The second half of the eighteenth century marked the zenith of manorial economy and serf agriculture in Russia, but the first decades of the nineteenth witnessed significant changes in the economic picture. Russian estates sent more and more produce to the market, at home and even abroad, as southern Russia began to export grain via the Black Sea. New opportunities for marketing, together with a continuing growth of population, led to a strong and steady rise in land prices. Yet while possibilities beckoned, Russian agriculture could evolve in the capitalistic direction only to a limited extent and at great human and economic cost, for it was restricted by the social structure and the institutions of the country.
Most landlords, entirely unprepared for the task by their education and outlook, failed to adjust effectively to competition and to establish efficient production on their estates. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the proportion of non-gentry landownership grew, despite the fact that only members of the gentry could own serfs. In addition, the indebtedness of the gentry to the state increased rapidly, acquiring tremendous proportions by the middle of the century. It has been estimated that on the eve of the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 the state held in mortgage two-thirds of all the serfs. Small estates were especially hard hit. While substantial landlords on the whole adjusted more or less effectively to the new conditions, their poorer brethren, lacking capital or other sufficient assets, lost out in the competition. The first half of the century thus saw a concentration of
gentry landholding, and a decline, often pauperization, of small gentry landowners.
Serfdom, of course, lay at the heart of pre-reform Russian agriculture. Considerable evidence indicates that the landlords first responded to the new market opportunities and the generally rising tempo of economic life by trying to obtain a greater yield from their own fields. Barshchina, therefore, increased in scope and became more intensive, a process culminating in the 1840's. But serf labor offered no solution to the problem of achieving efficient, improved production: illiterate, unskilled, and uninterested, the serfs were plainly poor producers. Above all, they lacked incentive and initiative. As a result, in the 1840's and especially in the 1850's obrok increased at the expense of barshchina. Its monetary value rose very markedly; an individual peasant had to pay his master perhaps ten times as much in 1860 as in 1800, while he was encouraged to work hard by the fact that he could retain what remained after the payment. Serfs received additional land in return for obrok, and more of them earned their - and, indeed, their masters' - keep in factories, in transportation, and in other occupations, including agricultural work away from their home. Significantly, more and more free labor came to be hired in agriculture, especially in the Volga region and the Black Sea provinces. Agricultural wages generally rose, although both the amount of rise and the wages themselves remain very difficult to calculate. The increase of free labor in agriculture - even though, of course, that labor frequently represented the work of someone else's serfs hired temporarily - acquires added importance when considered in conjunction with the growth of free labor in industry and, indeed, in virtually all aspects of Russian economy.
While Russian agriculture in the first half of the nineteenth century reacted in a strained and pained manner to new conditions and demands, a certain advance and modernization were achieved. With the use of machinery and fertilizers and improved organization and technique, some estates became successful 'capitalistic' producers. In general, too, productivity increased somewhat as Russian agriculture became more intensive. Also, the produce gradually became more diversified. Old staple crops, notably rye and wheat, continued to be grown on a large scale and in fact for the first time attained prominence among Russian exports. But certain new items rose to positions of some importance in the agriculture of the country. These included potatoes and sugar beets, and, in the south, wine, the successful production of which required considerable knowledge and skill. The production of potatoes quintupled in the 1840's, the production of wine tripled between the early 1830's and 1850, and the spread of sugar beets in Russia can be gauged by the number of sugar beet factories: 7 in 1825, 57 in 1836, 206 in 1844, 380 in the early 1850's. The culture of silk and certain vegetable dyes developed in Transcaucasia. Fine wool began
to be produced with the introduction into Russia of a new and superior breed of sheep in 1803. With government aid, the number of these sheep increased from 150,000 in 1812 to some 9 million in 1853.
Industry, no less than agriculture, was affected by the growth of a market economy. Russian manufacturing establishments, counting only those that employed more than fifteen workers, increased in number from some 1,200 at the beginning of the century to 2,818 by 1860. The labor force expanded even faster: from between one and two hundred thousand in 1800 to between five and nine hundred thousand on the eve of the 'great reforms.' The striking discrepancy in the statistics compiled by various specialists results from both inadequate material and the problem of definition, including definition of the key concepts, 'factory' and 'worker.' Soviet scholars, especially after Stalinization, on the whole emphasized and exaggerated the industrial development of Russia, but they also provided some valuable documentation to support certain of their claims.
The relatively new cotton industry grew most rapidly. Its output increased sixteen times over in the course of the half-century, and at the end of the period Russia possessed about one million cotton spindles. The cotton industry required capital, and, in contrast to older woolen and linen manufactures, it was run by free, not serf, labor. On the whole, free labor gained steadily over bonded labor, and 'capitalist' factories over both possessional and manorial ones. According to one count, by 1825 'capitalist' factories constituted 54 per cent of all industrial establishments. Wages, although very low to be sure, kept going up.
At the same time, especially after the first quarter of the century, the use of machinery and steam power steadily increased in Russian manufacturing. The Russians imported machinery to the value of 42,500 silver rubles in 1825, 1,164,000 silver rubles in 1845, and 3,103,000 in 1860. Moreover, they began to build their own machines: the country possessed 19 machine-building factories with their annual output valued at 500,000 rubles in 1851, and 99 with an output worth 8,000,000 rubles in 1860. Russian industry, however, remained largely restricted to the Urals, the Moscow area, the rapidly growing St. Petersburg-Baltic region, and several other already well-established centers. In particular, none had as yet arisen in the vast Russian south.
Trade also reflected the quickening tempo of economic life in Russia in the first half of the nineteenth century. Internal trade experienced
marked growth. The differentiation of the country into the grain-producing south and the grain-consuming center and north became more pronounced, providing an ever stronger basis for fundamental, large-scale exchange. Thus the north and the center sent the products of their industries and crafts south in return for grain, meat, and butter. Certain areas developed their own specialties. For example, the northwestern region produced flax for virtually all of Russia. A district in the distant Archangel province raised a special breed of northern cows. Several Ukrainian provinces became famous for their horses, while the best sheep were bred in southern Russia, between the Volga and the Don. Even such items as woolen stockings became objects of regional specialization. A number of scholars have noted how, in the first half of the nineteenth century, purchased clothing began gradually to displace the homespun variety among the peasants.
Merchant capital grew and fairs expanded. The famous fair near the Monastery of St. Macarius in the Nizhnii Novgorod province was transferred in 1817 to the town of Nizhnii Novgorod itself and there attained new heights. In 1825 goods worth 12,700,000 rubles were sold at that fair; in 1852 the sum rose to 57,500,000. A number of other fairs also did a very impressive business. The total turnover in Russian internal trade for 1825 has been estimated at the considerable sum of 900,000,000 rubles.
Transportation also developed, if rather slowly. Rivers and lakes continued to play an extremely important role in trade and travel. A number of canals, especially those constructed between 1804 and 1810, added to the usefulness of the water network, by linking, for instance, the Western Dvina to the Dnieper and St. Petersburg to the Volga, thus making it possible to send goods from the upper Volga to the Baltic Sea. The first steamship appeared in Russia in 1815, on the Neva. In 1820 regular steam navigation commenced on the Volga to be extended later to other important rivers and lakes. Following by several years the construction of a small private railroad to serve the needs of a factory, the first public Russian railroad, joining St. Petersburg and the suburban imperial residence of Tsarskoe Selo - present-day Pushkin - was opened to traffic in 1837. In 1851 the first major Russian railroad went into operation, linking St. Petersburg and Moscow on a remarkably straight line as desired by Nicholas I. The Russians even proceeded to establish a railroad industry and build their own locomotives and cars, a
