Russia's Economy
1855-1881
Russia's Economy
1894-1905






Russia's Economy, 1881-1894



While the population of the Russian Empire grew considerably, the farmland was limited. Most of it was communal farmland, redistributed annually, with the shares per peasant reducing over time as the population grew. Most peasants were very poor, hardly able to pay taxation. As grain prices fell in the 1880es (an effect of growing US exports), the situation only turned worse; famines such as the one of 1891 lead, in combination with epidemics, to large numbers of dead. The government, by abolishing some of the numerous fees/taxes the peasant had to pay, tried to alleviate the burden; not sufficient to improve the situation. Another policy was to encourage the migration into Siberia.
In 1891 high tariffs were introduced to protect the emerging domestic industry from foreign imports.
Anti-Semitism prevalent in Russia made it all the more difficult for the government respectively Russia's industry to obtain loans from western banks.


Russian Government Revenue and Expenditure, 1881-1894
Source : B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics 1750-1988, pp. 798, 814
figures in Russian Silver Roubles
Year

1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887 		Revenue

652,000,000
704,000,000
699,000,000
705,000,000
762,000,000
781,000,000
830,000,000 		Expenditure

840,000,000
788,000,000
804,000,000
816,000,000
913,000,000
945,000,000
931,000,000 		Year

1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894 		Revenue

899,000,000
927,000,000
944,000,000
892,000,000
970,000,000
1,045,000,000
1,154,000,000 		Expenditure

927,000,000
963,000,000
1,057,000,000
1,116,000,000
1,125,000,000
1,061,000,000
1,155,000,000








EXTERNAL
FILES 		Russian Monetary System. Historical Overview : Alexander III. (1881-1894), by Andrey D. Ukhrov
DOCUMENTS Russian banknotes, issued 1889-1898, from Wad Nensberg's Collection of Russian Banknotes
Russian silver coins issued under Alexander II. and III., from S. Sekine's Collection
REFERENCE


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 8th 2004

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