to the pecuniary advantage of individuals.”  As a corollary to this principle he declared that purely agricultural countries are economically backward and intellectually stagnant, being condemned to pay tribute to the nations who have learned to work up their raw products into more valuable commodities.  The good old English doctrine that certain countries were intended by Providence to be eternally agricultural, and that their function in the economy of the universe is to supply raw material for the industrial nations, was always in his eyes an abomination—­an ingenious, nefarious invention of the Manchester school, astutely invented for the purpose of keeping the younger nations permanently in a state of economic bondage for the benefit of English manufacturers.  To emancipate Russia from this thraldom by enabling her to create a great native industry, sufficient to supply all her own wants, was the aim of his policy and the constant object of his untiring efforts.  Those who have had the good fortune to know him personally must have often heard him discourse eloquently on this theme, supporting his views by quotations from the economists of his own school, and by illustrations drawn from the history of his own and other countries.

A necessary condition of realising this aim was that there should be high tariffs.  These already existed, and they might be raised still higher, but in themselves they were not enough.  For the rapid development of the native industry an enormous capital was required, and the first problem to be solved was how this capital could be obtained.  At one moment the energetic minister conceived the project of creating a fictitious capital by inflating the paper currency; but this idea proved unpopular.  When broached in the Council of State it encountered determined opposition.  Some of the members of that body, especially M. Bunge, who had been himself Minister of Finance, and who remembered the evil effects of the inordinate inflation of the currency on foreign exchanges during the Turkish War, advocated strongly the directly opposite course—­a return to gold monometallism, for which M. Vishnegradski, M. Witte’s immediate predecessor, had made considerable preparations.  Being a practical man without inveterate prejudices, M. Witte gave up the scheme which he could not carry through, and adopted the views of his opponents.  He would introduce the gold currency as recommended; but how was the requisite capital to be obtained?  It must be procured from abroad, somehow, and the simplest way seemed to be to stimulate the export of native products.  For this purpose the railways were extended,* the traffic rates manipulated, and the means of transport improved generally.

     * In 1892, when M. Witte undertook the financial
     administration, there were 30,620 versts of railway, and at
     the end of 1900 there were 51,288 versts.