nd with respect to Russia and Sweden.
Nothing has been more exaggerated than the dimensions of the trade
opened to Great Britain by the huge market of the Russia of Peter the
Great, and his immediate successors. Statements bearing not the
slightest touch of criticism have been allowed to creep from one
book-shelf to another, till they became at last historical household
furniture, to be inherited by every successive historian, without even
the _beneficium inventarii_. Some incontrovertible statistical figures
will suffice to blot out these hoary common-places.

BRITISH COMMERCE FROM 1697-1700.

L
Export to Russia 58,884
Import from Russia 112,252
---------
Total 171,136

Export to Sweden 57,555
Import from Sweden 212,094
---------
Total 269,649

During the same period the total

L
Export of England amounted to 3,525,906
Import 3,482,586
---------
Total 7,008,492

In 1716, after all the Swedish provinces in the Baltic, and on the Gulfs
of Finland and Bothnia, had fallen into the hands of Peter I., the

L
Export to Russia was 113,154
Import from Russia 197,270
--------
Total 310,424

Export to Sweden 24,101
Import from Sweden 136,959
--------
Total 161,060

At the same time, the total of English exports and imports together
reached about L10,000,000. It will be seen from these figures, when
compared with those of 1697-1700, that the increase in the Russian trade
is balanced by the decrease in the Swedish trade, and that what was
added to the one was subtracted from the other.

In 1730, the

L
Export to Russia was 46,275
Import from Russia 258,802
--------
Total 305,077

Fifteen years, then, after the consolidation in the meanwhile of the
Muscovite settlement on th