Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 146, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1917 — Moscow as a Business Center [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Moscow as a Business Center

CENTRAL Russia, with Moscow, the ancient capital, as its focal point, is at' once the richest and the most thickly populated part of the country. This region contains 18 governments, covering an area of 480,000 square miles —less than one-half of the area of the Petrograd district, but with more than twice the population, viz., 45,000,000. As might be expected, says a writer in the magazine, Russia, the large towns are both larger and more numerous than elsewhere in Russia. Moscow had in 1912 a population of 1,617.000. Railway communications are, for Russia, relatively well developed here and to the south. As a place of business Moscow occupies a unique position. The interests located there control and serve the area of which the city forms literally the geographical center, in all matters of supply and demand for a mainly agricultural country; and it is through the Moscow merchants and agency houses that foreign imports are brought most directly before the consumers. With characteristic enterprise, the Moscow merchants have also organized and may be said to control the Siberian trade. Many of the most successful of her citizens are Siberian born, who find it desirable to live in Moscow to direct the financing and the purchasing end of their business operations. Manufacturers Are Powerful. Finally, industrial Russia may be said to center in this city, where the Moscow Manufacturers’ association

.alone forms almost a party in the state and. exercises a potent influence on the tariff policy of the country. This association is responsible for the Russian textile industries, which center mainly here; the iron and steel industry, and’ many other manufactures, which are financed with local capital. It was Moscow’s initiative, also, that started cotton growing in the Caucasus and central Asia, which now supply a considerable portion of the raw material of the country’s cotton trade. Th”e air of business which pervades this strange but fascinating city is attractive to a Westerner. Business men are more accessible than elsewhere. They seem to have a grip on affairs, and they pursue definite methods in their dealings, which lead to quick decision and execution. These qualities, coupled with a strong local patriotism and self-confidence, form the driving power of Moscow’s citizens, which cannot fall to secure for the city an ever-increasing Influence in the political and economic development ot The dissimilarity of the Petrograd ' jj ' ------~■ - - ~

and Moscow markets is marked. Broadly, Petrograd disposes of a higher class of article at corresponding prices. Moscow’s clients belong mainly to the peasant class —to the inhabitants of the rural towns, whose wants are restricted, if not primitive, and who are in the stage when new wants and habits are forming. This does not necessarily lessen the range and variety of the articles desired —rather the contrary. But the attractiveness! of the articles, rather than the quality* appeals, and cheapness is an all-deter-mining factor. This attitude was cleverly grasped and exploited by the German trader, and In this connection,, nowhere else so much as in Moscow is the evidence of German adaptability, and of German trade “penetration” of Russia more apparent. . Moscow’s stores were full of German goods. Large numbers of these stores were obviously German, while the representatives of German houses in the district must have been numbered by thousands. In Moscow’s best department store, the largest in Russia, which was founded by Scotsmen in the forties of the last century, and is still conducted under British management, probably 60 per cent of the foreign goods on sale have been of German manufacture. The range of retail prices paid, and the quality which satisfies even the good class in Moscow, are distinctly lower than in the betterclass trade of Petrograd. Center of the Fur Trade. Moscow is the chief fur center for Russia, and there is a tendency,

towards a gradual transfer of the ness of subsidiary fur markets,* like the Irbit and the Nizhni-Novgorod fairs, to Moscow. A movement has been initiated by thfe fur section of the Moscow chamber of commerce and industry To. render the Russlan fur industry in future independent of the Leipzig market, Leipzig has hitherto taken largely the Russian raw furs; has treated and finished them, and has resold the finished product again to Moscow. In future Moscow purposes to do more of the finishing process hgrself, and is endeavoring also to get into touch with London, New York, St. Louis and other important fur-producing and furimporting centers, for the purpose of direct business dealings. Moscow can under normal conditions supply finished furs such as squirrel, squirrel tails, ermine, marteff, stone and baum _ marten, hares, Persian lamb, etc. Russia, as Is well known, is a very large buyer of fur goods/~~

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