000 a year, settled in Western Siberia, three-quarters of whom went to the Altai district. Between 1905 and 1908 the rate of immigration increased to about 300,000 a year and during these four years over 1,000,000 immigrants came into Western Siberia. In 1909, 500,000 immigrants came in one year, and even this figure was exceeded in 1910. In 1911, owing to bad harvests and famine, the number decreased to 189,000. The black earth zone of the Western Siberian plains, between latitudes 55 and 57, and the foothills of the Altai farther east, are the principal outlets for the population of European Russia. It is estimated that if these ​districts were thoroughly colonized, and properly cultivated, they could support five times the present population of European Russia—i.e. 500,000,000 people. At present the population of the whole Siberian continent is only 8,000,000 people.
Wheat Cultivation
Since nearly three-quarters of the population of Western Siberia are peasants, agriculture is by far the greatest industry. The possibilities of wheat growing in the Kurgan and Ishim steppes are now being realized, for this is the only agricultural district in Siberia near enough to Europe to make the export of wheat profitable. The railway freights from Chelyabinsk to the Baltic ports at present just admit of the export of wheat to Western Europe, and when the Omsk-Tiumen railway is completed a considerable growth in the wheat export from Siberia can be expected. Export of wheat from Siberia to European Russia began in 1899 and has continued with interruptions, owing to bad harvests, ever since. The wheat produced in Western Siberia has, however, in spite of its great increase in quantity, been largely absorbed by the increased demands of the growing urban population of European Russia and of Siberia itself, and unless the cultivated wheat area extends at a much greater rate than hitherto, the balance of wheat available for export from Siberia to Western Europe is not likely greatly to increase.
The Dairy Industry, its Growth and Importance
One of the most important products of Western Siberian agriculture is butter. Being small in bulk, ​and proportionately of higher value per unit weight than cereals, it can be profitably exported to Europe and England from the principal districts in the agricultural zones of Western Siberia. As stated above, wheat is not a very profitable crop for export, since the price must be so low, to bear the high transport rate from these districts, that the profit on export is practically absorbed. Everything therefore favours high-priced articles of small bulk, which can bear the cost of transport to the industrial centres of Western Europe. Butter and eggs are the principal articles of this kind produced in these districts. The Government has taken much interest in developing the dairy industry of the country. It grants loans and subsidies to peasant communities for the institution of dairies and creameries, it has established technical dairy institutes at Kurgan, Omsk, Kainsk and Barnaul, and it has set up refrigerating stores along the railway to facilitate successful transport.
The dairy industry in Siberia began in 1894, and the export of dairy produce to European Russia and Western Europe began in 1897. By the year 1904 exports had risen to 681,000 hundredweights. About this time a great boom in dairying and the butter export trade flourished. It was found that 32 pouds (792 lbs.) of milk, then selling at 18 kopeks per vedro (about 2d per gallon) at the creameries, produced one poud (36 lbs.) of butter, which could be sold in European Russia for six roubles per poud (4½d. per lb.). A large number of German and Danish firms rushed in and profitable business was done for a time. The price of milk was then forced up by excessive competition to 45 kopeks per vedro (5d. per gallon), and soon it became impossible to ​produce butter to compete in Western Europe on account of the inflated value of the raw material. Much money was lost and stagnation set in. Since then, however, the industry has revived on a much sounder footing.
The export trade in butter from Western Siberia to England used to be largely monopolized by Danes and Germans, but English firms have of late years been taking considerable interest in this business.
All successful firms have their representatives stationed in the principal butter-producing districts of Western Siberia and the Altai, and the first condition of success is that these representatives should have a good knowledge of the Russian language and the character of the peasants. Butter is bought direct from the peasants, or from the private and communal creameries, and sent to the refrigerating stores on the railways. Successful butter export firms also do considerable business in dairy and agricultural machinery by opening credit and debit accounts with the peasants. As the peasants are without capital they can never pay cash, and it is therefore customary to debit them with machinery and stores sold to them, and to credit them with butter and eggs bought from them. On the whole, the peasants are honest, and, if properly treated and understood by tactful representatives, can be successfully dealt with. On the other hand, it is almost useless to use the law to get judgment against a debtor. Although it is possible in theory to obtain judgment in a Russian law court, in practice the delays are so interminable that this course is never worth pursuing.
The Live-Stock Industry
South of the black earth agricultural zone comes the dry steppe, which stretches uninterruptedly from Siberia southwards across Russian Central Asia to the mountains of Turkestan. A large area of this southern zone of Western Siberia is inhabited by Kirghiz Tartars and a few scattered colonies of Siberian peasants. The chief products of this district are wool, hides, cattle and horses, for live stock forms the principal wealth of the inhabitants. The commercial centres for the products of this district are at Petropavlovsk and Omsk, which are situated at the points where the Siberian railway crosses the rivers Ishim and Irtish respectively. Meat is now being exported to European Russia from Petropavlovsk at the rate of 30,000 tons a year, but the lack of cold storage prevents export to Western Europe and England. Some firms are, however, establishing cold-storage plants along the railway, and this is the most necessary step to take before the industry can develop.
The live-stock trade has, of course, been greatly influenced by the growth of the dairy industry, and in recent years the value of live stock has greatly increased. Cattle formerly worth 10 roubles each. (£1, 1s.) can now command from 20 to 40 roubles (£2 to £4, 10s.) for dairy herds. This naturally affects the value of the second quality cattle which are used for meat. The price of meat in Siberian towns is rarely more than fourpence to fivepence per pound, and in the villages is cheaper still. In view, therefore, of the low price of meat and its poor quality, it ​is generally more profitable to utilize live stock for dairy purposes wherever possible. The live stock now sent up from the Kirghiz steppes to Petropavlovsk and Omsk provides fresh blood for the dairy stock of the Siberian peasants. The increase of dairying and cereal cultivation in Western Siberia has thus, by breaking up the large grazing ranches, caused a decline in the meat and hide trade, and this process is likely to continue as the country gradually develops.
Pig breeding has, however, developed greatly, more especially as an adjunct of dairying. In the Kurgan district, for instance, where buttermilk is plentiful, the raw material for fattening pigs is cheap, and it is probable that the export of bacon from this district to Western Europe and England will be on a large scale. Already, enterprising capitalists are establishing bacon-curing factories in Kurgan and other similar centres, and it is not improbable that within a few years Siberian bacon will have considerable effect in cheapening the price of bacon on the European markets.
Forests and the Possibilities of the Timber Industry
The enormous supplies of timber in the Western Siberian forest zone have hitherto been practically untouched, because of the absence of means of transport. In the north of Tobolsk alone there is a huge forest zone covering 200,000 square miles, which stretches north and south from Tobolsk to Obdorsk and east and west from Tiumen to North Tomsk. It consists chiefly of red wood (pinus Sylvestris), white wood (picea Obovata) and some Siberian pine ​(pinus Sibirica). There are, however, in this forest large areas of swamp where only stunted growth is found, while isolation makes all systematic working impracticable except along the banks of the principal rivers.
Extensive export to Europe, therefore, is impossible from the greater part of these forests, on account of the distances and the impossibility of profitably carrying heavy but cheap material on long rail journeys from Siberia to the Finnish Gulf. The proposed extensions of the railway in the north of the Tobolsk Government would, of course, do much to obviate this difficulty by connecting the forests of these districts by a short rail journey to the White Sea in North European Russia. Even now forests are beginning to be exploited, and timber mills have actually been erected on the Tura, Tavda and Sosva rivers in the Obi watershed with a view to timber export via Archangel.
There is, however, one particular kind of timber, called Siberian pine (pinus Sibirica), which is found in the north of Siberia and possesses valuable qualities on account of its soft nature and adaptability to certain kinds of pattern work. There is a strong probability that a demand for its consumption will grow up in Western Europe to replace the dwindling stocks of Canadian yellow pine. Already it has acquired a value sufficiently high to counterbalance a journey of 2000 miles along the Siberian railway to the Baltic ports, and a development in the export of this timber is not improbable even with the present imperfect railway system in Western Siberia.
With the exception of Siberian pines, however, ​local timber prices are very low. Large boards of red and white wood are often sold for no more than twopence per cubic foot in the principal towns. The peasants obtain large areas of forests adjoining their communes, for which they pay the nominal sum of a few roubles a year to the Government, and cut as much timber as they want without restriction. As in all young countries there is, of course, considerable waste of timber resources, but the supply is so enormous and the demand so negligible that this hardly needs consideration. The forests of Western Siberia could supply European markets for many decades to come, but they have hitherto scarcely been touched. They are only waiting for improved communication to Western Europe via the White Sea.
The Fur Trade
The fur trade was the earliest industry in Siberia. It was the richness of the country in furs that first attracted the attention of the Russians to the land east of the Urals, and the northern forest zones, between latitude 55 and 66, have been the hunting-ground for the best furs since the sixteenth century. To the markets of Tiumen, Tobolsk and Irbit are brought, each autumn, the products of the fur hunters. Sable ground is still found up to latitude 62, chiefly on the southern Sosva River and in the districts of Surgut, Beryoza and Ugan. The fur zone, although not so rich as formerly in the best qualities, is still very productive and shows no sign of exhaustion. The growing demand has caused prices to rise, and the cornering of fur stocks by Jewish dealers in Siberia is also an important factor ​to be reckoned with. Average sable at Irbit now fetch from 30 to 60 roubles (£3 to £6) each; squirrels 1s. to 2s. each; red fox 8 to 9 roubles (£1) each.
Mining
Next to the fur trade mining is the oldest industry in Western Siberia. Although the amount of labour employed is comparatively small, the value of the annual output is greater than that of any other industry in the country. Mining has undergone great fluctuations in fortune and changes in method since the early days. The industry began in the early part of the nineteenth century, when it was utilized and exploited by means of convict labour, which played such a prominent part in Siberian economic history during that time. All mineral rights were then monopolized by the Government, who found in the convicts a useful medium for working the mines. Many peasants also, who were tied to the Crown Estates, were forced to work in the mines, and in this way the mining industry was built up on the unsound economic principle of forced labour. After the emancipation of the serfs and the decrease in the transportation of convicts to Siberia, the labour market was freed from the blighting hand of the Government, and the first result of this economic emancipation was temporarily to ruin the mining industry of Western Siberia, which had lived upon forced labour for so long. The condition of mining labour is at the present time normal and satisfactory, and is, moreover, carefully regulated by the Government. Private mining enterprise has overtaken State enterprise within the last fifty ​years, and now State mines are few and insignificant compared with the private mining concessions granted by the Government on long leases.
The mineral areas of Western Siberia are found chiefly in the Palaeozoic formations of the Altai system. The richest areas are those situated at the headwaters of the Obi and Irtish, where these rivers flow off the Altai plateaus, while in the lower reaches also of these rivers, as they wander northward across the steppes, there are rich deposits of auriferous silt. Here, where the current is slack, dredging is chiefly resorted to, while on the upland plateaus gold is won by washing the sand and gravel. The working of reefs only began in 1897, and the output by this method has been comparatively small hitherto, although there is every reason to believe that in the mountainous districts of the Altai this method will become the principal one. A great hindrance to the successful working of reef gold in Western Siberia has hitherto been the difficulty in obtaining efficient mining machinery. Of late years, however, English firms have sent out some up-to-date machinery which is stimulating this branch of the mining industry. Although not so plentiful as in the Baikal district, North-Eastern Siberia and the Far East, gold is nevertheless found all over the Altai Mountains, and is especially rich in the Zeminogorsk and Salayersk districts. A number of syndicates, most of which have foreign capital at their backs, are working successfully here.
The Altai district is also very rich in silver. In the early days this was the chief mineral that was worked, and for a long time proved a profitable industry. But as the nineteenth century advanced, the increased ​cost of labour, the difficulty of obtaining fuel in many places, and the fall in the price of the metal, made silver mining an unprofitable enterprise.
Recently, however, the improved method of extracing silver from lead by chemical process has been introduced into the Altai, and the result has been to cheapen the cost of production, thus renewing the possibility of again developing the silver mining industry of Western Siberia. Silver is as usual found in company with lead in these districts. A very rich silver area is to be found north of Semipalatinsk in the South-West Altai, and is being worked successfully at the present time.
Of all minerals coal has probably the most important prospect of development in Western Siberia. It is found in very large quantities in a certain basin in the north-east of the main Altai system. Stretching from the town of Tomsk southward to Kuznetsk in the upper waters of the Tom River, this coalfield covers an area of about 280 miles in length and 120 miles in breadth. The coal is of carboniferous age, and the lower seams of the basin are very good in quality, having good heating properties and about 80 per cent, of carbon. It is estimated that there are in the Beryosof district alone over 250,000,000 pouds—4,000,000 tons—of untouched coal. This coalfield is thus one of the greatest in the Russian Empire, and will in time provide the fuel for all future industries that may develop in Siberia. The demand for coal is even now brisk, and will undoubtedly largely increase in future both for the Siberian railway and for local industries.
At present the principal capital working the ​Kuznetsk coalfield is Swedish and Russian, and in one place the Government is working a coal mine to provide the Siberian railway with fuel other than wood, which is now generally burnt. The possibilities of coal mining in this district are very great, but the Siberian railway only skirts the basin at present, and until the branch Altai railway is built, tapping this coalfield at the centre, its development will be hindered.
In addition to the above minerals the Altai is also rich in copper and lead, the former being especially found in the north of the Semipalatinsk province. Lead is universal, but at present there is little activity in its production, except as a by-product of silver.
But as in the case of coal, so as regards the whole mining industry of Western Siberia, there will not be any great development until the branch railway to the Altai from the main Siberian railway is built. Only then will it be possible to compete with the mining industries of the Ural Mountains, from which there is at present good rail communication with Europe.
The Commercial and Industrial Centres of Western Siberia
In north-west Siberia the principal towns were formerly Tiumen and Tobolsk. Through them all the trade between European Russia and Siberia passed. In those days trade crossed the Urals by pack horses to certain points on the Obi River system and was conveyed thence by water route to all parts of Western and even to Central Siberia. The building of the railway, however, along the great ​wheat belt to the south, between latitudes 55 and 57, had the effect of diverting much of the traffic from the old waterways, and at the present time only bulky articles like grain and timber go by the Obi water route to Tiumen and thence by rail to European Russia. All small and more valuable traffic, such as butter, minerals and furs, go now by the Siberian railway, which has not only captured most of the traffic of Western Siberia, but has stimulated great economic activity all along its route. Wherever it crosses the principal rivers flourishing towns are springing up. Thus Petropavlovsk on the Ishim, and Novo-nikolaevsk on the Obi River have within the last ten years grown from mere collections of huts to busy transport centres, through which commerce between Europe and the producing centres of Siberia passes. The most important towns, therefore, from an economic point of view, in Western Siberia are those where the great railway crosses the principal waterways, and those points which have been selected as the junctions for the new branch lines to the Altai and other districts.
These towns of quite recent growth have already seriously affected many of the old towns as, for instance, Tobolsk and Tomsk, which lie off the main railway, and many of the principal merchants and transport firms now have their head offices at such places as Novo-nikolaevsk. The towns of Tomsk and Tobolsk are still, however, the principal seats of Siberian local industry and of the small manufactures which have grown up within the last fifty years. Moreover, the importance of Tobolsk and Tiumen will probably revive when the north-west Siberian railway from Omsk to Tiumen, with its ​branches to Tobolsk, has been built, thereby providing the shortest railway route from Western Siberia to the White Sea. In spite of the injury done to it by towns of newer growth, the annual trade of Tomsk is larger than that of any other commercial centre in Siberia, and is estimated at about 13,000,000 roubles (£1,500,000) a year.
The chief industries of Tomsk are spirit distilling, flour milling, skin curing, leather making and the manufacture of matches and glass. The first two comprise seventy per cent, of the total, showing clearly that the industrial development of Siberia is still in its infancy. In fact the country is still under the economic domination of the Moscow manufacturers, who have not yet established their cotton factories, ironworks, and other specialized industries on the east of the Urals. The only industries of any consequence, therefore, in Western Siberia are those of spirit distilling and flour milling, which can depend upon abundant supply of cheap raw material like wheat and rye.
The population of the principal towns of Western Siberia is steadily increasing, especially, as explained above, in those situated along the railway. Tomsk has at present over 50,000 inhabitants, Tiumen about 30,000, and Tobolsk, Kurgan Barnaul, and Blisk about 20,000 each.
3. CENTRAL SIBERIA (YENISEI GOVERNMENT)
Physical Conditions
East of the Government of Tomsk in Western Siberia lies the most central province in the con​tinent—viz. the Yenisei Government, which, 982,908 square miles in area, comprises the vast country drained by the Yenisei and the Upper Chulim, a tributary of the Obi. The largest town and also the trading and administrative centre for this province is Krasnoyarsk, situated at a point where the railway crosses the Yenisei River. The districts into which the province is subdivided are the Krasnoyarsk and Achinsk districts in the west, the Minusinsk district in the south, the Kansk district in the east, the Yeniseisk district, and lastly the Turukhansk district in the far north. This Turukhansk district comprises two-thirds of the total area of the province, and consists of an immense stretch of 708,000 square miles of stunted forest and toundra, extending to the Arctic Sea, and inhabited by a few hundred native hunters and fishermen. South of these toundras or mossy wastes, between latitudes 54 and 64, there is a forest zone which covers the districts of Yeniseisk, Kansk, Krasnoyarsk and Achinsk. The population of these four districts numbers about 320,000, the greater part of whom are engaged in agriculture. South of the railway, between latitudes 53 and 54, in the Minusinsk district, there is an area of dry steppe surrounded by a zone of black earth which forms a ring between the dry steppe and the forest zones on the Mongolian frontier. In this black earth belt lies the most fertile land in all Central Siberia. Although the area is comparatively small it has a population of more than 200,000, with an average density of about twenty to thirty persons per square mile, which is high for Siberia; and yet large parts of it are quite uninhabited. In 1907 the Government ​Survey Staff for the province surveyed and prepared for incoming colonists unoccupied areas to the extent of 102,600 square desyatines (256,500 acres). The total population of the Yenisei Government in 1909 was 787,778, and the administrative area is 982,000 square miles. The average density of the population at that date was therefore ·8 per square mile. Excluding the vast and almost uninhabited toundras in the north, the average density of population in the rest of the Government averages 29 per square mile, which differs very little from the density of the same zones in the governments of Western Siberia. Five-sevenths of the total population consist of peasants who are living on the land, the remaining two-sevenths consisting of urban population, numbering less than 100,000,000; in addition there were 52,000 native and Finnish Tartars and 50,000 political exiles.
The whole economic development of the Yenisei Government is proceeding along the same lines as that of the western governments. In the absence of further railway development it must for some years be economically self-supporting, and independent of an export and import trade.
The immigrants to the Yenisei Government in 1907 amounted to 79,000, in 1908 to 72,400, in 1910 to 33,000. These have been mostly settled in the Achinsk district on the west, while the rich Minusinsk area has been in the past left more to local development. In view of the fact that in the last two years immigration to the whole of Siberia has nearly reached the enormous figure of 1,000,000 persons per annum, the immigration to Central Siberia has so far been very small in comparison with that to the ​western provinces of Tobolsk and Tomsk. As, however, these provinces become more settled, the wave of immigration will extend to Central Siberia.
Agriculture
The chief industries in Central Siberia are agriculture and stock rearing. Practically all the 560,000 peasants of the provinces are directly engaged in one or other of these pursuits. The rearing of live stock as a sole occupation on a large scale is dying out, as the Tartars on the Minusinsk and Abakansk steppes become more and more settled in habits. It is, in fact, only on the Tartar reserves in these steppes that live stock is the principal industry and the sole means of subsistence for the flock owners. Elsewhere settled agriculture is the order of the day, and the agricultural system, which is breaking up the Tartar ranches, utilizes live stock as an adjunct to cereal cultivation. It must not, however, be supposed that the head of stock in Central Siberia is decreasing, but rather that agriculture is greatly on the increase.
The richest agricultural areas are to be found in the Achinsk and Minusinsk districts. The former district is suited for rye and winter wheat on account of the early winter and the comparatively deep snow, while in the Minusinsk district spring wheat is the principal crop, for the warm dry summers enable the crop to mature before the autumn frosts. On the other hand, winter wheat fails to survive here on account of the cold winds and the absence of snow on the steppes. Occasional droughts in June or July stand in the way of good crops of spring wheat, although the average rainfall at Minusinsk is 285 mm.
​The spring and winter crops for the whole of the Yenisei Government in 1909 yielded 3,328,992 quarters; of this amount 2,640,000 quarters consisted of spring wheat. The actual yields of the cereals per acre are not known, but, comparing the quantity harvested and the quantity sown during 1910, the yield of the spring wheat varied from fourfold in the Minusinsk district to over sevenfold in the Achinsk and Kansk districts. Considering the immense undeveloped areas in the southern part of the Yenisei Government, and the present low yield through primitive agricultural methods, it can readily be seen what a granary this southern part of the Yenisei Government will become in time. It is doubtful, however, whether cereals can be profitably transported from these districts to Europe at present prices and with the present railway freights.
The local prices of cereals are ruled by the distance of the agricultural districts from the consuming centres. At Minusinsk the cheapest autumn prices are usually 1s. 6d. to 2s. per bushel for wheat, and the dearest spring prices 2s. 6d. per bushel. In the north of Yeniseisk wheat prices vary from 4s. to 4s. 3d. per bushel, while the price of rye is everywhere generally 1s. a bushel below wheat prices. Much of the wheat from the Minusinsk, Achinsk and Kansk districts is sent by water to Krasnoyarsk. When prices are sufficiently attractive it may be sent even as far as Irkutsk and the Far East.
Live-Stock Industry
The live stock in the Yenisei Government consists chiefly of horses, cattle, sheep and pigs. Reindeer ​are used in the far north by the natives, where conditions are favourable. The total head of live stock numbers 1,967,393, of which nearly 1,000,000 is situated in the Minusinsk and the Abakansk steppes. There are nearly 500,000 sheep in this one district alone, and the native Abakansk Tartars make stock rearing on the steppe their sole occupation. There are excellent summer-grazing areas all over the open steppe, and the winter is so mild that there is no necessity for artificial feeding or haymaking. Most of the surplus stock from these steppes goes to the urban markets as meat supply, and some of the skins find their way to European Russia.
Fishing Industry
The output of the fishing industry is of the annual value of about 130,000 roubles (£14,444). More than three-quarters of this comes from the northern district of Turukhansk, bordering the Arctic. Practically the whole of the fish output is locally consumed.
Fur Industry
The fur industry is valued at 445,000 roubles per annum. Three-quarters of the output comes from the Turukhansk district in the north, where the native Samoyedes trap and hunt in the winter, exchanging furs for the bare necessaries of life with the Russian traders. A limited amount of black sable comes from this district and also from the Upper Yenisei on the Mongolian frontier. The fur dealers, many of whom are Jews, reside at Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk and Yeniseisk, and buy the furs from the Russian fur ​traders, selling them again at the autumn fairs at Irbit and other parts of Western Siberia.
Mining
Gold mining has greatly developed of late years in the Yenisei Government, both as regards the number of concessions granted and the amount of gold produced. The output for 1910 amounted to 112 pouds (12 Russian lbs.), and 97 zolotniks (4044 lbs. avoirdupois), which was equivalent to five per cent. increase on that of the previous year. In the same year the number of dredging and reef working concessions amounted to 163—the richest dredging area is in the southern forest zone north of the railway. Here the sands in the bed of the Yenisei and tributary rivers are very rich. Syndicates with foreign capital have been working these sands in several places with satisfactory results.
The Prospects of Industrial Development
Manufacture is at present but very slightly developed in Central Siberia owing to the small population, primitive culture and lack of skilled workmen and capital. There are thus only 830 registered industrial enterprises in the Yenisei Government and the number of hands employed in them is only 34,694. The industrial proletariat is therefore a little over five per cent. of the total population. The output of industrial wares in the Yenisei Government is of the value of 6,000,000 roubles (£666,000) a year, over 4,500,000 (£500,000) of which consisted of the products of the State vodka and spirit distillers. ​The other items, such as skin curing, glass work, flour milling, tallow and soap, are comparatively insignificant. The consumption of vodka, upon which the distilling industry so largely depends, amounts to 3,750,000 gallons per annum.
The town of Krasnoyarsk is the central point on which all trade in Central Siberia converges. It is a growing town of over 50,000 inhabitants, and owes its growth and importance to its position on the railway at the point where it crosses the Yenisei River. It is through Krasnoyarsk that the economic influences of Europe are penetrating into Central Siberia, and it is here that the higher industrial system from the West will in time have its centre. This development, however, is dependent upon two principal factors—viz. the rate of immigration into the country, and the growth of transport facilities.
* ↑ See Diagram of Physical and Vegetation Zones of Western and Central Siberia.
* ↑ See Diagram of Physical and Vegetation Zones of Western and Central Siberia.