The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-11-05
THE CZAR'S DOMINIONS AROJTT
TO BE PUT ON A GOLD
STANDARD.
SUFFERING BY DEPRECATED MONEY
Large Sum of Gold Accumulated to
Redeem Deprecated Money and Keep
1t at a Parity With Gold
& Hereafter.

Washington, Oct. 2S.-In answer to the
state departments circular calling for in
formation as to money and wages in for
eign countries, United States Minister
Breckenridge at st. Petersburg has sub
mitted a very elaborate report on the
Russian financial system and its work.
ings He shows that the standard for
many years has been huctuating paper
measured externally in terms of gold. The
per capita circulation is about So. In cir
culation the government has 1865, 000,-
600 roubles, including gold, 5,O00,000;
silver, 25,000,000, and subsidiary coin,
silver and copper, 90,000000 roubles.
The coinage of silver on private account
was stopped in 1898 and an extensive re-
demptiOn scheme is about to be put into
eminent has accumulated sum of gold
about equal to 550000,000 gold roubles.
The paper rouble, now valued at &c in
gold, will be receivable in a special gold
coin Of the same value. Silver will be
given a large field of employment, but
its coinage will be upon the account of
the government and will be kept at par
with gold. Concerning the practical eff
feet of the existing currency on manufac-
turing industries and rates of labor, the
minister submits data which he says will
enable the subject to be viewed from diff
ferent standpoints. Manufacturers have
long been stimulated by protective
tariff as well as by the ability of the
manufacturers to pay their workmen APP
proximately the old scale of wages in the
f.b n of hx,
Still the growth of the manufactures,
while considerable, has not been as
marked as would be expected from these
advantages, though in times most con-
genial to the people the growth has been
great and the profits enormous. The
workmen, however, did not participate
appreciably in the benefits bestowed upon
these industries. Not a word is heard
favorable to the condition of agriculture;
the universal testimony is of extreme de-
preston and the wages of the agricultural
laborers have had, in the main, a down
ward tendency AS to factory wages, the
minister, after submitting copiOus official
tables, remarks that wages in Russia have
undergone little or no change for thirty
years, and that there is no record of their
being affected by the great changes in
the purchasing power of the paper rouble
by the medium of payment. 1t may be
dSSunltu luaI udu huSSltn ldDor Deeu UT
ganized as in the United States, it at
least would have struggled to change the
scale to correspond with the change in the
value of money, but there has been no
struggle and no change. Wages III Eng
land and America are respectively 124
and $40 per cent higher than in Russia,
and the latter salaries are still further
reduced by fines imposed upon workmen.
In conclusion, Mr.. Breckenridge says:
Russia as nation which, during
long period of peace, has grown steadily
in population and wealth. How much
faster she might have grown and how
much more equally the products of labor
might have been distributed had she en-
joyed during all this period Il good cur
rency conforming to a stable standard of
value and had the channels of both do
nestle and foreign trade been less defect
ed from their natural laws and sources.
is a matter of speculation into which i
do not enter Nor do / attempt to say
to what extent the failure here Of depre-
ciated currency to transmit its expansion
to the vast interests enumerated would
prevail in our country.