The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-19 00:00:00

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[PRICE 4D. STAMPED br).

general boundless ; the amount of specie, which serves as
the security for the paper circulation, is more considerable
here than in England or France ; and yet there is in inter-
nal trade almost no credit and very little capital. Yes,
there is no real Russian commerce. Oar native merchants
carry on no direct trade with foreign countries, but take
their goods from the third and fourth hand, paying
dearly for intermediate commission. This is one of the
causes of the enormous price of goods in Russia, of which
we have such good reason to complain. The people in trade
have no capital of their own, and the commission merchants
will supply them with goods on no other terms than ready
money or heavy interest, and require at the same time
ample security. In this way of carrying on business it is
considered quite friendly, almost fraternal, to charge 1 per
cent. per month. The tradespeople themselves are not satis-
fied with less than 15 or 20 per cent. for their own profit,
and when they see their goods are in domand they charge
double. This general practice, as to the returns of capital
and credit, makes the execution of extensive and national
undertakings almost impossible.
.Among us there are very
few people who can part with their money with the mere
hope of in four years of beginning to receive a profit of 6,
7, or more per cent. For the most part they must have 10
per cent., and that at once. Rich merchants and capital.
ists have very little confidence in companies. The main
bulk of our wealth is to be found among landed proprie-
tors and the aristocracy in the Government service, who
would willingly take shares in every possible undertaking,
but whose means do not admit of their embarking in spe-
culations from which they cannot derive immediate
profit."
Assuming it as proved beyond all doubt that railways
are expedient and necessary for Russia, and that there is
not sufficient capital in the country to make them with,
the Sorntern Bee goes on to show that foreigners capital
must be used for the purpose, for if commenced with native
capital alone the works would be left in the middle unfi-
nished, while at the same time commerce and manufac-
tures would have been drained to do even that much. A
foreign loan, too, would bo replete with disadvantages,
both on account of the great quantity of existing paper
currency, and also with regard to the national credit ;
meaning that an issue of fresh obligations to an amount
that would more than double the present national debt
would sink the market value of all Ruisian securities to a
ruinous extent. "Mortifying as the reflection may be to
Russian national vanity," says the iVorthern Bee, "there
is no help for it but to let foreigners come in and supply
the capital. The only conclusion is that, in spite of the
part they would take in it, it would nevertheless remain a
national work, and all the advantages would be on the side
of Russia. It is possible that in the first years Russia
would have to make up the deficiency in the percentage
guaranteed, but the great gain that would arise from the
many hundreds of millions that foreigners would sink in
the Russian soil would accrue to Russia's increased com-
mercial activity, and at the end of 85 years, if the Govern-
ment did not buy them up sooner, the country would
come of itself into gratuitous possession of several
thousand versts of railroad, with which other branch lines,
built by national skill and capital, could be connected."
This is what the best written Russian journal says on
the subject of railways in Russia, and for any one that is
desirous of unreinunerative employment for his capital in
the development of Russian resources it is very convincing
and impressive; equally so it ought to be for all who may
have been thinking of embarking their money in the
Pereira speculation as an investment. Whatever the
entrepreneurs of the job may put forward in its favour,
there is no Russian to be found with impudence enough to
assert that the shareholders would ever get more than the
5 per cent. guaranteed by the Government. And what
non-Russian, that knows any thing of Russia, will be so
sanguine as to say they will certainly get as much?