The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-03-30 00:00:00

SUPPLY OF FOOD FROM RUSSIA.

Whilst all eyes are turned towards the United States,
as the country from which Great Britain is most likely
henceforth to draw the supply of grain, &c. it may be
well to direct attention to the capabilities of another
country, Russia, which is well known to possess vast re-
sources, which have hitherto been very improperly called
into action. 'This vast empire is well known to possess
an immense area of lands suited to the raising of grain ;
and from one of its ports Odessa Europe has been accus-
tomed to draw large supplies, which have only been kept
from being more extensively available by the high rates
of freight, averaging from lls. to 15s. per quarter. It
has been proved, however, since the opening of the Bri-
tish ports, that Russia can afford us ample shipments of
bread stuffs from her northern seaboard ; and it is now
certain that, instead of any disinclination to open her re-
sources for our use, she is anxious to extend her cultiva-
tion and to become an exporting country. The St. Pe-
ter sburgh Gazette affords some statistics with respect to
the capabilities of Russia to supply us which may be inte-
resting to our readers, and which we therefore quote :
" One of the unusual symptoms which have been ex-
cited by the ppesent crisis in the corn markets of Europe
is, amongst others, the exportation of rye-meal from St.
Petersburgh to England. Rye-meal was hitherto, gene-
rally speaking, only exported from the port of Constradt
in very small quantities ; when, however, it became a
matter of urgent moment to provide for the sustenance of
the starving population of Ireland, where there is a want
of corn mills, as speedy 'a supply of bread-stuffs as pos-
sible, the English merchants turned their eyes towards
our city, which, as is already known, draws for its own
use from the interior of the empire far more rye in the
shape of meal than in that of grain. There were brought
to Rybinsk in 1846, 2,881,131 sacks of rye-meal alone—a
quantity which exceeds the supply brought in 1845 by
some 600,000 sacks ; and on the Exchange of St. Peters-
burgh last January about 209,000 sacks of rye-meal were,
bought up in a few days on English account.
"According to official data there were in St. Peters-
burgh at the commencement of this present year more
than 468,000 sacks of rye-meal in private magazines, ex-
clusive of the supplies lying in the government store-
houses. On the different water-courses between Rybinsk
and St. Petersburgh there lie (the intervening. jointer
having arrested their further progress) 450,000 sacks, so
that, taking this quantity together with the above 36400
sacks, we shall infallibly have 818,000 sacks of rye-meal
in this city in the month of May.
" In Rybinsk itself there are now wintering 267,000
sacks ; and on the Volga, between Rybinsk and Nishni-
Novogorod, 480,000 sacks await the re-opening of the
navigation. The gross total quantity of the rye-meal
already laid up in Ft. Petersburgh and on its way hither
is, therefore, to be set down at 1,565,000 sacks. Consi-
dering the continuous rise of prices and the constantly
urgent demand, it is not too bold an assumption that in
the course of the year 1847 at least 1,000,000 sacks more
will enter in consequence of new orders, and the aggre-
gate quantity of rye-meal touching at St. Petersburgh in
the course of the year will in that case amount to about
2,600,000 sacks. According to a resume of many years,
the capital city annually consumes about 712,000 sacks of
rye-meal, which, from the beginning of 1847 until the re-
opening of the navigation in the year 1848—that is to say,
until the period when new importatidns are to be expected
—makes almost 1,000,000 sacks. If this 1,000,000 sacks
be deducted from the above total amount of 2 600,000,
there will remain 1,600,000 sacks as the quantity of rye-
meal which may be exported from St. Petersburgh in
course of the summer."

That such a supply of so nutricious a grain being offered
to us from this quarter, must operate seriously upon our
agriculturists in cheapening tlke price of a portion of his
crops will be readily acknowledged. At the same time,
it is certain that the produce coming from the Russian
ports on the Black sea can be almost indefinitely increased,
and are certain to be so with the encouragement offered
to the Russian growers. Our brethren across the Atlantic
may find that their anticipations of rendering the United
States the granary of Europe, are not quite so well founded
as they imagined.
• It is not consolatory to ourselves to reflect that Russia,
to whom we are about to be so largely tributary, takes the
minimum amount of our manufactures, her imports of
cotton in particular being confined to the article of yarn
and our coarsest fabrics. Hence, she must draw exten-
sively upon our bullion in repayment.