Manufactures and Trade
with a general industrial map by the Department of Trade and Manufactures Ministry of Finance
For the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago
Editor of the English Translation John Martin Crawford
U. S. Consul general to Russia
Vol. I
St. Petersburg 1893
Väriä koskevia osia tekstistä.
In a statistical article the term "chemical industry" may either mean the exclusive production of acids, alkalis, salts like alum, blue copperas, chromates and pharmaceutical products like ethers and cosmetics; or else in a wider sense it may embrace many manufactures in which chemical actions and processes are taken advantage of, to obtain substances of the greatest variety, starting from dyes and ending with molasses, alcohol, illuminating gas, and the products of dry distillation. Although the manufacture of dyes is included in the present article, still chemical industry is understood in the first and more limited sense, not only because many of the manufactures founded upon chemical reactions are considered in the other sections of this work, but also chiefly because the manufacture of acids, alkalis and salts, like the alums and chromates, together with the preparation of dyes, forms quite a separate industry, whose products, although seldom met with in every day life, are indispensable to a multitude of industries and manufactures, and hence indirectly indicate the general state of the development of these industries. Moreover, in a number of chemical works the preparation of dyes is carried on simultaneously with the manufacture of acids and salts, and it is frequently impossible to separate the statistics of the one from those of the other.
When the industrial activity of the Russian nation was exclusively devoted to agriculture, then there were no real chemical manufactures in the Empire, and only a very few of the allied industries, such as distillery works, the preparation of tar and of certain dyes, for instance, madder, which on a small rural scale were carried on, not in works but only in the villages. To the present day the greater portion of the wood tar and resin is produced by industries having the same rural character. This is especially the case in the forests of northern Russia, which from ancient times have supplied many goods of this kind to the interior of Russia and abroad (Section VIII). But a true chemical industry, mainly treating substances of the mineral kingdom, only began to develop in Russia since the demand for those products arose with the establishment of a manufacturing industry during the past century. Thus, the first chemical works arose as supplementary to other manufactories and works. This was particularly noticeable in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ivanovo-Vosnessensk and Kazan.
The Russian chemical industry was further animated by the erection of works in distant parts where it was difficult for foreign goods to penetrate, and where a demand arose for considerable quantities of acids, particularly sulphuric, and for its salts, especially blue copperas and the alums, potassium cyanide et cetera, produced from local materials, for example, pyrites. Thus, for instance, Ushkov's works on the Kama near Elabouga were founded in the fifties for converting the Ural chrome iron ore into chromic salts, and these works have commenced using Ural copper pyrites in large quantities. So also several sulphuric acid works were started in Baku during the seventies and eighties, for the manufacture of acid from Sicilian and Caucasian sulphur, and for treating the products of the distillation of naphtha. But, as the customs tariff of that period allowed the majority of the foreign chemical products to pass into Russia either free of duty or with only very small dues, the majority of these goods, especially caustic and carbonate of soda, bleaching powder, pharmaceutical preparations, and dyes, were almost exclusively brought from abroad. This is proved by the fact that the import of chemical products increased more rapidly at this time than the internal production, which only satisfied a very small portion of the Russian demand.
EXPLANATORY NOTES TO THE FOREGOING TABLE.
s.227-237
1. Besides the import across the European frontier, chemical products are also imported to the Asiatic ports of the Black Sea, especially to Batoum and Poti, for supplying the wants of the Caucasian naphtha industry. For instance, the following amounts of caustic soda were imported through the Asiatic frontier:
| 1888 | 1889 | 1890 | 1891 | |
| 216 | 153 | 134 | 142 | thousand pouds. |
Under the title of chemical products the customs tariff includes besides soda the import of Straasfurt salts, nitre, sulphur, antimony, arsenic, borax, cream of tartar, barium, strontium, aluminium, alums, ammoniacal and other salts and oxides, acetate of lime, bisulphide of carbon, various acids, copperas and green vitriol, and other chemical and pharmaceutical preparations not especially mentioned; but phosphorus, ether, soap, cosmetics, glycerine, matches, varnishes, et cetera, are not included. Among dyes and colouring matters the chief objects of import are: indigo, cochineal and other natural dyes, logwood, ultramarine, white lead and copper pigments, extracts of dyes and gall, alizarine and other artificial dyes, prepared dyes, ink and wax.
2. In the statistical reports the value of the yield of the chemical works is given together with the production of dyes, chiefly because many works produce both one and the other. But, as the extent and nature of the chemical industry cannot be accurately defined, there is often much that is contradictory and not clear in the official reports.
3. The chief cause of the decline in the value of the import during the seventies was the fall in the price of soda on the foreign markets; while the rapid rise of the import trade in 1878 is explained by the rise of all the customs duties; and the animated state of manufactures produced a rapid development of the home production, and demand for chemical products required by other industries, while the home chemical works could not satisfy this increased demand owing to their previous feeble development, due to the fact that the duties upon chemical products in general were less protective than those on other goods.
4. The fall in the general value of the demands for chemical and colouring goods during the eighties was not due to a decrease in the demand, which on the contrary increased, but to the fall in price of many of the products and especially of aniline and artificial dyes.
For example, in 1873, the import of sulphur amounted to 310,000 pouds; that of saltpetre from Chili, 304,000 pouds: of barium precipitate, 121,000 pouds; of salts of ammonium, 29,000 pouds; of sulphur -aluminous salt and alum, 111,000 pouds; of all kinds of soda, 1,168,000 pouds; of white lime, azotic and muriatic acids, 298,000 pouds; of acetic, oxalic and other acids, 18,000; the total amouting to 11,500,000 of roubles paper; the duties on these wares amounted to 68,000 roubles paper, or about 6 per cent of the value. In 1888 to 1890 the customs duties formed about 25 per cent of the value of the chemical imports, and hee increase of the duties corresponded to the increase of the production of the Empire.It is evident from the data of the preceding table that the Russian chemical industry has from distant ages far from satisfied the demand, and although the home production of chemical products and dyes has increased, still it does not now exceed one-third of the demand. This is just the reverse from other manufactures, for example that of leather and paper, the home production of which greatly exceeds the import, from long ago. The cause of this must be looked for in the fact that chemical products, as auxiliary to other classes of industry, have long been subject to only very inconsiderable customs dues*, and that therefore their import was only natural. While manufactured goods were subject to not under 50 per cent customs dues, chemical products paid scarcely 6 per cent. Under these circumstances the only chemical works possible were those producing acids, especially sulphuric and nitric, and a few other products which either offered some difficulty in transport and storage, or, as with green vitriol, alum, et cetera, were so cheap that the cost of transport into the interior formed a great impediment. But, when the customs duties on chemical products were raised in the eighties, it became possible for the young Russian chemical industry to compete with the already established foreign export trade; the already existing Russian chemical works enlarged their operations and new and more perfected enterprises were started. Among the latter may be mentioned the Tentelevsk Chemical Works near St. Petersburg, which for instance treated boxite and platinum ores, and carried on the manufacture of ultramarine and soda.
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Among the dyes and colouring matters it is necessary to distinguish the natural from the artificial, and the mineral from the organic. Of the natural organic dyes the most important are those which are produced in the tropics, because they are employed in large quantities for dying tissues. They form the object of a large import trade over all Europe, and Russia annually imports from 50,000 to 60,000 pouds of indigo, value six to seven million roubles; from 1,500,000 to 2,500,000 pouds of campeachy, sandal, log, and other woods, value 1,500,000 to 2,500,000 roubles; cashoo or catechu from 150,000 to 200,000 pouds, value 500,000 to 600,000 roubles; cochineal 3,000 to 5,000 pouds, value about 100,000 roubles; and various other dyes of this class, such as turmeric, orsellic, luteolin, kermes seed et cetera , to the amount of 100,000 to 200,000 pouds, and valued at eight to ten million roubles.
In the forties and sixties the cultivation and export of madder roots from the Caucasus, and especially from Derbent, formed one of the Russian industries, but since the introduction of the artificial alizarine it has quite declined. Endeavours have been made to cultivate indigo wood, and other dy -producing plants in the warm Asiatic districts of Russia, but they were few and carried on with insufficient perseverance. This import trade gives occupation to many works for the preparation of the extracts of the wood dyes used in the arts.
As regards the artificial hydrocarbon dyes, and notably alizarine and those derived from coal tar, although they are used in considerable quantities in Russia as elsewhere, still their preparation has only been taken up as an experiment. because the insufficient development of the coal tar distillation and of the manufacture of many of the chemicals required. does not yet permit the young Russian industry to enter into competition with the German and French producers of these artificial pigments. Almost all that has been done in this direction consists in the working up of the nearly finished article, such as anthracene or alizarine brought from abroad, into the form in which it is used by the dyer, for example of alizarine into a paste containing 10 to 20 per cent. A more serious progress in this industry can only be looked for when the treatment of coal tar and naphtha refuse itself is better established in Russia. When the naphtha refuse is subjected to dry distillation for the preparation of lighting gas, a tar is obtained containing as large an amount of benzole and anthracene as coal tar, as is seen from the researches of Letnyi, Schmidt and others. But the treatment of this tar is not yet on a large scale, although the manufacture of lighting gas from the refuse is widely spread over Russia. The import of artificial coal tar pigments proceeds chiefly from Germany, and amounts yearly, as in 1890 and 1891, to 50,000 pouds, value 3,000,000 roubles. The greater part of this amount goes to the so - called finishing works, and therefore their turnover is estimated at about 2,500,000 million roubles, including sulpho- salts of the naphthalin series imported for the preparation of the azodyes, which are now much used in dyeing. Some of these factories in Moscow are branch establishments of German works. In Poland there is an independent works for the preparation of these pigments. Thus the manufacture of neither the hydrocarbon organic dyes, nor the natural or artificial dyes, is yet firmly established in Russia.
The manufacture of the mineral pigments is more developed, and in Russia they are now prepared both from natural coloured clays, and from other minerals such as chalk, baryta, hematite, lapis lazuli, et cetera, and especially from iron; for instance, colcothar from pyrites and vitriol; copper, for example, the green roofing paint from carbonate of copper, and from verdigris; lead, for instance, white lead and chrome yellow and zinc compounds, as zinc white. Ochres and other similar pigments and ferruginous clays are met with in abundance in many parts of Russia and they are now used at many works for the preparation of paints for walls, floors, and the like. The manufacture of white lead has made particular progress in the interior of Russia, where according to official data as much as 250,000 pouds to the value of 850,000 roubles are prepared annually. About 120,000 pouds of white lead are brought from abroad. Both the Russian and the imported white lead contain a mixture of baryta. Although red lead is manufactured at several Russian works, it is now annually imported to the amount of about 100,000 pouds. Up to 20,000 pouds of copper pigments, including verdigris, are imported, and about 10,000 pouds manufactured in Russia. The same may be said of the blue mineral colours, such as ultramarine, Prussian blue et cetera. They are already prepared in Russia, but their manufacture does not advance sufficiently fast, so that there is a simultaneous import trade in these materials. It is the same with the preparation of blacks, blacking, ink, and ground paints.
The commencement of these industries already exists in Russia, but the demand exceeds the production, and this is especially the case with the better sorts of pigments. The total value of the home production of mineral pigments, both natural and artificial, is twice that of the imported, so that here also the home manufacture has succeeded in making comparative progress with what it was not long ago; and the same may be said with respect to the manufacture of the organic hydrocarbon pigments, both natural and artificial. The manufacture of pigments is centred in the governments of Moscow and St. Petersburg, in Poland, and in the south and east of Russia.
The above data show that the home production of chemical and dye goods is still far from satisfying the growing demand, and that many branches require further development. However, the beginning of this development has already taken place; and as the customs tariff of 1891 has given a distinct although not excessive protection to these industries, as they have thereby made noticeable progress notwithstanding the short time since its improvement, it may be hoped that the home chemical and pigment manufactures will now move in the right direction, that is, that the foreign goods will gradually give way to the home products, as they have done in many other branches of industry, for instance, the manufactures of cotton goods and glass. And when with the help of protective duties the industry gains strength, then an export trade if not of all, at all events of many chemical products may be expected, just as it is with the manufactures which have long been the object of a protective system, for example, the naphtha industry (Chapter XV), the sugar industry (Chapter XVII), and even the india-rubber manufacture (Chapter VII), and some chemical goods, such as phosphorus (Chapter XIII).
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