It is significant that none of the contemporary western European authors who have written on Russian economics in the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth speaks of Russia as an economically backward country. In fact, during some part of the eighteenth century, Russian industry, at least in some branches, was ahead not only of all the other Continental countries but of England as well. This was particularly true of the metal industries. In the middle of the eighteenth century Russia was the world's largest producer of both iron and copper, and it was not until the 1770's in the case of copper, and the very end of the century in the case of iron, that English production became equal to that of Russia.
As we have already had occasion to observe, the reign of Peter the Great marked an important divide in the economic and social development of Russia as well as in the political history of the country. One of the most significant and least explained changes occurred in the nature of the population curve, which, it might be added, paralleled the curves in other European countries: whereas the population of Russia apparently remained largely stationary for a century and longer prior to the time of Peter the Great, and whereas it might have decreased during the reformer's hard reign, it rose rapidly from then on. Within the Russian boundaries of 1725 there lived some thirteen million people in that year, nineteen million in 1762, and twenty-nine million in 1796. Counting approximately seven million new subjects acquired as a result of Catherine the Great's suc-
cessful foreign policy, the Russian Empire had by the end of the eighteenth century over thirty-six million inhabitants.
In addition to the immediate increase in population, the expansion of Russia in the eighteenth century produced a number of other results important for the economic life of the country. Peter the Great's victory in the Great Northern War gave his state access to the Baltic; and citizens of such ports as Riga, who were more proficient in navigation and commerce than the Russians, were then brought into the empire. 'A window into Europe' referred as much to economic affairs as to culture or politics. Catherine the Great's huge gains from the partitions of Poland also brought Russia closer to other European countries and included towns and areas with a relatively more developed economy. Both the German landlords of the Baltic region and the Polish or Polonized gentry of what came to be known as the western provinces were in certain respects more advanced than their Russian counterparts. The acquisitions to the south proved similarly significant. Catherine the Great's success in the two Turkish wars opened vast fertile lands of southern Russia - a further extension of what had been obtained in the preceding decades and centuries - for colonization and development, and established the empire firmly on the Black Sea. Although serfdom restricted mobility, population in the south grew rapidly by means of voluntary migration and the transfer of serfs and state peasants. In the words of one historian concerned with the density of population:
Prior to the eighteenth century a comparatively dense and settled population in the Russian Empire was to be found only in the center of the plains of European Russia: the region of Moscow with the immediately adjoining provinces, and the upper valley of the Volga. Somewhat less densely settled were the northern part of the Ukraine, and the ancient Smolensk and Novgorod regions, to the west and northwest of Moscow respectively. Finally, starting from central Russia, a narrow strip of fairly dense settlement stretched out toward Archangel, along the river Dvina; and another strip was to be found along the middle course of the Volga and farther east, in the direction of Siberia. To this limited area of comparatively dense settlement now was added a vast territory in the south and the southeast of European Russia.
Differentiation accompanied expansion. The fertile, mostly 'black-earth,' agricultural areas of the south became more and more distinct from the more barren regions of the center and north. The system of barshchina, that is, of work for one's master, prevailed in the south, that of obrok, or payments to the landlord in kind or money, in the north. On the rich black
earth of the south the serfs tilled their masters' fields as well as their own plots, and they also performed other tasks for the master such as cutting firewood or mowing hay. In addition to the increase in grain and other agricultural products, cattle-raising developed on a large scale. The landlords generally sold the products of their economy on the domestic market, but toward the end of the century export increased.
In the provinces of the center and north, where the earth was not so fertile, the obrok, or quitrent, practice grew. There only modest harvests of rye and other grains suitable to the rigorous climate could be obtained from the soil, so that the peasant population had to find different means to support itself and to discharge its obligations to the landlord and the state. Special crafts developed in various localities. In some places peasants produced iron implements, such as locks, knives, and forks; in others they made wooden utensils, spoons, cups, plates, toys, and the like, or leather goods. Where no such subsidiary local occupations emerged, many peasants left their homes periodically, especially for the winter, to find work elsewhere. Often groups of peasants sought employment together in associations known as
The great extent and the continuing expansion of agriculture in Russia did not mean that it was modern in technique or very productive. Russian agriculture remained rather primitive, and, because of the backward technique of cultivation, even excellent land gave relatively low yields. Serfdom contributed heavily to the inefficient use of labor and to rural overpopulation. In agriculture Westernization came very slowly indeed. By the end of the century, in spite of the efforts of the Free Economic Society established in 1765 and a few other groups as well as certain individuals, no substantial modernization had occurred. As Marxist historians have repeatedly emphasized, serfdom with its abundant unskilled labor still could effectively satisfy the needs of the rather sluggish and parochial Russian rural economy in the eighteenth century.
In a sense, the Russians during that period made greater advances in industry. The number of factories grew from 200 or 250 at the time of
Peter the Great's death to 1,200 by the end of the century, to cite one opinion, or possibly even over 3,000, if the smallest manufacturing establishments are included. The total number of workers rose to a considerable figure which has been variously estimated between 100,000 and 225,000. Many factories employed hundreds of hands, with the highest known number in the neighborhood of 3,500. The vitally important mining and metal industries developed so spectacularly as to give Russia a leading position in Europe in this type of production. The Ural area produced at that time some 90 per cent of Russian copper and some 65 per cent of the pig iron. Lesser centers of metal industry existed in Olonets, which is in the north near the Finnish border, and in Tula, south of Moscow. The textile industry flourished in and around Moscow and in some neighboring provinces and, to a lesser extent, in the St. Petersburg area. A number of other industries also developed in eighteenth-century Russia.
However, in the context of Russian society, the acquisition of a suitable labor force often created special problems; Russian manufacturing establishments reflected and in turn affected the social structure of the empire. Thus, in addition to owning and operating some factories outright, the state established in areas of scarce labor supply numerous 'possessional factories,' which were operated by merchants and to which state peasants were attached as 'possessional workers.' They were, in fact, industrial serfs, but they belonged to a factory, not to an individual. These possessional factories acquired special prominence in heavy industry. Some landlords, in their turn, set up manorial factories, especially for light industry, where they utilized the bonded labor of their serfs. Nevertheless, free labor also played an increasingly important role in the industrial development of Russia in the eighteenth century. Even when it represented, as it often did, the labor of someone else's serfs out to earn their quitrent, it led to new, more 'capitalistic,' relationships in the factories. Soviet studies, for example those of Khromov and Poliansky, in contrast to some earlier Marxist works, such as Liashchenko's well-known writings, have
