no other countries
save the United States and China.

The Russian Government has done much to encourage manufactures.
Steel-making in the Ural district, in Poland, and in the iron regions of
the Don has progressed to the extent that home-made railway material and
rolling stock are now generally used. Farming machinery is made in the
cities of the grain-growing region. The manufacture of cotton, woollen,
and linen fabrics has developed to the extent that the state is becoming
an exporter rather than an importer of such goods.

Railway building has progressed under government aid, and about
two-thirds of the 37,000 miles of track are owned by the state. The
Transsiberian Railway connecting Vladivostok with the trunk lines of
Europe was built by the state both for strategic and economic purposes.
Large bodies of emigrants are carried into Siberia at nominal rates and
are settled on lands that are practically free. The return cargoes
consist of Chinese products--mainly silk textiles and tea--destined for
western Europe.

A network of railways covers the grain-growing districts; trunk lines,
mainly for strategic purposes, extend through Russian Turkestan to the
Chinese border. For many years Russia has endeavored to acquire the
territory that would afford commercial outlets to the Indian Ocean and
into China. In this the state has been thwarted by two great
powers--Great Britain and Japan. The construction of canals and the
improvements of river-navigation are under government management, and
the internal water-ways aggregate about fifty thousand miles of
navigation.

The foreign commerce is changing in character as manufactures develop.
Wheat, flour, timber products, flax, and petroleum are the chief
exports. Cotton, tea, wool, and coal are the leading imports, the
first-named coming mainly from the United States. Germany, Great
Britain, France, Holland, and the United States are the chief European
countries utilizing Russian trade. The commerce between Russia and China
is growing rapidly. The Transsiberian railway is its chief northern
outlet, and a branch of this road, now under construction, extends
through to the leading commercial centres of Manchuria, to Port Arthur.
A considerable amount of manufactured goods is sent to Asia Minor and
the Iran countries.

The most available ports opening into the Atlantic are on the Baltic
Sea, but these are blocked by ice in winter; the best ports are on the
Black Sea, but th