statesmen and financiers running about the world trying to
raise loans.

In one sense it is perfectly true that Russia needs money;
but in the sense in which the above opinions are commonly
stated and believed, they are wholly inaccurate. The Russian
public debt is very large, but it is being paid off at the present
time at the rate of £2,500,000 a year. During the past ten
years no less than £30,000,000 has been paid off. This striking
fact is usually overlooked. Moreover, as security for its debt
the Russian State (I am not speaking of the country of
Russia: the difference is vital) has natural resources and pro-
ductive public works surpassing in value those of any other
State in the world. Besides its enormous mineral wealth, which
has hardly been scratched as yet, it draws, for instance, an
annual net revenue of more than five millions sterling from
its forests; and while the United States has almost exhausted its
timber, and Europe is looking around anxiously to see where
its wood and wood-pulp are to come from in a few years, the
Russian State has 200,000,000 acres of real forest as yet un-
touched. (Official figures give a far larger area than this, but
I am speaking of genuine forest, not mere forest-land.) Russia's
peasants pay (minus large arrears) the State an annual rent of
£8,460,000. It owns and works over 24,000 miles of railway,
of which the average net earnings from 1897-99 were £14,-
800,000. Its budget shows a considerable surplus every year
-- with these surpluses the Trans-Siberian Railway has been
largely built. These considerations will place the financial
position of Russia in a new light for most people; but what
follows will astonish still more all who have not looked care-
fully into the matter. I turn now to Russian loans.

During the past fifteen years Russia has borrowed enor-
mously-that is what strikes the popular imagination. But
during these fifteen years Russia has converted and redeemed
in cash previous loans amounting to over £440,000,000. In

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