Russia's Economy
1881-1894
Russia's Economy
1905-1914






Russia's Economy, 1894-1905



In 1891 work on the TRANSIBERIAN RAILROAD was begun, in 1895 on the TRANSCASPIAN RAILROAD. Historians have observed that with the accession of CZAR NICHOLAS II. to the throne in 1894, the pace of Russia's industrialization picked up. Another factor was the French alliance; French banks invested considerably in Russia. In 1897 Russia adopted the GOLD STANDARD, a measure which encouraged foreign investment and helped speed up the process of industrialization.
In 1892, the Russian Empire had a railroad network of a combined length of 31,202 km, in 1905 of 61,085 km (having surpassed Germany as Europe's country with the 'longest' railroad system in 1899).In 1892 Russia's output of pig-iron amounted to 1.1 million metric tons (less than 1/6 of the British), in 1905 it had risen to 2.7 million metric tons or more than 1/4 of the British output. In 1892, Russian coal mines produced 6.9 million tons of coal; in 1905 production reached 18.7 million tons.
While the figures indicating industrial growth were impressive - Russia's industry grew faster than those of Britain and Germany - Russia still lagged far behind the industrialized nations in terms of per-capita consumption. Russia's population also grew faster than that of western European nations; the population of the Russian Empire reached 125,000,000 in 1894, 146,000,000 in 1904. Rapid industrialization also meant rapid urbanization.
In contrast to the industrialized nations of central and western Europe, Russia continued to significantly expand the farmland where grain, potatos etc. were cultivated, from 13.4 million hectares in 1895 to 20.0 million hectares in 1905 (figures for the European provinces of the Russian Empire without Poland); wheat production rose from 8.4 million metric tons in 1895 to 12.8 million in 1905, potato harvest from 21.1 million metric tons in 1895 to 27.6 million metric tons in 1905.


Population of major Russian cities, 1890-1910
Source : B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics 1750-1988, pp. 72ff
Year

1890
1900
1910 		Baku

87,000
112,000
218,000 		Ekaterinoslav (Dniepropetrovsk)
47,000
121,000
196,000 		Kiev

184,000
247,000
505,000 		St. Petersburg

1,003,000
1,267,000
1,962,000 		Moscow

799,000
989,000
1,533,000 		Odessa

314,000
405,000
506,000


Russian Government Revenue and Expenditure, 1894-1905
Source : B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics 1750-1988, pp. 798, 801, 814, 823
figures in Russian Silver Roubles
Year

1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899 		Revenue

1,154,000,000
1,256,000,000
1,369,000,000
1,416,000,000
1,585,000,000
1,673,000,000 		Expenditure

1,155,000,000
1,521,000,000
1,484,000,000
1,495,000,000
1,772,000,000
1,785,000,000 		Year

1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905 		Revenue

1,704,000,000
1,799,000,000
1,905,000,000
2,032,000,000
2,018,000,000
2,025,000,000 		Expenditure

1,883,000,000
1,874,000,000
2,167,000,000
2,108,000,000
2,738,000,000
3,205,000,000








EXTERNAL
FILES 		Russian Monetary System. Historical Overview : Nicholas II. (1894-1917), by Andrey D. Ukhrov
DOCUMENTS Russian banknotes, issued 1889-1898, from Wad Nensberg's Collection of Russian Banknotes
Sergey Witte on Russia's economic policy, 1900, from Russian History Homepage at Univ. of Durham (text in English)
Coin : Tsar Nicholas II., 1899, from Coins from Famous People in History
News from Russia, in "The Great Round World and What is Going on in it", Vol.1 No.46, September 1897, posted by Gutenberg Library Online
REFERENCE


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on October 19th 2007

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics