Economic Development of Modern Europe (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 Excerpt: ...it is true, adverse; for approximately one-third of the factory labourers at the time of the emancipation were workingmen in bondage, and upon attaining their liberty, they largely deserted their employers. The iron and cotton industries suffered especially. But the recovery was extraordinarily rapid, and in the long run the changes that had taken place in the status of the peasant proved industrially beneficial. Not only was the stock of free labour vastly increased; many of the noble proprietors, supplied with ready capital, were enabled to cancel their obligations to the state and to become leaders in large-scale industrial enterprises upon modern capitalistic lines. Their ability to purchase factory-made goods was at the same time increased. The technical improvements which were introduced enabled the factories to compete more successfully with the domestic industries, a rigid tariff system protected them against competition, and Russia began to advance rapidly toward a recognised place among the manufacturing nations of Europe. A prolonged industrial depression during the decade 1880-89 retarded, but did not wholly check, this development. Recent Industrial Expansion. The era of greatest industrial progress began with the appointment of Count Sergius Witte in 1893 to the ministry of finance and commerce. It was Witte's conviction, as it had been that of his predecessor Wyschnegradski, that agriculture alone cannot make a nation strong, and it became his fundamental policy to diversify the country's economic interests by the construction of railways, the opening of mines, and the extension of factory industry. For the realisation of his plans capital was needed, in large quantities. The state had none to spare, the people little. Recourse was had, accor...