DBOOKS PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE

VRICAL SECTION OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE.—No. 54

CAUCASIA

LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE.
 I■

_____
 lS3
HANDBOOKS PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE
HISTORICAL SECTION OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE.—No. 54

A*7
7

CAUCASIA

LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE

1920
a,f$ Yncuw,

EDITORIAL NOTE

In' the spring of 1917 the Foreign Office, in connexion

with the preparation which they were making for the work
of the Peace Conference, established a special section whose
duty it should be to provide the British Delegates to the
Peace Conference with information in the most convenient
form—geographical, economic, historical, social, religious, and
political—respecting the different countries, districts, islands,
&c., with which they might have to deal. In addition,
volumes were prepared on certain general subjects, mostly
of an historical nature, concerning which it appeared that a
special study would be useful.
The historical information was compiled by trained writers
on historical subjects, who (in most cases) gave their services
without any remuneration. For the geographical sections
valuable assistance was given by the Intelligence Division
(Naval Staff) of the Admiralty ; and for the economic sections,
by the War Trade Intelligence Department, which had been
established by the Foreign Office. Of the maps accompanying
the series, some were prepared by the above-mentioned depart¬
ment of the Admiralty, but the bulk of them were the work
of the Geographical Section of the General Staff (Military
Intelligence Division) of the War Office.
Now that the Conference has nearly completed its task,
the Foreign Office, in response to numerous inquiries and
requests, has decided to issue the books for public use,
believing that they will be useful to students of history,
politics, economics, and foreign affairs, to publicists generally
and to business men and travellers. It is hardly necessary
to say that some of the subjects dealt with in the series have
not in fact come under discussion at the Peace Conference ;
but, as the books treating of them contain valuable informa¬
tion, it has been thought advisable to include them.
 It must be understood that, although the series of volumes
was prepared under the authority, and is now issued with
the sanction, of the Foreign Office, that Office is not to be
regarded as guaranteeing the accuracy of every statement
which they contain or as identifying itself with all the opinions
expressed in the several volumes ; the books were not prepared
in the Foreign Office itself, but are in the nature of information
provided for the Foreign Office and the British Delegation.
The books are now published, with a few exceptions,
substantially as they were issued for the use of the Delegates.
No attempt has been made to bring them up to date, for, in
the first place, such a process would have entailed a great
loss of time and a prohibitive expense; and, in the second,
the political and other conditions of a great part of Europe
and of the Nearer and Middle East are still unsettled and in
such a state of flux that any attempt to describe them would
have been incorrect or misleading. The books are therefore
to be taken as describing, in general, ante-bellum conditions,
though in a few cases, where it seemed specially desirable,
the account has been brought down to a later date.

G. W. PROTHERO,
General Editor and formerly
January 1920. Director of the Historical Section.
Caucasia]

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
I. GEOGRAPHY PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL
TRANSCAUCASIA
(1) Position and Frontiers ..... 1
(2) Surface, Coasts, and River System
Surface ....... 2
Coasts ....... 4
River System . . . . . . 5
(3) Climate ....... 6
(4) Sanitary Conditions ..... 8
(5) Race and Language ..... 8
(6) Population
Distribution and Density . . . .12
Towns ....... 12
Movement ....... 13
CISCAUCASIA
(1) Position and Frontiers . . . . .13
(2) Surface, Coasts, and River System
Surface ....... 14
JCoasts ....... 15
River System . . . . . .15
(3) Climate ....... 16
(4) Sanitary Conditions . . . . .17
(5) Race and Language . . . .17
(6) Population ....... 17
Towns . . . . . .17
II. POLITICAL HISTORY
Chronological Summary . . . .19
(1) Early History r . . 20
(2) Bagratid Dynasty. Struggle with Islam . . 21
(3) Growth of Russian Influence .... 22
(4) Annexation of Georgia ..... 25
(5) Treaty of Gulistan ...... 25
(6) Wars with Persia and Turkey, 1826-9 . . 26
(7) Muridism; War with the Tribes in Daghestan and
Chechnia, 1830-59 ..... 26
(8) War with Turkey, 1877 . 28
(9) Revolutionary Movement, 1902-6 ... 29
(10) Effect of the Great War, 1914-18 ... 29
Wt. 42058/416. 1,000. 3/20. O.U.P.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS [n<,54
page
III. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
(1) Religious ..... 31
(2) Political ..... 32
(3) Educational . . . . . 33
General Observations 34

IV. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

(A) Means of Communication
(1) Internal
(a) Roads ....... 36
(b) Rivers and Canals . . . 37
(c) Railways ..... 38
(d) Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones 41
(2) External
(a) Ports and Roadsteads
(i) On the Black Sea .... 42
(ii) On the Sea of Azov .... 45
(iii) On the Caspian Sea . 45
(b) Shipping Lines , . 46
(c) Telegraphic and Wireless Communications . 48
(B) Industry
(1) Labour
(a) Labour Supply; Immigration and Emigration 48
(b) Labour Conditions ..... 50
(2) Agriculture
(a) Products of Commercial Value
Vegetable Products . . 51
Live-stock and Animal Products . 57
(b) Methods of Cultivation .... 58
(c) Forestry ....... 60
(d) Land Tenure .... 61
(3) Fisheries ....... 62
(4) Minerals ....... 63
(5) Mineral Oils
(a) Sources of Supply . . . .\ 68
(i) The Baku Fields .... 69
(ii) The Grozni Fields .... 70
(iii) The Maikop Fields .... 71
(iv) Other Sources , 72
(b) Methods of Working . . 72
Caucasia ] TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
(6) Manufactures ...... 73
(7) Power . . . • • • .76
(C) Commerce
(1) Domestic
(a) Towns, Markets, and Fairs ... 77
(b) Organizations to promote Trade and
Commerce . . . • • .79
(c) Foreign Interests . • • • .79
(d) Methods of Economic Penetration . . 81
(2) Trade with Russia . . • • • .81
(3) Foreign
(a) Exports .,..•••■ 82
(b) Imports ..-•••• 85
(c) Transit Trade ...... 86
(D) Finance
(1) Public Finance ...... 88
(2) Currency ....... 89
(3) Banking ....... 89
(E) General Remarks ...... 90
APPENDIX
Table I. Shipping in 1909 and 1913 ... 92
Table II. Output of Mineral Oil, 1910-16 . . 93

AUTHORITIES..94
Maps . . • • • • • .95
Caucasia

I. GEOGRAPHY PHYSICAL AND

POLITICAL
TRANSCAUCASIA

(1) Position and Frontiers

Transcaucasia in Asiatic Russia consists of the
following six Governments, three Provinces, and two
Districts: „
Square
Square
Miles. Miles.
Elisavetopol 16,991
Black Sea (Cherno-
3,220 Batum . 2,693
moria)
8,145 Kars 7,239
Kutais .
15,770 Daghestan 11,471
Tiflis 1,539
Baku 15,061 Zakatali
10,725 Sukhum 2,545
Erivan .
Total . 95,399

The northern boundary (650 miles in length) runs

from Cape Taman, on the eastern side of the Straits
of Kerch, along the summits of the Caucasian chain as
far as Donos Mta, and thence along the north-west
frontier of Daghestan to the Bay of Agrakhan on the
Caspian. The western frontier, about 400 miles long,
is formed by the coast of the Black Sea from the
peninsula of Taman to Cape Kopmush, south of
Batum. The southern frontier falls into two divisions,
the Russo-Turkish and the Russo-Persian. The former
starts from Cape Kopmush and runs for 348 miles
south-east to Mount Ararat, where the boundaries of
Russian, Turkish, and Persian territory meet, The
Russo-Persian boundary (350 miles) runs south-east
to a few miles east of Ordubad, where it turns to the
north-east as far as the village of Karakyavendikh ;
thence it again turns south-east and finally reaches the
B
 GEOGRAPHY [No. 54

Caspian at Fort St. Nicholas on the Astara. The

eastern frontier, some 450 miles in length, is formed
by the Caspian Sea from the Bay of Agrakhan to the
River Astara.
Geographically Transcaucasia is so placed that, with
the development of communications, it should reap
considerable advantages from the commercial develop¬
ment both of northern Persia and of north-eastern Asia
Minor.
(2) Surface, Coasts, and River System
Surface
Transcaucasia is divided across the centre from west
to east by the two valleys of the Rion and Kura, the
head-waters of which are separated by the low ridge
of the Suram Mountains, connecting the Caucasus with
the Armenian Highlands. These valleys run west and
east into the Black and Caspian Seas respectively. They
are roughly equivalent to the Governments of Kutais
(the Rion valley), Tiflis, Elisavetopol, and Baku. The
Governments of Kutais and Tiflis and parts of Batum
form the region known as Georgia.
The Rion valley is narrowed in its upper part by the
mountainous district of Svanetia, but begins to broaden
west of Kutais, and becomes a flat, marshy plain. The
Kura valley narrows about Tiflis, and then widens till,
at the Mughan steppe, it is over 100 miles broad. The
valley floor slopes gently east from 1,200 ft. at Tiflis to
500 ft. in the middle of its course, and 85 ft. below sea
level at the Caspian. The only interruption is caused
by a plateau of between 2,000 and 3,000 ft. along the
southern foot-hills of the eastern Caucasus in the region
known as Kakhetia.
The soil in the Rion and upper Kura valleys is
extraordinarily fertile. On the southern slope of the
Caucasus, in fact, almost every available patch of
ground is successfully utilized for agriculture, even up
to a height of 7,000-8,000 ft. Most of the steppes in the
lower Kura valley are too dry to be cultivated without
the aid of irrigation.
Caucasia^ TRANSCAUCASIA (SURFACE) 3
The Caucasus range dominates the whole of Trans¬
caucasia. It is over 400 miles long, while its outskirts
stretch for 150 miles and 100 miles respectively to
Baku and Novorossiisk. It runs from west-north-west
to east-south-east between 45° and 40 north latitude,
and falls naturally into three well-defined sections :
a western section from Anapa to the upper valley of
the Kodor, not far from Sukhum; the main central
section from the upper Kodor valley to Mount Kazbek ;
and an eastern section, including the Highlands of
Daghestan, and extending from Mount Kazbek to Baku.
The western section commences with hills, which rise
gradually to a height of 7,000 ft. at the source of the
Kodor. The mountains fall abruptly to the Black Sea.
The main central section is entirely mountainous, the
general elevation being within the limit of perpetual
snow, which on the north side is 9,500 ft. and on the
south 10,800 ft. The five highest peaks are Mount
Elbruz (18,470 ft.), Koshtan Tau (16,539 ft.), Dikh
Tau (16,925 ft.), Janga (16,660 ft.), and Kazbek (16,546
ft.); and there are many others over 14,000 ft. The
chief passes are the Mamison Pass (9,253 ft.), across
which runs the Ossetian Military Road, connecting
Kutais with Vladikavkaz; and the Dari el Pass (4,122ft.),
over which the Georgian Military Road runs from
Vladikavkaz to Tiflis. There are no large lakes, and
few tarns.
The eastern section broadens as it approaches the
Caspian, including on the northern side of the main
range a triangular area known as the Daghestan High¬
lands. The country here is difficult of access, and only
one militarv road leads up from the River Terek in
Ciscaucasia," the eleven passes being mere -bridle¬
paths. The general elevation of the main range rarely
exceeds the line of perpetual snow, but there are three
peaks of over 14,000 ft. From Shemakha the elevation
declines rapidly ; at Baku there are only low hills.
The Gudam Pass, 7,977 ft., which forms the western limit
of this section, is the best in Transcaucasia. Over the
Vantliashet Pass runs the road from Petrovsk to Tiflis.
B 2
4 GEOGRAPHY [No. 54

The Caucasus is joined to the Little or Anti-Caucasus

by the Suram or Mezghian Mountains, a low range
averaging 3,627 ft. in height, running from north to
south and separating the head-waters of the Rion from
those of the Kura.
The Little Caucasus is formed by the eastern and central
part of the Russian Armenian Highlands, which occupy
the southern half of Transcaucasia, and may be divided
into two areas : the mountains which surround Lake
Gokcha, of which the highest peak is Mount Alagez
(13,436 ft.) ; and the mountain plateau lying to the
west of these, including the plateau on which stand
the towns of.Alexandropol and Kars. The latter area
is somewhat bleak and rugged and is intersected with
numerous mountain streams in deeply cut valleys.
The western and southern parts of the Russian
Armenian Highlands are composed of spurs of the
Pontic Mountains and the Eghri Dagh Mountains.
The latter divide the streams which flow'into the
Black Sea and Caspian from those which enter the
Persian Gulf. There is a general elevation of 8,000 ft. ;
the mountains are bare of timber, have little water, and
are very rugged.
The ranges composing western and southern Russian
Armenia thus stretch from the south-east corner of the
Black Sea 400 miles to the south-east, as far as the
Kara Dagh and Salavat Mountains in northern Persia,
which link them to the Elburz Mountains at the
southern end of the Caspian.
Coasts
Transcaucasia includes about 400 miles of the Black
Sea coast. From Cape Taman on the eastern side of
the Straits of Kerch, as far as the roadstead of Anapa,
the coast line is low and monotonous, with sunken reefs
close to the shore. From this point south-east to
Sukhum, there are steep cliffs, with deep water close
inshore, and occasional beaches at the mouths of small
rivers. From Sukhum to Nikolaevsk, south of Poti,
the coast is low and flat; and inland from Poti there is
CaucasiaJ TRANSCAUCASIA (COASTS, RIVERS) 5
an immense flat alluvial plain forming the delta of the
rivers Ingur and Rion. South of Nikolaevsk moun¬
tains replace the plain. For a few miles south-west of
Batum the shore is formed by the flat delta of the
Chorokh.
The eastern frontier of Transcaucasia extends for
450 miles along the Caspian Sea. From the Bay of
Agrakhan to the small port of Petrovsk the coast is
flat and inclined to be marshy. From thence to a few
miles south of Derbent (Derbend) it is steep, but drops
farther on to a flat area formed by the deltas of many
small rivers.- After another rise comes the long, low
Apsheron Peninsula, off which there are several islands.
From Baku the coast line trends south-west as far as
Cape Vezir, beyond which is the Gulf of Salyani. The
mountains then begin to approach the sea, and rise to
a height of 6,000 ft. ; they are thickly wooded to the
water’s edge.
River System
Most of the rivers are mountain torrents, and, with
the exception of the wider and navigable portions of
the Rion and Kura, they are all at times fordable.
As a rule there is most water in them during the
summer and least during the winter. The chief rivers
are the Rion, Ingur, and Chorokh, flowing into the
Black Sea, and the Kura with its affluents, the Alazan
and Aras (Araxes), flowing into the Ca spian.
The Rion (100 miles) rises between Koshtantau
and Kazbek and enters the Black Sea at Pott
The Ingur rises in the highest part of the Caucasus,
in the north of the Government of Kutais, and flows in
a south-westerly direction, reaching the Black Sea at
Anaklia.
The Chorokh rises in Turkish territory, and only
a small part of its course lies within Caucasia. It
crosses the border from Turkish Armenia in the neigh¬
bourhood of the mountain region of Diduve, south of
Artvin, and reaches the sea between Batum and Gonia.
The Kura (830 miles) rises in the high plateau north
 6 GEOGRAPHY No. 54

of Kars and flows north into the Kartalian plain.

After turning east through Gori and Tiflis it follows
a south-easterly course to the Caspian, which it enters
by three mouths. During the months of March, April,
and May it is flooded, and inundates the surrounding
country at some points to a width of 3 miles. Its
chief tributaries are the Alazan on the left bank and
the Aras on the right.
The Aras (500 miles) rises in Turkish territory,
entering Transcaucasia between the villages of Khorasan
and Karakurt. It flows east till it is joined on the left
bank by the Arpa Chai, passing through the Erivan
plateau, and then takes a wide bend towards the south
past Nakhichevan as far as Julfa, after which it turns
east to Ordubad and then north-east, finally discharg¬
ing into the Ivura. The current is very rapid in the
upper course, and also between Julfa and Ordubad,
but is moderate from Erivan as far as Nakhichevan.
There are many islands in the lower reaches.
In the Russian Armenian Highlands are the only
important lakes in Transcaucasia : Gokcha, 540 square
miles, at a height of 6,340 ft. ; Chaldir, 33 square
miles, at a height of 6,520 ft. ; and several smaller
ones, all at heights between 6,500 and 7,000 ft.

(3) Climate
It is possible to divide Transcaucasia into three
climatic areas : the Black Sea basin, the Caspian basin,
and the Armenian Highlands.
West of the Suram Mountains, which form a dividing
line between the Black Sea and Caspian basins, the
atmosphere is moist and temperatures are moderate.
The winter is mild, and, though snow falls, it rarely lies ;
the summer is hot and conditions are unhealthy on the
Black Sea littoral. The annual rainfall averages from
60 to 80 inches. Periodical changes of wind are not
uncommon, and cause sudden alterations of temperature.
The effect of the climate on the country is noticeable ;
CaucasiaJ TRANSCAUCASIA (CLIMATE)
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 8 geography No. 54

vegetation is abundant, and near the sea semi-tropical

in its luxuriance.
East of the Suram Mountains the climate is dry, with
extremes of heat and cold. The summer is oppressively
hot, particularly in the Kura valley. The Caspian
basin, as a whole, suffers from drought, and in the Baku
district violent sand and dust storms are common.
The climate in the Armenian Highlands shows
characteristics similar to those of the two areas above
described. At Alexandropol snow lies till the middle
of April, spring lasts a fortnight, and the summer
parches the country to the condition of a desert. The
Aras valley has a somewhat less rigorous climate.
Recent climatic statistics for the three areas are
shown in the table given on p. 7.

(4) Sanitary Conditions

Sanitation in anything like the modern sense of the
word is practically unknown in Transcaucasia. Medical
facilities, except in the larger towns, are practically non¬
existent. Constant epidemics of malaria are caused by
the marshy conditions prevailing on the Black Sea coast,
and in the valleys of the Rion, Aras, and Kura. Goitre
and epilepsy are common among the natives of Svanetia.
Leprosy occurs among the poorer classes of the Persian
population. Elisavetopol is notorious for the so-called
Sartian sickness, a kind of skin eruption.

(5) Race and Language

Of the numerous peoples represented in Caucasia,
some belong to the white race, others to the Mongolian
or yellow race. ^
L The inhabitants who are of white race belong to
the Indo-European, Semitic, or Caucasian families.
Indo-European Family.—Everywhere there are
Russian officials, merchants, and soldiers, and there
are also large numbers of peasants, who are either
voluntary colonists or religious exiles from European
Russia. They speak both Great and Little Russian.
Caucasia] HEALTH; RACE AND LANGUAGE 9
Germans, who came originally from Wiirttemberg,
live chiefly in the Tiflis Government and at Helenendorf
near Elisavetopol.
There are some 14,000 Greelcs in Tiflis, near the
Turkish frontier, and in Chernomoria. They speak
a corrupt form of Greek.
The Iranians include Persians at Tiflis, who number
several thousands; the Tates, Tats, or Tads, descendants
of Persian conquerors, who live chiefly in Baku, and
speak either Persian or Tatar; the Talysines, who are also
of Persian descent, and live in the Lenkoran district;
the Kurds, who come from the mountains on the
Assyrian border, and have spread over a large part
of Asia Minor and the Caucasus; and the Ossetes *
(calling themselves Iron), who occupy the central
mountainous region from Mount Elbruz to Mount
Kazbek in the east, and from Vladikavkaz in Ciscaucasia
to the district round Dushet and Gori in the Tiflis
Government.
The Armenians form the merchant and trading class
in most of the towns. Armenian peasants are chiefly
confined to the Governments of Erivan and Elisa¬
vetopol ; they are more virile than the townbred
Armenians, and cannot be easily distinguished from
the Tatars.
Semitic Family.—There are over 45,000 Jews in the
Tiflis and Kutais Governments and in Daghestan.
The Jews of Tiflis and Kutais speak Georgian, those of
Daghestan local dialects.
Caucasian Family.—This family is divided into three
groups: the Kartalian or southern, the western
Highland, and the eastern Highland. The language
of the Kartalian group, except when otherwise
stated, is Georgian ; there are many dialects. The
language is distinct from those of the Indo-European
family, but has few affinities with other main Caucasian
groups. To the Kartalian group belong the Georgians
or Gruzians, who form the majority of the popula¬
tion of the Government of Tiflis, inhabiting the upper
reaches of the Kura from Akhaltsikh to below Tiflis
 10 GEOGRAPHY No. 54

and the Yora and Alazan plains as tar as Zakatali.

The Imeretians live in the Kutais Government, west
of the Suram Mountains as far as the River Tskhenis
Tskhali. The Gurians are found between the Rion
and the Chorokh. The Adzharians and Kabulelians
live in the Adzharis Tskhali valley in the Batum
Province. The Khevsurs, Tushes, and Pshavs are wild
mountain tribes belonging to the central Caucasus.
The Mingrelians inhabit the country between the Rion,
Ingur, Tskhenis Tskhali, and the Black Sea. There are
a few Lazis in the south-west corner of Transcaucasia;
most of this tribe live in Turkish territory in Lazistan.
The Svanetmns live in the valleys of the upper Ingur
and Tskhenis Tskhali on the southern slopes of the
main Caucasian chain.
To the western Highland groujp belong the tribes who
call themselves Adighe, but whom the Russians call
CherJcess (Circassians). They used to inhabit the
Caucasus range from Taman to Pitsunda and the left
bank of the Kuban in Ciscaucasia. They speak a harsh
dialect of their own. The Abkhasians, who speak
a similar dialect, occupy the Black Sea coast from
Pitsunda to the Ingur.
Of the peoples in the eastern Highland group, the
Chechentsy or Chechens live mostly in the Terek Pro¬
vince, but there are still a few on the Daghestan frontier.
The Lesghians, including the Avar, Darginian, and
Kurinian tribes, are the chief occupants of the Daghestan
Highlands. They speak a guttural dialect of their own,
though in the east the Azarbaijan Tatar patois is in
common use.
II. Of the peoples of Mongolian race the chief are
the Tatars, who mostly come from the Persian province
of Azarbaijan and occupy both banks of the middle
and lower Kura, intermingled with Armenian and Kurd
colonies. Their language is akin to Turkish, and is
the lingua franca of western and southern Trans¬
caucasia. There are a few Nogaitsy Tatars in Daghestan.
The Tatars in Kars Province are known as the
Karapapakhs. The Kumyks, who live on the Daghestan
 Caucasia j RACE ANI) LANGUAGE 11

coast north of Derbent, are closely akin to the Azer¬

baijan Tatars. The Turks or Osmanli live chiefly in
the Provinces of Kars and Batum. In the Province
of Kars there are a few Turcomans.
To sum up for Transcaucasia, it may be said that
the four important peoples are the Russians, Georgians,
Armenians, and Tatars. It is upon these peoples and
their mutual relations that the future of the country
depends.
The official census of 1897 gave statistics of the
various peoples in Transcaucasia. Though with regard
to the more remote tribes these figures are only
approximate, they are the best available and have
served as a basis for all subsequent estimates. The
distribution of the various peoples is shown in the
following table:

Governments and Provinces1

Daghe- Elisa- Gherno-

Baku. stan. vetopol. Kars. Kulais. Tiflis. moria. Erivan.
Abkhasians - 2 28 — 7 59,469 46
Armenians - 52,233 1,636 292,188 73,406 24,043 196,189 6,285 441,000
Chechens - 10 757 13 63 46 2,207 5 3
Cherkess 18 37 10 71 165 — 1,939 1
Czechs - 149 19 25 11 167 245 1,290 36
Georgians - 1,616 375 1,239 526 343,929 465,537 976 566
3,430 261 3,194 430 1,065 8,340 748 210
Germans -
278 38 558 32,593 14,482 27,118 5,969 1,323
Greeks - - 158 9
Imeretians - 23 20 119 7 270,513 1,546
8,172 7,361 185 1,138 7,006 5,188 990 850
Jews - -
Kabards - 23 31 — 19 7 14
4 29 6 16 67 — 3
Karachais —
Kumyks - 26 51,209 2 21 24 25 3 5
8 22 3,042 42,968 1,824 2,538 22 49,389
Kurds - 72 124
Lesghians - 62,972 450,912 22,601 524 446 43,094
Lithuanians - 272 520 116 892 450 1,263 47 384
Mingrelians - 39 10 37 10 238,655 498 304 13
Moldavians - 48 66 105 46 197 198 923 29
1,909 1 — 18 — 12
Nogai - - —
650 245
Osmanli - 1,255 18 9 63,547 46,665 24,722
Ossetes - 113 113 96 520 4,240 67,268 12 112
Persians - 5,973 1,720 338 568 1,022 1,991 210 235
1,439 1,630 616 3,243 1,938 6,282 731 1,385
Poles - 34,546 13,937
Russians 77,681 16,044 17,875 27,856 23,443 85,772
Tatars 485,146 32,143 534,086 2,347 750 107,383 291 313,176
2,998 1,753 6 34 16 2 709
Tates - - 89,519 — 1
Turcomans - 74 9 4 8,442 8 12

1 The Province of Batum and the District of Sukhum are included in the Government of
Kutais. The District of Zakatali is included in the Government of Tiflis.
 12 GEOGRAPHY No. 54

It will be seen from the above figures that Russians

form a majority in Chernomoria only, while the Ar¬
menians form a large majority in the Government of
Erivan and the Province of Kars, the Georgians in
the Governments of Kutais and Tiflis, the Tatars in
the Governments of Baku and Elisavetopol, and the
Lesghians in Daghestan.

(6) Population

Distribution and Density

The Russian official census of 1897 gave the total
population of Transcaucasia as about 5,565,000. Since
then various estimates have been made, based upon
this census and the yearly increase of the population
so far as it could be ascertained.
The Statesman's Year Book for 1918 gives the follow¬
ing statistics (approximate) for the population on
January 1, 1915 :
Area. Population. Density per
Sq-uare Mile.'
Baku . 1,119,600 75
Batum. 186,000 69
Chernomoria 201,800 63
Daghestan . 732.600 64
Elisavetopol 1,117,200 66
Erivan. 1,034,800 96
Kars . 403,000 56
Kutais. 1,070,300 130
Sukhum 147.600 58
Tiflis . 1,394,800 88
Zakatali 101,800 66
Total 7,509,500 79

From this it will be seen that the population is densest

in the Governments of Kutais, Erivan, and Tiflis,
where the soil is richest and agriculture is the general
■ occupation. The density of the population in the
Government of Baku is largely due to the existence of
the oil-fields.
Towns
Tiflis (population in 1913, 327,800) is the capital of
Caucasia and the largest town. Next in size is Baku
Caucasia] TRANSCAUCASIA (POPULATION) 13
(population in 1913, 237,000). Other important towns
are Novorossiisk (66,700), Elisavetopol (63,400 m 1910),
Kutais (53,900), Batum (46,000), and Erivan (34,000).
For further particulars concerning these see below,
pp. 42 and 77.
Movement
Recent statistics are not available, but the annual
rate of increase can be roughly estimated at 60,000.
It is probable that the Armenians increase at a more .
rapid rate than the other nationalities in Transcaucasia.
The death-rate, particularly among children, is cer¬
tainly high; for this the unhealthy climate m the
west, the rigorous winters in the east and central parts,
and the ignorance of the natives are responsible.
Accurate statistics of emigration are not available.
Since the great migration of the Cherkess (to Anatolia)
and other Mohammedan tribes (to Turkey), which
depopulated much of the western coast in the latter
half of the nineteenth century, emigration has tended
to be spasmodic. A certain number of . Armenians
emigrate to America. Many tribes still live what is
practically a nomadic life ; and for those who are not too
proud to do manual labour the towns form a continual
attraction. . .. ,
Immigrants are largely Russians, both official and
non-official. The latter come very largely from
South Russia and settle in the central governments
or, for industrial purposes, at Baku. There is a small
annual influx of foreigners, but not to the same extent
as in Ciscaucasia. Periodically there have been Ar¬
menian immigrations from Turkish Armenia, though
these have lately been regarded unfavourably by the
Government.
CISCAUCASIA
(1) Position and Frontiers
Ciscaucasia, a district of European Russia, is the
northern part of the region of Caucasia. It is bounded
on the west by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov;
 14 GEOGRAPHY [Ho. 54

on the south by the Caucasus and the Province of

Daghestan ; on the east by the Caspian Sea ; and on
the north by the Kuma-Manych depression, a chain of
narrow shallow lakes and river beds filled at certain
seasons with water, connecting the Manych, a tributary
of the Don, with the Kuma, which flows into the
Caspian Sea.

(2) Surface, Coasts, and River System

Surface
. T].ie Parts.of the Caucasus range which are included
in Ciscaucasia are (1) the Black Sea ridge, 155 miles
m length stretching from Anapa on the coast
to Mount Oshten (9,369 ft.). These mountains are
covered wAh thick woods. (2) The Kuban Caucasus,
1-0 imles m length, which extends from Mount
?Annerlto M°unt E]bruz. Here the heights vary from
3,000 to 6,000 ft. (3) The Central Caucasus, which
contains various subdivisions, included for the greater
part m Transcaucasia.
The passes across the Caucasus from Ciscaucasia
to Iranscaucasia are few and are at high altitudes
varying from 9,000 to 12,000 ft. above sea-level,
i , '^northern foot-hills of the Caucasus form on
slJesuof *he Rlver Terek the mountainous region
of the Kabarda. North-eastwards from this stretches
highland country which merges into a depression
northwards from Stavropol. Between these two there
rises the isolated mass of the Beshtau Mountains.
the plains of Ciscaucasia slope gently from the base
of the Caucasus Mountains towards the Kuma-Manvch
depression. In the centre is the Stavropol plateau
which varies in height from 2,000 to 2,500 ft and
separates the tributaries of the River Kuban from those
f ii and tbe Kuma. Towards the foot-hills
of the Caucasus the. plateau is covered with dense
torests; on the west it merges into steppes or ends in
the reedv marshes of the Kuban delta. In the north
Caucasia] CISCAUCASIA (SURFACE, RIVERS) 15
and east the steppes towards the Caspian and the
Kuma-Manych depression are barren and stony or
sandy.
Coasts
The coast of Ciscaucasia is flat, and the only ports
worth noting are Anapa, Temryuk, and Yeisk.
The Ciscaucasian shores of the Caspian Sea are sur¬
rounded by steppes and are flat throughout. They are
formed chiefly of the alluvial land of the deltas of the
rivers Terek and Kuma.

River System
The rivers of Ciscaucasia rise in the central Caucasus.
There are three river basins, corresponding with the
three administrative divisions.
The River Kuban rises on the northern side of
Mount Elbruz. It is formed by the Khursuk and the
Uchkulan, which unite at Uchkulan. It retains its
character as a mountain stream until it enters the
plain at Batalpashinsk, at a height of 1,075 ft. The
middle course extends from the Cossack settlement of
Nevinnomysk as far as Ekaterinodar. The river
bed is wide, but the river itself is a mere streamlet
except in times of flood. After the Kuban turns
definitely westward the fall is • only about 20 inches
in a mile.
The largest tributary of the Kuban is the Laba
(200 miles), a canal from wrhich at Chamlik irrigates
several thousand acres of steppe land. Another large
tributary is the Byelaya (150 miles). The Kuban flows
by many mouths, forming several islands and limans
(marshy lagoons), into the Gulf of Kyzyltash. The
river is frozen from December to March. In the lower
part of its course inundations are frequent, and the
district is marshy.
The Terek (382 miles) rises on the slopes of Mount.
Kazbek at Zilga-Khokh, and pierces the mountain
range by the Dariel gorge, which it leaves at Vladikav-
16 GEOGRAPHY No. 54

kaz, on the high plains to the north of the Caucasus.

The Terek bends first north-west, then east, past
Mozdok (altitude 441 ft.) and Kislyar (29 ft. below sea-
level), and enters the Caspian Sea by several branches.
The delta is sixty miles wide, and the river forms large
sand-banks opposite its mouths. It does not freeze every
year. The chief tributary is the Zunzha, all the others
being mere mountain torrents.
On the left bank of the lower river are great steppes,
while shifting sand-dunes cover an extensive tract from
Mozdok northwards; near the delta is the depression
of Kislyar, covered with impenetrable salt morasses,
while to the right of the Terek is fertile country.
The Kuma (about 400 miles) rises on the northern
slope of the Caucasus, and flows by several branches
through the sandy steppes towards the Caspian. At
times of flood it reaches the sea, but at other seasons
its channels disappear in the sandy steppes along the
coast. Its tributaries are the Karamyk, Podkumka,
and Buivola.

(3) Climate
The climate is continental, and in the winter the
cold is severe.
Temperature.
Mean January July
Annual Temp. {Mean). {Mean).
Vladikavkaz
(altitude 2,345 ft.) 47-7° P. . 23° F. 69° P.
Stavropol
(altitude 2,030 ft.) 47° P. 24° F. 79° P.
Pyatigorsk 48° F. 25° F. 71° F.

Annual Rainfall.
Terek Province
Mountainous districts 37 in.
Steppes 10 to 20 in.
Vladikavkaz
34-2 in., of which 25-8 in. falls between April and September.
 Ca«caSia] CISCAUCASIA (HEALTH, ETC.) 17
In the ‘ black earth ’ steppes of Ciscaucasia the maxi¬
mum rainfall is at the beginning of summer ; on the
eastern steppes, which extend along the Caspian Sea,
the maximum is reached in March.

(4) Sanitary Conditions

The science of hygiene is unknown in Caucasian villages,
and medical aid is absent or inaccessible in country dis¬
tricts. Malaria is the characteristic disease of Caucasia,
but small-pox, scarlet fever, measles, dysentery, typhus,
and pneumonia are prevalent and cause many deaths.
In the fashionable health resorts, such as Kislovodsk,
Jelieznovodsk and Pyatigozsk, there are very up-to-
date sanatoria established on the latest German lines,
to which people come from all parts of Russia to take
the waters and the cure.

(5) Race and Language

Russians form 34 per cent, of the people of Ciscau¬
casia, and in the Government of Stavropol amount to
90 per cent. In the Province of Kuban 109 per 1,000
are Cossacks ; in Terek the proportion is 179 per 1,000.
Tatars live in the east and south-east, where they form
19-3 per cent, of the inhabitants. The remainder
consists of Kalmucks, Turcomans, Nogai-Tatars, Arme¬
nians, Georgians, Germans, Poles, &c. (See also p. 8.)

(6) Population
The population of the three Ciscaucasian provinces
on January 1, 1913, was 5,470,600, distributed as
follows :
Rural Urban,
Population. Population. Total.
Kuban 2,667,000 244,800 2,911,800
Stavropol 1,232,400 79,700 1,312,100
Terek 1,015,100 231,600 1,246,700

Towns
Ekaterinodar (population in 1897, 65,697, now about
107,000), the capital of the Province of Kuban, is
c
18 GEOGRAPHY | No. 54

situated on the left bank of the Kuban river, 100 miles

from its mouth and 125 miles south of the Sea of Azov.
Other towns are Anapa (population in 1897, 6,676),
a port; Balalpashinsk (8,100) ; Maikop (in 1902,
34,191, now about 50,000) ; Temryuk (in 1897, 14,479),
a fortified town and port; Yeisk (in 1897, 35,446, now
about 50,000), a port on the Sea of Azov.
In the Province of Stavropol, Stavropol (population
in 1897, 41,621, now about 60,000), which is strongly
fortified, is the chief town.
In Terek, Vladikavkaz (population in 1897, 49,924,
now variously estimated at 53,000 to 79,000) is the
capital, and is an important centre of communications.
Other towns are Mozdok (in 1897, 14,583), 50 miles
north of Vladikavkaz ; Georgievsk (11,532), a fortified
town on the Podkumka; Kislyar (7,353), on the
road from Astrakhan to Derbent; Kislovodsk (4,078),
a Cossack town with hot saline springs.
On the steppes or prairies of the Caucasian Highlands
and along the Kuban river there are many prosperous
Cossack villages with considerable populations.
 19

II. POLITICAL HISTORY

Chronological Summary
b. c. 323. Conquest by Alexander the Great.
302-237. Pharnawaz expels the Macedonians.
c. A. d. 318. Introduction of Christianity. Conflict with Persia.
371. Shapur II of Persia subdues the country.
446. Vakhtang I. Alliance with Persia.
571. Beginning of Bagratid dynasty.
640-734. Spread of Mohammedanism by the Arabs.
1048-64. Incursions of the Seljuk Turks.
1099-1125. Reign of David II.
1184. Accession of Tamara.
1236. Invasion of Ghenghiz Khan.
1386 and 1393-94. Invasions of Tamerlane.
1442. Partition of Georgia by King Alexander I.
1492. First appeal for Russian assistance.
1586. Defensive treaty with Russia.
1619. Russian intervention between Shah Abbas I and
Teimuraz of Kakhetia.
1638. Mingrelia swears allegiance to Russia.
1650. Imeretia swears allegiance to Russia.
1717. Commercial treaty between Peter the Great and Persia.
1722. Russian expedition in the Caucasus.
1724. Russo-Persian Treaty. Cession of Caspian provinces to
Russia.
1734. Surrender of Caspian provinces to Persia. Restoration
of Bagratid dynasty.
1769. Heraklius obtains Russian assistance against the Turks.
1783. Treaty of Georgievsk. Heraklius declares himself vassal
of Russia.
1801. Annexation of Georgia by Russia.
1813. Treaty of Gulistan between Russia and Persia.
1828. Peace of Turkmanchay. Final peace with Persia.
War between Russia and Turkey.
1829. Peace of Adrianople.
1830. Risings in Daghestan.
1859. Surrender of Shamyl and his tribesmen.
1877. Russo-Turkish War. Ineffectual risings in the Caucasus.
1878. Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin. Acquisition of
Batum, &c. Development of Baku oil-fields,
c 2
20 HISTORY [No. 54

1902-5. Riots in Baku. Rising in Georgia.

1!M7. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Batum, &c., ceded to Turkey.
1918. Georgian, Armenian, and Daghestan Republics estab¬
lished.

(1) Early History

The Caucasus was well named by the Arabs ‘ Jebel
Assuni the Mountain of Languages, for the great
range shelters as many different tongues as the famous
Tower of Babel.
The lands stretching from the valley of the Phasis
(Rion) north-eastwards were known to the ancients as
Colchis and Iberia. The name ‘ Georgia ’ came later to
be applied to the kingdom whose nucleus is covered
roughly to-day by the Government of Tiflis; at the
height of its power Georgia ruled from the Caucasus
to the Aras (Araxes), and from the Black Sea to the
Caspian.
Recognized history begins with the conquest of the
country by Alexander the Great in 323 b.c., and the
subsequent expulsion of the Macedonian governors by
Pharnawaz, son of a prince of the original dynasty and
a Persian mother. The chronicles of the period that
follows make constant mention of the Abkhasians, who
held the Black Sea coast and range from the Phasis
north-westwards; of the Asses or Osses (Ossetes), a
Median tribe whose territory lay in the hills from
Mount Elbruz to the Dariel Pass ; and of the incursions
of Mongol Khazars and Alans from the steppes of the
Caspian Sea, to meet which the fortress of Dariel was
built at the northern end of the defile in 140 b. c. Persia,
in war and peace, was the predominant factor, though
her hold on the allegiance of Caucasia was insecure.
At a later period the introduction of Christianity,
about a. d. 318, reopened the conflict with Persia.
Shapur II ravaged the country in 371, and the general
left by him to hold the conquered lands built a fortress
on the site of the present city of Tiflis.
The Georgians now began to seek help from their
co-religionists in the Roman Empire, but Persia was
CaucasiaJ EARLY HISTORY ; ISLAM 21

too near at hand to be resisted; and, when in 446

a strong king—Vakhtang I—arose in Georgia, although
he re-established Christianity, he adopted a policy
of union with Persia and assisted in the campaigns
against the Roman Emperor Jovian. Vakhtang not
only achieved great military successes, but built schools
for his subjects and strengthened his frontiers. He also
transferred the capital from Mtskhet to Tiflis.

(2) Bagratid Dynasty. Struggle, with Islam,

The line of Vakhtang failed in the sixth century;
and, Byzantium’s power being then in the ascendant,
the Georgian throne was filled in 571 by a nominee of
the Greek Emperor, one Guram, a Bagratid, whose
descendants held the Georgian crown for the next
twelve centuries. The supremacy of Byzantium in.
the Caucasus, always fiercely challenged by Persia,
was finally extinguished by the Arabs, who from
640 onwards constantly invaded the Caucasian btates
and spread Islam amongst the pagan mountaineers.
The successes of Musslimieh in 684 and of Abu Moslem
in 734 ended in the undisputed sovereignty of the
Caliphate; the Bagratid dynasty was, however, con¬
firmed in the possession of the Georgian throne.
In the eleventh century the Seljuk Turks under
Toghrul Bey and Alp Arslan twice laid Karthli (Georgia)
waste, forced the king to embrace Islam, and sacke
Tiflis. But the Georgians still resisted and clung to
Christianity; they regained their religion and their
freedom under David II, who bears the title of Restorer
(1099-1125). The constant wars and invasions had
split the country into separate kingdoms ; cities and
surrounding regions bestowed on emirs, vassals ol the
Seljuks, constituted a bewildering crowd.of Moslem
principalities, with each of whom in turn Christian
Georgia was at*war. The distant successes ol the Cru¬
saders had their effect on the Caucasus, and, fighting
courageously against the encroaching Moslems, the
Bagratid kings gradually won back their lost lands.
 22 HISTORY No. 54

The great-granddaughter of David II, Thamar or

Tamara, succeeded her warlike father Giorgi III in 1184
and cleared her country of invaders from the Caucasus
to the Aras. Her son, Giorgi Lashi, 1212-23, added
Gandja (nowElisavetopol) to Georgia; but his sister and
successor, Rusudan, offended the Sultan of Khorasan,
and his vengeful invasion was followed in 1236 by
that of the hordes of Ghenghiz Khan, who ravaged
the country and carried off Rusudan’s son as hostage.
Georgia next passed through the hideous devastations
of lamerlane in 1386 and 1393—4. Alexander I freed
the country from Tatar rule (1413-42), but, having
united Georgia as in the days of Pharnawaz, Vakhtang,
and Tamara, he committed the irreparable error of
dividing it between his three sons. Civil war broke
out, and Guria, Mingrelia, Svanetia, and Abkhasia
were lost for ever to the Georgian kings. Too weak
to maintain themselves, the various states became
the pawns of the Porte and Persia, the Turks taking
Trebizond and Sukhum and establishing their hold
on Mingrelia, Guria, and Imeretia, the larger portion
of which territories accepted the Moslem faith. Karthli
and Kakhetia, nominally under Persian vassalage, cast
about for help.

(3) Growth of Russian Influence

On the northern side of the Caucasus, where the
Khazars, now displaced by the Tatar hordes, had
ruled, the growing power of Russia was making itself
felt.
So early as 1492 the King of Kakhetia had sought
Russian assistance against the Turks and Persians ; and
outposts of this new power appeared in the valley of
the Terek in 1505, in the shape of Cossacks of Riazan,
who, at first fugitives from their Tsar’s wrath, were in
1579 holding territory near the present Grozni in the
name of the Tsar, Feodor Ivanovich. Alexander II
of Kakhetia appealed to him for help against the Tatar
Shamkhal of Tarku; and in 1586 a treaty was concluded
in which the Tsar exacted a yearly tribute in return
Caucasia] RUSSIAN INFLUENCE 23

for his assistance. Co-operation between the new

allies broke down at the first effort, which resulted in
the annihilation of the Russians on the^Sulak; and,
although the Tsar assumed the titles of ‘ Lord of the
Iberian Lands, of the Tsars of Georgia and of Kabarda ,
further defeat in 1604, at the hands of the Russian
generals Burtuvlin and Pleshchagev, was a poor con¬
firmation of these claims. The Georgians, however,
continued to look for Russian intervention. In 1619
Teimuraz of Kakhetia, then in hiding, obtained the
Tsar’s intercession with Shah Abbas I of Persia, who
had driven the last king, Alexander, from his throne
on suspicion of treachery.
Mingrelia in 1638, and Imeretia in 1650, swore allegi¬
ance to Russia in return for help against the Porte, which
the Tsars were not able to furnish; and the appeal of
Vakhtang VI of Kakhetia to Peter the Great was little
more efficacious. With a view to establishing trade
with India by way of the Volga and Caspian, Peter had
made a treaty with Persia in 1717, and he undertook
an expedition in 1722 ostensibly to avenge an affront to
his traders by the Lesghians, who were in revolt agamst
Persia, then in the throes of the Afghan invasion. The
expedition was, in fact, merely a pretext for annexing
the Caucasian possessions of Persia. Peter took Dei-
bent and Tarku, and established further Cossack settle¬
ments between the Terek and those of the Grebentsi, as
the Cossacks about Grozni were termed; the treaty-
concluded by Peter with Turkey and Persia in 1724
gave to Russia Derbent, Baku, Daghestan, Astarabad,
andMazandaran,but acknowledged Turkey s suzerainty
over Georgia. After the Persian revolution of 1734,
however, Russia surrendered her Persian provinces
to Nadir Shah, who expelled the Turks from Georgia,
and restored the Bagratid dynasty. The Cossack
settlements in the Caucasus remained and increased,
gradually including Kumyks, Chechens, and Kabards.
In 1763 the Prince of Little Kabarda became an
Orthodox Christian and swore allegiance to the Tsar;
and the fort of Mozdok was built for his protection
 24 HISTORY [lfo. 54

against the Lesghians. While Russia’s influence grew

in the east, in the western Caucasus the Ottomans
took tribute from the Cherkess (Circassians) and the
Abkhasians (nominally of the Moslem faith), con¬
tinued to dominate Mingrelia and Imeretia, and held,
as a Pashalik of the Empire, Akhaltsikh, the centre
of the slave-trade in Georgian boys and girls. In 1769
King Heraklius (Irakli) of Georgia made an effort to
shake off the Turk. Brother-in-arms of Nadir Shah,
whom he had accompanied on an expedition to India
(1738—39), and who had bestowed on him the crowns
of Karthli and Kakhetia in return for his successful
campaigns against the Lesghians, Heraklius, though
the vassal of Persia, knew her to be helpless from
internal troubles, and therefore made an agreement
with Russia, which procured him the support of an
army under Count Totleben in his effort to deliver
Imeretia. Totleben left Heraklius to subdue Akhaltsikh
alone, relieved Kutais, failed at Poti, and returned
to Russia without accomplishing anything of value.
Heraklius continued a valiant struggle against the
Turks and the Daghestan tribes, their allies, until
Russia’s conquest of the Crimea in 1783 again awoke
hopes of aid. By the Treaty of Georgievsk (1783) he
openly acknowledged himself vassal of the Empress
Catherine, who was steadily increasing her grasp of
the Caucasus. Vladikavkaz was founded in 1785 on
the site of the Ossetian village, Zaluch, adding another
link to the chain of forts stretching from the Caspian
to the Azov. Ten years later Persia was again strong
enough to attempt the recovery of her lost suzerainty;
in 1795 Aga Mohammed Khan suddenly marched on
Georgia, and, while the Russian general, Count Gudo-
vich, remained inactive, Tiflis was sacked and the
country put to fire and sword. Not until the autumn
of 1795, when the disaster was complete, did troops
under Zubov attack and defeat the Persians at the
mouth of the Kura. The Emperor Paul recalled his
army next year, and Heraklius died in 1798, leaving his
country a prey to Turk and Persian.
CancasiaJ RUSSIAN CONQUEST OF GEORGIA 25

(4) Annexation of Georgia

His son and successor, Giorgi XIII, was utterly unable
to cope with the situation, and, in their extremity, the
Georgian nobles offered the country to the Tsar. The
deed of surrender was signed by the King in 1799,
and in 1801 Georgia, Mingrelia, Guria, and Imeretia
were declared by the Tsar Alexander I to be Russian
provinces. The royal family, except some insurgent
members of it, were transferred to Russia, where they
received estates and pensions. A Georgian noble,
educated in Russia, Prince Tsitsianov, was made
Governor of the new territories ; the Georgian Church
was incorporated with the Russian ; the Russian code
of laws was established, but modified and adapted
at first to national custom and the code of Vakhtang VI.1
The poverty of Georgia necessitated a large Russian
subsidy to maintain the government and troops, the
very small existing revenue being devoted to the
gradual restoration of the towns. Tsitsianov began
the great military road by the pass of Dariel between
Vladikavkaz and Tiflis in 1804, stormed Gandja, 1805,
and perished before Baku. The Turks held Imeretia
against Russia, assisted by King Solomon until his death
in 1815 ; the small kingdom was then absorbed into
the other provinces.
(5) Treaty of Gulistan
War continued between Russia and Persia for the
possession of Karabagh2 and Shirwan3 until 1813, when
the Treaty of Gulistan finally ceded them to Russia,
together with Sheki, Talish, Gandja, Kuba, and Der-
bent. It remained to hold the new territories, where
the Moslems of Daghestan and Chechnia defied
Russia’s power for half a century to come. The
Cossacks were the means chiefly relied on to overawe
1 This was superseded by the Russian Code in 1841.
2 Now the Shusha, Jevanshir, Sangesur, and Jebrail districts.
3 Now the Shemakha, Geokchai, and Jevat districts of the Baku
Government.
26 HISTORY No. 54

the independent mountaineers ; forts along the Terek

and the Sundja were multiplied. General Yermilov,
appointed Governor and commander-in-chief in 1816,
grappled with the problem in a spirit of ferocious
severity that even outdid that of the tribesmen. The
Lesghians were the first to feel the weight of his hand,
next the Chechens; but the sullen quiet his methods
for the moment produced was broken by war with
Persia in 1826.

(6) Wars with Persia and Turkey, 1826-9

Yermilov’s strange inactivity at the outset of hos¬
tilities caused his recall and the appointment of Prince
Paskievich, whose capture of Erivan and other suc¬
cesses resulted in the Peace of Turkmanchay in 1828,
by which Russia acquired the khanates of Erivan and
Nakhichevan. Paskievich then devoted himself to
the Turkish campaign, Russia having taken up the
cudgels for Greece. Kars and Akhaltsikh fell succes¬
sively ; and Paskievich, recruiting his ranks from
Tatars and Armenians in Transcaucasia, supported
by Guria, hitherto suspected of Turkish sympathies,
advanced into Armenia and occupied Erzerum. When
he retired at the Peace of Adrianople in 1829, the
fortresses of Akhalkalaki and Akhaltsikh and the
greater part of the pashalik of Akhaltsikh were added
to Russia.

(7) Muridism ; War with the Tribes in Daghestan and

Chechnia, 1830-59
The Mohammedan tribes who had risen in the hills
in response to Turkey’s call to arms now absorbed
Russia’s attention. On the extreme west, from the
mouth of the Kuban to Mount Elbruz, thq Cherkess
and Abkhasians, in communication with Turkey by the
Black Sea, kept up desultory warfare until 1864. ' The
chief threat to Russia’s supremacy lay, however, in the
east, in the regions of Chechnia and Daghestan, where
the doctrine of Muridism, inciting the tribes to a holy
Caucasia] RUSSO-TURKISH RIVALRY 27

war against Russia, was preached by the Imams

Kaza Mullah, Hamzad Bek, and Shamyl, and in time
united the tribesmen from the Caspian to the Dariel
Pass. Between the two districts lay tribes submis¬
sive to Russian authority, the Khevsurs, Pshavs,
Tushes, Svanetians, Ossetes, and Kabards. The forts
stretching from the Sea of Azov to the Caspian were
held by Cossacks, organized into various voiskos,
which from 1832 each represented a regiment and
became part of the Imperial military organization.
The Cossacks kept up the roads and the postal service,
provided maintenance for the drafts of Imperial
troops sent to reinforce the line, and cultivated the
land, drawing labour from the friendly tribes, who
were obliged to give their services for fixed periods.
The Cossack himself was soldier and farmer in one,
ploughing his fields with his gun at his side, ready for
the signal of cannon-shots that collected the settlers—
two were a call to arms, four signified a raid, eight
an attack in force—signals which in case of need were
passed from fort to fort. The enemy around them was
brave, desperate, animated by religious fervour and by
the fierce doctrines and examples of Kaza Mullah, slain
at Ginri in 1831, and his disciples, Hamzad Bek and
Shamyl, the latter of whom became leader in 1834 and
began in failure, through the defection of the Avars, the
most powerful of the Daghestan tribes. Four years later,
Sliamyl’s efforts won back the Avars, and by 1845, in
spite of frequent reverses, his word swayed the whole
country-side.
The absence of roads and the length of the Russian
line of communications favoured the tribesmen
operating, in Daghestan, on a wild barren plateau
intersected by deep ravines, and in Chechnia amid
hills covered with dense forests. Punitive expeditions
had no lasting effect. The one undertaken by Prince
Vorontzovin 1845 against Shamyl’s Chechnian strong¬
hold, Dargo, resulted in the loss of two-thirds of
the Russian troops in a terrible return march through
the forest, and increased the Murids’ confidence. Next
28 HISTORY | No. 54

year Shamyl broke past the Sundja forts and appeared

in Kabarda ; but the aid of the western Caucasus failed
him. The Russians now adopted a plan, conceived by
Yermilov’s lieutenant, Veeliamenov, but never before
put in practice—that of gradually advancing the
Russian defensive line, and of systematically clearing
away the forests as the troops closed in on Shamyl. So
well aware was the Imam of the value of the screening
trees that his law ordained the death of any Murid who
should fell one.
Prince Vorontzov’s operations were delayed by the
events of the Crimean War, made memorable in these
regions by General Williams’s defence of Kars for five
months against overwhelming numbers. The tribesmen
took no concerted action with Turkey, and, in spite of
the awe Shamyl still inspired, his severity was gradually
loosening his hold. Veden, his second stronghold, was
captured in 1858, and his escape to the valley of the
Andi Koisu only delayed his capture to the following
autumn, when he was surrounded at Gunib and taken
prisoner by Prince Bariatinski. All the tribes laid
down their arms ; the reluctant submission of the
Abkhasians and Cherkess followed in 1864. These
peoples steadily migrated to Turkish territory.

(8) War with Turkey, 1877

When war again broke out in 1877 between Russia
and the Porte, Daghestan, Chechnia, Circassia, and
Abkhasia rose in response; but there was again no
concerted action, and the tribes soon quieted down after
the signing of peace. The Treaties of San Stefano
and Berlin (1878) added to Russia Kars, Bayazid, the
country as far as Soghanlu Dagh (including the valuable
rock-salt mine of Kulp), Ardahan, and Batum, which
was declared a ‘ free port ’ and attracted commercial
enterprise. The Baku oil-fields, exploited now by
foreign capital, opened up an undreamt-of source of
wealth, by which Tatars and Armenians chiefly
profited. The Georgians took little part in these
Caucasia | WARS AND REVOLUTION 29

developments; the people, brave and energetic in

national emergencies, were unenterprising and unam¬
bitious ; the nobles, much impoverished by the Act of
Emancipation which restricted their right to the labour
of the people, lived on their estates or served, in the
army ; Armenians and Tatars were the energetic ele¬
ments of the very heterogeneous populations, and many
amassed huge fortunes in the oil-fields or concerns
connected with them.

(9) Revolutionary Movement, 1902-6

It was among these elements that trouble first broke
out (1902-5) in the terrible riots at Baku at the time of
general unrest in Russia which followed the war with
Japan. Political agitation had its effect on the western
Georgians, awaking dreams of autonomy which the
ill-judged government of the last few years had put
them in a state to welcome. The Caucasus was
placed under martial law; the outbreaks in the Govern¬
ment of Kutais were suppressed with the utmost
severity by General Alikhanov; and during 1906
tranquillity was generally restored. But neither the
oil-fields of Baku nor the trade of the port of Batum
recovered their former prosperity; and the attitude
of the Armenians, whose schools and cherished Church
property were threatened by the Russian Government’s
policy of nationalization, continued to be resentful,
while the Pan-Islamic sympathies of the Tatars were
carefully encouraged by Turkey.

(10) Effect of the Great War, 1914-18

With the outbreak of' the European War in August
1914, the old antagonism of Christian against Moslem
reappeared. Russia’s successes in Armenia at first
held in check the Mohammedan element in her midst;
but, after the internal revolution of March 1917, the
situation became increasingly difficult. Though till
that date Georgians and other Transcaucasians alike
 30 HISTORY No. 54

t liad fought gallantly in the Russian armies, an anti-

Russian spirit now began to make itself felt, and in
May 1917 Georgia proclaimed the spiritual indepen¬
dence of her Church. Meanwhile, after a period of
internecine war, the mountaineers of Daghestan formed
a separate republic, which was peaceably disposed
towards the temporary republic created in Trans¬
caucasia (see p. 33), where Armenians and Georgians
were loyally upholding the Allied cause and keeping
the gates against Turkey.
In Georgia the movement for autonomy had been
rapidly growing ; and on May 26, 1918, two hours after
the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Diet—which
had been formed from Georgians, Armenians, and
Tatars to uphold some form of order—the Georgian
National Council, elected in the previous November,
proclaimed the independence of their country. Within
a week or two, cut off from supplies, and without
resources, with the Baku Tatars actively assisting
Turkey in the East, the Georgian Republi c was
obliged to fulfil the terms of the Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk and cede to Turkey the disputed districts of
Batum, Ardahan, Akhalkalaki, and Akhaltsikh.
Meanwhile the Armenians and Tatars also claim to
have established separate independent republics, with
capitals respectively at Erivan and Baku. The capital
of the Georgian Republic is at Tiflis.
CaucasiaJ 31

HI. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL

CONDITIONS

(1) Religious
The State religion of Russia is the Orthodox Faith,
to which the Georgians conform. Their independent
Church, which broke off from the Armenian in a. d. 542,
was absorbed into the Russian Orthodox Church in
1811, and the existing Georgian Church property,
amounting to some 700,000,000 roubles, confiscated.
The twenty Georgian bishoprics were reduced to six.
The Katholikos Patriarch was officially known as the
Exarch of Georgia and Archbishop of Karthli and
Kakhetia; he had a seat in the Holy Synod at
PotGisbur^t
Since the revolution of 1917 the independence of the
Georgian Church has been re-established, and Bishop
Kirion has been consecrated Katholikos Patriarch of
Georgia.
The Armenians form an independent Church with
a Katholikos at Echmiadzin.
There are numerous sects among the Russian
settlers (Dukhobortsi, Molokani, or ‘ milk-eaters ’, and
Skoptsi), who are for the most part nonconformists
exiled from Russia. There are also various sects
among the Cossacks.
The German colonists are Protestants and sectarians.
The Svanetians, Khevsurs, and Ossetes are nominally
Christians of the Orthodox Faith.
The Tates and Azarbaijan Tatars are Shiah Moham¬
medans.
Chechens, Lesghians, Kabards, Lazis, Cherkess, or
Adighe, Abkhasians, Kumyks, and Karachai Tatars
are, with rare exceptions, Sunni Mohammedans.
 32 PRESENT CONDITIONS [ No. 54

(2) Political
The title and powers of Viceroy of the Caucasus were
revived in 1905; the Viceroyalty had been abolished in
1882 in favour of a Governor-Generalship, directed and
controlled by a Caucasian Committee at Petersburg.
The Viceroy’s powers comprised -the supreme civil
administration of the Provinces and Governments
making up the Caucasus region, the command of all
the troops quartered in the Caucasus, the framing of
any new regulations necessary in his administration,
together with a seat on the Council of the Empire and
the title of Ataman of the Cossacks in the Caucasus.
There was a civil Governor at the head of each Province
or Government (gubernie), except those of Daghestan,
Sukhum, Batum, and Kars, where the Governor was
a military official. The gubernies were divided into
districts, governed by nachalniks, and the districts
were divided into communes (volosts), each presided
over by an elder (volostnoi starshina), elected by the
community. The volosts were made up of villages
under elected headmen (starosts), assistants to the
communal elder. In each village every tenth man had
to take his turn in assisting in the preservation of
law and order; these were known as tenth men
(desyatniks).
There were District Courts (okrujni sud) in five
Transcaucasian Governments—-Tiflis, Kutais, Elisa-
vetopol, Erivan, and Baku. These also constituted
courts of appeal from the lower courts. Each minor
division had two stipendiary magistrates ; civil cases,
to the value of 2,000 roubles (£200), appeared before
one, and minor police cases before the other. The
rural judges (selskiya sudya), or the kandidati in their
stead, investigated all complaints and settled disputes ;
the number of these selskiya sudya could not
exceed twelve in each district, and their decisions were
subject to the volostnoi starshina''s approval. Beneath
these officials again were elected arbitrators, to settle
questions of trespass or damage to property. Appeals
Caucasia] POLITICAL; EDUCATIONAL 33
from the District Courts’ decisions could be taken to the
Supreme Court at Tiflis, and from that to Peters¬
burg. The Courts were accessible and cheap, and
there was no discrimination between Russian subjects
and foreigners in legal proceedings; but judgements
given in Russian Courts had no effect in England, nor
decisions obtained in England in Russia.
The Cossack communities are divided into stanitzas
or villages, each stanitza having an elected assembly of
30 members ; in populous stanitzas one man is elected
from every ten households. These assemblies have
wider powers than the usual mir or commune, viz.
division of land, assessment of taxes, regulation of
schools, grain stores, cultivation, &c., and the election
of elders (ataman) and judges.
When the Revolution occurred in 1917, the Viceroy
was recalled, and the various nationalities in the
Caucasus arranged representative National Assemblies ;
but, as chaos in the Empire increased, relations were
broken off with the Central Government. A separate
Transcaucasian Republic was formed, in the Govern¬
ment of which Armenians, Tatars, and Georgians
were equally represented; and another new state
called the Republic of Daghestan, under the presidency
of a Lesghian of the Mohammedan faith, also emerged.
The Cossacks, however, remained aloof.

(3) Educational
Public education was in the hands of the State, or was
directly controlled by it. The number of persons able
to read or write in the Caucasus in 1912 was only
17 per cent., and the percentage of schools to the
population was very low. Some progress was made in
the provision of instruction during 1912 and 1913, but
the outbreak of war hindered the completion of the
various schemes put forward, in particular by the
towns of Anapa, Novorossiisk, Yeisk, Temryuk, Maikop,
Grozni, Georgievsk, Pyatigorsk, and Stavropol in
34 PRESENT CONDITIONS | No. 54

Ciscaucasia, and Tiflis and Baku in Transcaucasia.

In 1913, 3,665 elementary schools were open, and this
number was to be increased to 4,220. Secondary or
middle schools, divided into Realgymnasia, Gymnasia,
and Progymnasia, were also on the increase. The
Province of Kuban had the largest number of
secondary schools (27), and the Province of Kars the
lowest (2). Schools and institutes for the training of
teachers were on the increase, and the Polytechnic
Institution in contemplation at Tiflis was to embrace
agricultural, chemical, economic, and mechanical sec¬
tions. £210,512 had been collected for this purpose,
of which Baku had contributed £42,105, with the
petition that a mining section should be added. The
Board of Education in 1913 granted permits for 57 new
private schools, of which about 234 existed. Movable
summer schools for the education of the nomad tribes
were attempted for the first time in 1913 in the Govern¬
ments of Erivan and Kutais. The industrial schools
included 22 secondary and lower-grade technical
schools, 5 trade schools, 14 lower-grade trade
schools, and 3 charitable trade schools.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
For nearly a century this region, inhabited by small
nationalities of pronounced racial feelings and varied
religions, has been welded together by the constraining
force of a single dominant power.
The Mohammedan hill-tribes, conquered by superior
force, unprogressive, brave, and violent by nature,
valued their lost independence more than the peace
which Russia’s strong hand and impartial justice
secured. The Christians, on the other hand, at first
grateful for the protection afforded them, began, with
increased education and a higher standard of living,
to resent the effects of autocratic government and the
cramping economic conditions.
The disturbances of 1902-5, though they were
Caucasia] GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 35
sternly repressed, left seeds of unrest behind them ; and
the provinces were probably on the road to a serious
effort to secure autonomy, when the European War, and
later the Russian Revolution, shattered the existing
system. Since May 26, 1918, when the Transcaucasian
Diet proclaimed its own dissolution, there have
existed three independent republics in what used to be
Russian Caucasia—the Armenian Republic, the Georgian
Republic, and a Tatar Republic in the eastern Caucasus.
Of these the eastern republic presents by far the most
formidable problem. It is manifestly impossible to
leave the Tatars of the eastern Caucasus, with the
wild hill-tribes of Daghestan, to their own devices.
The vital importance to Europe of the oil-fields in this
region makes the problem here exceptionally pressing.
36 [ No. 54

IV. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

(A) MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
(1) Internal
(a) Roads
In an area of 181,173 square miles there were in the
Caucasus in 1912 only 1,950 miles of macadamized road
and 5,300 miles of unmetalled road. Progress was being
made in some parts, but in others the roads were falling
into disrepair. After the outbreak of war important
work was carried out on some of the main roads, and
in 1915 and 1916 several new military roads were
constructed over the Turkish frontier.
The main artery of the country, running from north
to south, is the Mozdok-Vladikavkaz-Tiflis-Erivan
road, 382 miles in length. The Vladikavkaz-Tiflis
section, which crosses the main range of the Caucasus
by the Dariel Pass, is known as the Georgian Military
Road, and is a fine piece of engineering. There is a
motor-car service, run by a French company, along this
section.
Two unmetalled roads lead northward from Mozdok—
the one runs north-west to Alexandrovskoe, whence
a metalled continuation goes to meet at about 25 miles
north-east of Stavropol a metalled road from Stavropol
to Divnoe near the Astrakhan frontier ; the other runs
north-east into Astrakhan, dividing at Senkina, some
15 miles from Mozdok, into two branches, both of
which eventually cross the border.
A road runs south-westward from Tiflis to Kars,
a distance of 167 miles, and is metalled for part of the
way.
An important road, the Ossetian Military Road, runs
north-west from Vladikavkaz to Ardonskaya and thence
Caucasia] ROADS AND RIVERS 37
south-west to Kutais, a distance of 191 miles. It
crosses the Caucasian main range by the Mamison
Pass.
The most important road from west to east is the
Kutais-Tiflis-Elisavetopol-Shemakha-Baku road, with
a total length of 542 miles. The Kutais-Tiflis section
is known as the Imeretian Military Road.
There are also coast roads along the shores of the
Black and Caspian Seas:
On the Black Sea coast a metalled road begins at
Anapa, passes through Novorossiisk, 30 miles to the
south-east, and runs along the coast to Sukhum and
Ochemchiri, where it turns inland, dividing at Novo-
Senaki into two branches which meet again at Kutais.
The coast section was being improved in 1913.
Other roads terminating on the Black Sea coast are
the Armavir-Maikop-Tuapse road, 166 miles long, the
Akhaltsikh-Batum road, 110 miles long, and the Akhal-
kalaki-Artvin-Batum road, 200 miles long. The first of
these is now to some extent superseded by the recently
constructed railway following the same course. Batum
lacks road connexions with the north.
Along the Caspian coast there is a road, for the most
part unmetalled, from Astrakhan to Baku, a distance
of 600 miles ; and there is a road, metalled except
where it crosses the Vantliashet Pass, from Petrovsk,
on the Caspian, to Tiflis.
Road communications between the Caucasus and
Russia are very few, the only ones of importance being
the above-mentioned road along the Caspian littoral and
one from Stavropol to Rostov-on-Don.

(b) Rivers and Canals

Few of the numerous rivers of the Caucasus are
navigable, and those are used to a limited extent only
for transport. The floating of timber to the seaboard
for shipment is the principal traffic in almost every case.
In Ciscaucasia the Kuban and the Terek have
navigable stretches. The Kuban, which flows into the
38 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [So. 54

Sea of Azov, is navigable by light-draught steamers for

141 miles from its mouth. On the river and the various
tributaries forming its basin there are 964 miles of water
suitable for floating timber. The Terek, which flows
into the Caspian,'is navigable by light vessels for 112
miles from its mouth, but there is no steamer traffic.
Timber can be floated for 320 miles. It has no tributaries
of importance;
In Transcaucasia the navigable rivers are the Chorokh
and Rion, emptying into the Black Sea, and the Kura,
emptying into the Caspian. The Rion is navigable for
83 miles from its mouth at Poti, but no steamers can
be used. Timber is floated or rafted for 123 miles.
The Kura is navigable for 390 miles from its mouth,'
and of this distance 197 miles are suitable for steamers.
Including its tributaries, the basin of the Kura pro¬
vides 1,098 miles of water upon which timber-floating
is possible.
All these navigable waters were under the care of
the State, which, through the Ministry of Ways and
Communications, was responsible for their maintenance
and improvement.
There are no navigable canals in the Caucasus. For
irrigation canals, see p. 59.

(c) Railways
In 1912 there were 2,442 miles of railway in the
•Caucasus, 994 miles being in Ciscaucasia and 1,448
miles in Transcaucasia. These are generally of 5-ft.
gauge, and, with certain exceptions indicated below,
are of single track.
Principal Railways.—There are two principal railway
systems—the Vladikavkaz and the Transcaucasian.
Both were constructed and maintained originally by
private companies, but the latter was acquired by the
State in 1906.
(i) The main line of the Vladikavkaz Railway, 819
miles in length, runs from Rostov-on-Don (where con-
 RAILWAYS 39
nexion is made with all parts of Russia) to Baku, via
Tikhoretskaya, Kavkazkaya, Armavir, Mineralni-
yavodi, Beslan, Grozni, Petrovsk, and Derbent. From
Tikhoretskaya to Mineralniyavodi the track is double.
There are four principal branches: one runs from
Tikhoretskaya to Tsaritsin on the Volga, 333 miles ;
another from Tikhoretskaya to Ekaterinodar, and
thence as a double line to Novorossiisk, 170 miles in all;
a third from Kavkazkaya to Ekaterinodar, 85 miles ;
and a fourth from Kavkazkaya to Stavropol, 93 miles.
There are also short branches from Mineralniyavodi to
Kislovodsk and other watering-places, from Kotlyarevs-
kaya to Nalchik, and from Beslan to Vladikavkaz.
The Vladikavkaz Railway is considered to be one
of the most profitable and best-managed private lines
in Russia. The company’s original concession expired
in 1911, but was renewed for fifteen years, and there¬
upon various improvements and plans for new branches
and terminal facilities were undertaken.
The receipts in 1912 amounted to £5,845,100, and
the expenses to £3,137,400, leaving a net profit of
£2,707,700, less the sum of £348,400, which the State
received in accordance with the rate fixed in the
company’s statutes. In 1910, the latest year for
which such figures are available, the railway carried
about 8,000,000 tons of goods.
(ii) The Transcaucasian Railway runs from Batum
to Baku, a distance of 563 miles, via Samtredi, Rion,
Sharopan, Michailovo, Tiflis, and Elisavetopol. From
Akstafa to Elisavetopol and from Adji-Kabul to Baku
the track is double. The railway also owns an 8-in.
pipe line from Baku to Batum, which is capable of
delivering 1,(\00,000 tons of oil per annum.
There are six principal branches : from Samtredi to
Poti (41 miles) ; from Rion, via Kutais, to Tkvibuli
(33 miles), serving the coal-mines at the latter place ;
from Sharopan to Sachkeri (narrow gauge, 33 miles),
serving the Chiaturi manganese mines ; from Michail¬
ovo, via Borzhom, to Bakuriani; from Tiflis, via
Alexandropol and Kars, to Sarykamish (226 miles), with
40 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [No. 54

a branch from Alexandropol to Julfa on the Persian

border (206 miles), and thence to Tabriz ; and from
Baku to Sabunchi (double track, 12 miles), with
a single-track branch (3 miles) to the Suracliani oil¬
field.
The receipts of the Transcaucasian Railway in 1911,
the latest year for which figures are available, were
£1,983,455, and the expenses £1,293,485. In 1910 the
railway carried 6,000,000 tons of goods. The working
of the railway was said to give cause for dissatisfaction
in many respects. High freights, deficient rolling-stock,
and undue delays were complained of by traders ; hut
though the management made promises of amend¬
ment, these had not been fulfilled when war broke out.
(iii) An independent company, the Armavir-Tuapse
Railway Company, was the owner of the line, 166 miles
long, which runs from Armavir through the Maikop
oil-fields to the port of Tuapse. This line was pro¬
visionally opened for traffic in 1914 and completed in
1916. No figures as to its working are yet available.
Proposed extensions are referred to below.
Railways under construction.—Eight short lines in
the north-western districts of Ciscaucasia were surveyed
or under construction in 1914. Their object was to
serve agricultural interests in this area. A line along
the valley of the Terek to serve Mozdok and shorten
the main line to Baku was also being built.
In Transcaucasia the principal lines under con¬
struction were extensions into Turkish Armenia, at
the time of the invasion of that province by the
Russians in 1915-16. A line from Tiflis to Telav,
116 miles long, under construction by an independent
company, financed by Georgian landowners, was almost
finished in 1914. It was intended to tap a wine¬
growing district.
Projected Railways.—Extensive additions to the
Caucasian railway systems had been planned and in
some cases surveyed, and money had been raised for
their construction when war broke out.
The most important was the Black Sea coast line
Caucasia] RAILWAYS; POSTS 41
from Tuapse to Novo-Senaki on the Transcaucasian
Railway, a distance of 267 miles, which had been
undertaken by an independent company, the Kuban-
Black Sea Railway Company.
A company called the South Caucasian Railway
Company had received a concession for a line from
Borzhom to Kars with a branch to Olti, a coal-mining
centre, and a line had also been projected from Batum
to Kars along the valley of the Chorokh.
The Armavir-Tuapse Railway Company had two
extensions in view : one from Armavir to Blagodarnoe
(299 miles) to serve Stavropol Province, the other
from Kurgannoi to Ust Labinskaya, a narrow-gauge
line.
A concession had been granted for a line from Evlakh,
a station on the Transcaucasian Railway between Elisa-
vetopol and Baku, to Shusha, 59 miles to the south.
A Caspian coast line from the point south-west of
Baku where the main Transcaucasian line turns inland,
via Salyani and Lenkoran, to Astara, on the Persian
frontier, had been planned; and a syndicate for its
construction was being formed in 1914.
The question of a railway between Vladikavkaz and
Tiflis has been discussed for many years, but the
schemes for its construction have all proved abortive
on account of the difficulties and high cost of crossing
the Caucasus range.
When war broke out railway-building, except on
the routes into Turkish Armenia, which were ex¬
clusively of military importance, came to a standstill,
and all plans for the future fell into abeyance. That
construction should begin again is very necessary, for
the existing lines are quite inadequate to the economic
requirements of the country.

(d) Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephone^

The postal service was organized on the European
model, and there were the usual facilities for sending
money by post. The practice of sending parcels, cash
42 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

on delivery, was in existence. Parcels in transit for

Persia went duty free.
All the principal towns have telegraphic com¬
munication with other parts of the Caucasus and with
Russia. The lines follow the railway routes, and towns
not on these are connected with the main telegraph
system by branch lines.
Telephonic communication between Tiflis and Baku
was established in 1911, and it was intended, should
the innovation prove a financial success, to extend the
system to other large towns.

(2) External

(a) Ports and Roadsteads

(i) On the Black Sea.
In Anapa Roads are two anchorages, the outer
exposed from north-west to south-south-west, the inner
(for small craft) sheltered from south-west winds. A
pier, 175 yds. long, runs out on the north of the town.
The Government proposed to carry out harbour works
there. The port does a small trade in grain, fur, and
wax.
Batum.—The bay of Batum is about a mile and
a half wide from east to west and half a mile deep
from north to south. From the southern shore, in
a north-north-westerly direction, extends a mole
275 yds. long, from the head of which another mole,
known as the Petroleum Mole, carrying rails and
petroleum pipe lines, runs south-west for 440 yds.
The harbour thus formed, known as the Western or
Petroleum Harbour, has a dredged depth of 24-30 ft.,
with berths for 20 steamers. A breakwater running
north-east from the first mole for 275 yds. forms the
Eastern or Coasting Trade Harbour, which is only
7-17 ft. deep, and needs constant dredging. There is
also a mole, 200 yds. long and 60 yds. wide, extending
towards the north-north-east from the north-western
Caucasia] PORTS AND ROADSTEADS 43
extremity of Burun Tabia, which is the western point
of the bay.
The harbours, though approachable in all weathers,
are exposed to the violence of south-westerly gales;
and in 1910 the British Consul stated that complaints
were general with regard to their unsafe condition.
In 1911, on the subsidence of one of the moles,
a scheme was framed which comprised considerable
extensions and improvements. The funds provided
by the Congress of Harbour Authorities were at first
insufficient, but in 1913 the sum of £750,000 was pro¬
visionally assigned. The preliminary work and surveys
were completed by June of the following year, but
on the outbreak of war the undertaking had to be
abandoned.
The dangers incurred by shipping in bad weather
and the inadequacy of the port to deal with increased
traffic resulting from the manganese trade have for
years impeded the commercial development of Batum.
From 1878 to 1886, however, it enjoyed eight years of
exceptional prosperity as a ‘ free port ’. Even after
the withdrawal of this privilege in 1886, the petroleum
export maintained trade at a high level until the
labour disturbances of 1903-5, from the disastrous
effects of which the port has not yet recovered. The total
value of its trade in 1913 was £5,134,732, of which
£4,552,200 represented exports and £582,532 imports.
Coasting trade, carried on exclusively by Russian ships,
was very prosperous in that year.
Gagri is an open roadstead, providing anchorage for
small vessels in 5-6 fathoms. The Government had
in contemplation a scheme to build a harbour of refuge
there, for which a sum of £211,000 was assigned in 1913.
Gelendjik Bay, which is 2J miles long and 1J miles
deep, is sheltered from the violent north-east winds.
Light vessels find good anchorage in 12 ft. of water.
The open roadstead at Gudaut is used by coasters
only.
N ovorossiisk harbour has been artificially formed by
the construction of two moles, each half a mile long. On
44 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

the shore front there are 7 piers with depths varying

from 19 to 29 ft. at their outer ends. Five of these piers
are owned by the Vladikavkaz Railway Company, one
by the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company,
and one by the Russian Standard Oil Company, and all
are connected by double lines of rail with the terminus
railway station. There is also on the south-west of the
harbour a mole, used by coasters, with a depth of 23 ft.
alongside. Altogether, there are berths for about 22
steamers.
In autumn and winter anchorage at the head of the
bay is rendered very unsafe by the bora, a violent
north-easterly wind which then prevails ; vessels are
sometimes unable even to enter.
The harbour is lit by electric light and there are
ample loading facilities. The Vladikavkaz Railway
storehouses can take 70,000 tons of grain. An iron
foundry close to the harbour makes marine boilers and
executes repairs.
Novorossiisk has a considerable export trade in
grain and mineral oil, amounting to about £5,000,000
a year in value. The imports are inconsiderable, and
consist chiefly of machinery, hardware, and coal.
Poti harbour affords safe protection to shipping, but
is practically unapproachable in bad weather. An outer
and inner basin are formed by two moles built of concrete
blocks. Another mole in the middle of the outer basin
carries two lines of rails and several large sheds. In the
inner basin there are berths for eight or ten steamers
and an elevator for loading manganese. The length of
quayage is 1,500 yds.
In 1913 the value of the exports, of which manganese
was by far the most important, was £835,972, whilst
the value of the imports for the same year was only
£7,350.
Sochi is used by sailing vessels, which anchor off
Sochi town in 16 fathoms. Steam vessels are able
to anchor closer inshore. Sochi was included in the
Government scheme for the construction of ports of
refuge on this coast.
CaucasiaJ PORTS AND ROADSTEADS 45
Sukhum Kale in Sukhum Bay affords indifferent
anchorage in 6—8 fathoms. There is a quay, 56 yds.
long, built on piles. A sum of £370,000 was assigned
in 1913 for improvements to this port.
Tuapse roadstead, open to the south and south¬
west, is protected from north-west winds, and affords
good anchorage in 6 fathoms. Two moles, half a
mile apart, converge to form the old harbour, the
depth inside the eastern mole being 23 ft. When
the railway was brought to Tuapse, it was realized
that the existing harbour accommodation would be
inadequate. A concession to build a safe harbour was
granted to a French firm in 1909, but, as they failed
to fulfil their agreement, the State took the work over
in 1913, and it was nearing completion in the autumn
of 1914.

(ii) On the Sea of Azov.

The Caucasian ports on the Sea of Azov are as yet
undeveloped, and relatively unimportant.
Akhtar Bay is so shallow that steamers have to
anchor 9 miles from the coast, steam barges bringing
out the cargoes.
Temryuk stands on a peninsula dividing two shallow
lakes. Its harbour is connected with the sea by
a channel 12 ft. deep, navigable by light-draught
steamers. There are two piers, but vessels anchor out
in the bay. A considerable trade is done in grain and
fish.
Yeisk stands at the base of a sandy spit, on the east
of which an artificial harbour has been dredged to
a depth of 12 ft., with an inner basin 350 yds. long.
Projects have been considered for the construction of
a deep water port there, to be connected with Ekaterin-
odar by a branch line.

(iii) On the Caspian Sea.

Baku stands on a crescent-shaped bay, 7 miles wide
from point to point, protected on the south by Cape
46 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

Bailov, and on the east by the Kargin Islands, which

lie at the entrance to the bay, 7 miles out at sea. A
line of quays extends 4 miles, and there are 14 piers,
owned by various shipping companies, each company
having its own wharf, warehouses, and offices. In
1914 the State assigned £100,000 for the building of
other wharves, although there was already ample
accommodation for the steamers engaged in oil trans¬
port and in the Transcaspian trade. At Cape Bailov
there is a capacious dock.
Derbent (Derbend), 154 miles to the north-west of
Baku, is an open roadstead, affording no protection from
the north and south-east winds, which blow with great
violence at certain seasons. There are no harbour
facilities, but various shipping lines visit the port
regularly. There is a considerable local trade in fish.
Lenkoran, on a shallow bay, offers only exposed and
indifferent anchorage. Large ships lie 3 miles out to
sea. There is a considerable trade in boxwood.
Petrovsk, 81 miles north-west of Derbent, has a fair
harbour, formed by a curved stone mole, 500 yds. long,
on the south. There is a wooden pier on the north,
and both mole and pier are connected by lines of rails
with the railway station. There are berths for about
10 steamers. The quays and wharves are lit with
electric light. The port is closed by ice in January
only, and in the winter months, when the Volga is
frozen, Petrovsk does a considerable transit trade
between Russia in Europe on the one side and Persia
and Transcaspia on the other. It also exports oil
from Grozni to the Volga. All the Caspian Sea steam¬
ship companies call at Petrovsk regularly.

(6) Shipping Lines

(i) Russian.—The Russian Steam Navigation and
Trading Co. had almost a monopoly of the Black Sea
shipping services, and, under a contract due to expire
in 1928, received an annual subsidy of £98,000 from
the State. It had piers at the ports of Batum and
Caucasia] PORTS; SHIPPING LINES 47
Novorossiisk. Its vessels called four times a week at
Batum, three times a week at Poti, Gagri, Sukhum
Kale, Sochi, Tuapse, and Anapa Roads, and once
a week at Gelendjik Bay. In 1914 it possessed 70
steamers with a total tonnage of 142,264.
The Russian Volunteer Fleet Association called at
various ports on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov ;
in 1914 it had 31 steamers with a total tonnage of
116,364.
The Caucasus and Mercury Co. had 39 steamers, with
a total tonnage of 16,504 on the Caspian Sea, and re¬
ceived a grant of £30,350 per annum for its Caspian and
Volga services. In 1913 the company demanded an
increase to £67,000, which was refused. It had a
regular service between Baku, Astrakhan, Krasnovodsk,
and smaller Caspian ports.
Other Russian shipowners serving the ports of the
Caucasus in 1914 were, on the Black Sea, L. L. Andreis
with 12 steamers, Ehrtmann & Geelmuyden with
2 steamers, both of Novorossiisk, and P. Spoliansky of
Batum with 2 steamers ; on the Caspian, the Eastern
Trading Co. with 34 steamers, the Mazut Co. with
14 steamers, the Nadejda Co. (affiliated to the Cau¬
casus and Mercury Co.), Nobel Brothers, and Kachtcheef
Brothers.
(ii) Foreign.—The Wilson Line, the Oesterreichischer
Lloyd, and the Navigazione * Generate Italiana had
regular services to Batum, Novorossiisk, and Poti ; the
Compagnie de Navigation Paquet, the Messageries
Maritimes, and the Deutsche Levante Linie regular
services to Batum and Novorossiisk, and boats calling
occasionally at Poti; the Cunard and Moss Companies
regular services to Batum only. Vessels of the Eller-
man Line called occasionally at Batum, and those
of the Danube Steam Navigation Co. (Rumanian) at
Batum and Novorossiisk. .
A good deal of ‘ tramp ’ tonnage was attracted to the
Black Sea, especially in the autumn, when grain ship¬
ment from Novorossiisk was brisk. The vessels were
of all nationalities, but British shipping easily held
 48 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

first place, followed, up to the outbreak of the Balkan

War, by vessels under the Greek flag. Only Russian-
owned vessels trade on the Caspian Sea.
Shipping facilities both on the Black and Caspian
Seas were equal to all demands ; on the former the
majority of the vessels from abroad arrived in ballast,
as imports nowhere balanced exports.
Particulars of shipping at the principal ports in 1909
and 1913 are given in Table I of the Appendix (p. 92).
(c) Telegraphic and Wireless Communications
The Indo-European Telegraph Co. has a line running
from Julfa by Erivan, Tiflis, Zugdidi, Sukhum Kale,
Tuapse, Ekaterinodar, and Temryuk to Chushka Point,
whence two submarine cables belonging to the com¬
pany cross the Kerch Straits to Yenikale. Land
telegraph lines connect Batum with Constantinople
via Trebizond. A submarine cable connects Baku
with Krasnovodsk in Transcaspia.
Batum possesses a wireless telegraph station, in¬
stalled in 1911, in communication with Sevastopol. A
wireless station with a range of 267 miles connects
Petrovsk with Fort Alexandrovsk in Transcaspia, and
another of the same power was opened at Baku in 1914.
Funds were assigned in that year for erecting stations
at Novorossiisk and Poti.
*

(B) INDUSTRY
(1) Labour
(a) Labour Supply ; Immigration and Emigration
Agriculture forms the occupation of the majority of
the inhabitants of the Caucasus, though in many cases
it is pursued in combination with other activities. The
numerous peoples of which the population consists (see
above, pp. 8-12) naturally show very various capacities
for labour and prejudices with regard to it. The people
of Caucasian or Georgian stock are cultivators of the
land and keepers of flocks and herds, with little taste
Caucasia] CABLES; LABOUR SUPPLY 49

for industrial work ; many of them, especially those of

the mountainous districts, are very backward (as are
also, the Kurds and Ossetes), but the Lesghians and
Gruzians are reliable and hard-working, and constitute
the best native labour supply. The Armenians, on
the other hand, find their most congenial employment
in trade and usury, though a good many of them
are employed on the oil-fields ; the Russian colonists
make good agriculturists, but are often idle and in¬
temperate ; while the Tatars, who in general are
farmers and breeders of sheep and cattle, are also the
predominant element on the Baku oil-fields.
The native labour supply, however, is insufficient
for the country’s requirements on the oil-fields and
elsewhere, and there has been a considerable immigration
for some years past, the chief sources being as follows :
(i) Russian. — When Transcaucasia came under
Russian rule in 1878, the State replaced the many
Abkhasians and Circassians who left the country by
considerable numbers of Russian colonists. Russian
settlers have been planted by the State on the reclaimed
lands of the Mughan and* Mil steppes. There is a
seasonal movement of some 300,000 labourers from
Central Russia into Ciscaucasia for the harvest. Artels,
or combines of Russian skilled workers, numbering from
10 to 50 persons, move about the country undertaking
various sorts of contract work, and earn high wages.
(ii) Armenian.—Except in the two or three years
following the establishment of the Young Turk Govern¬
ment, there has been a steady stream of immigration
from Turkish Armenia to the Caucasus. This immigra¬
tion increased during the persecution of the Armenians
in 1915, but the fate of the refugees since the Turco-
German occupation of the Caucasus is uncertain.
Echmiadzin, in the Government of Erivan, the residence
of the Armenian Patriarch, was regarded as the national
capital of the Armenians.
(iii) Turkish labour is imported for the tea plantations
on the Black Sea coast, and for the copper mines in
the Batum district.
E
 50 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [*». 5*
(iv) Persians goto the Baku oil-fields as tub-cleaners
&c.
(v) Induced by the demand for labour on railway
construction and other public works, a considerable
number of Italians immigrated into Transcaucasia
about the middle of last century, and remained there
m scattered communities. There is also a small
seasonal immigration of Italians, chiefly masons, road-
makers, and sculptors, which increases whenever new
public works are taken in hand.
(vi) A few Greeks enter Caucasia, mainly to work in
the copper mines.
. (vn) There are a few villages inhabited by German
immigrants of long standing, representing, as in Hun-
gary, early German efforts at colonization.
There has been no emigration worth mention since
^ie Present century, except that in
1910 a number of Turkish Armenians returned to their
native country, hoping that the Young Turk revolution
would secure better political conditions for their race.

(b) Labour Conditions

Since the revolutionary disturbances at Baku in
1902-5 (see above, p. 29) the conditions of labour in
the Caucasus have steadily improved, in spite of the
difficulties placed in the way of labour organization
by the diversity of nationalities involved. There
have been frequent strikes. In 1913 manganese
miners, case and can factory hands, copper miners at
Dzansul, dock labourers at Poti, and the employees
of the Kussian Steam Navigation and Trading Company
struck for shorter hours, increased pay, and better
housing. These movements met with varying degrees
of success an average advance of 30 per cent, in the
rate of wages was effected and an eight-hours day
was generally conceded. In May 1914 there was
a general strike on the Baku fields, the demands
including recognition of workmen’s committees, better
conditions both in the workshops and in the workers’
Caucasia ] LABOUR; AGRICULTURE 51
own homes, and a rise of from 10 per cent, to 50 per
cent, in the rates of pay. A promise of improved
housing had been obtained when war broke out, and
the men returned to work.
In the matter of wages, the demand at Baku was for
a minimum of £3 10s. a month ; in 1908 an ordinary
labourer on the oil-fields had earned only from 32s. to
40s. a month. In other industries ordinary labourers
received from 2s. 6d. to 5s. a day, artisans from 5s. to
7s. 6d., and miners from 5s. to 8s. 4d. Italian masons
were paid from 3s. 4d. to 6s. Sri. a day. Agricultural
labourers in 1913 were receiving from about Is. Id.
to about 2s. 2d. a day, wages being highest in Kutais
and lowest in Terek. Female labour, which is much
used both in agriculture and in industry, is very poorly
paid. . . ,
Since 1912 accident and sickness insurance has been
compulsory for large industrial concerns. Medical
attendance, maintenance during illness, and pensions
for totally disabled workmen and for the dependants
of workmen accidentally killed in their employers
service, have to he provided by the employers.

(2) Agriculture
(a) Products of Commercial Value
Vegetable Products.—Cereals grow well in the soil of
Ciscaucasia, which is a continuation of the black earth
of southern Russia. The area planted with wheat in
1914 throughout the country was 12,700,000 acres,
yielding nearly 3,000,000 tons of grain; nearly
5,000,000 acres were in Kuban and over 4,000,000 in
Stavropol. The area under barley in the two divisions
of Caucasia in 1914 was about 5,500,000 acres (yielding
1,600,000 tons), and of these more than 4,000,000
were in Ciscaucasia—2,000,000 in Kuban, 1,600,000 In
Stavropol, and the rest in Terek. Between 1911 and
1915 Ciscaucasia produced on an average one-third of
the total output of winter wheat in the whole Russian
Empire and about 15 per cent, of the entire yield of
52 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [no. 54

wheat and barley. Considerable quantities of both

wheat and barley are also grown in the eastern and
central parts of Transcaucasia, the area under wheat
in 1914 being 475,000 acres in Baku, 692,000 in Elisa-
vetopol, and 680,000 in Tiflis, and that under barley,
which thrives up to an elevation of 8,000 ft., being
248,000 acres, 329,000 acres, and 318,000 acres respec¬
tively in the same three governments.
Maize is the cereal most widely cultivated in north¬
western Transcaucasia, where it forms the principal
food of the population, and whence it is also ex¬
ported to Europe and Turkey. In Kutais the crop
covered 466,000 acres in 1914, and in the little coastal
district of Sukhum more than 100,000 acres. The
acreage under maize in the whole country was 1,440,000,
of which 670,000 acres were in Transcaucasia. Of the
770,000 acres sown in Ciscaucasia, 561,000 were in
Terek. The total production of maize in 1914 amounted
to 481,000 tons. Millet is almost entirely confined to
Ciscaucasia, which in 1914, out of a total of 951,000
acres, yielding 355,000 tons, could claim 895,000 acres,
more than half of them in Terek and most of the re¬
mainder in Stavropol. Oats are even more exclusively a
product of the northern provinces, for in 1914, of a total
of 1,056,000 acres, 512,000 were in Kuban, 301,000 in
Stavropol, and 204,000 in Terek. The total yield was
441,000 tons. Rye is the least popular of the cereals,
there being only 407,000 acres under this crop in the
north, of which 246,000 were in Kuban, and 133,000 in
the south, of which 75,000 were in Elisavetopol. The
total yield was 137,000 tons. The growing of rice is
decreasing; the yield in 1914 was 28,000 tons, and the
area under cultivation 78,000 acres.
Cotton, first grown in the Government of Kutais in 1860,
h^d come before the war to be cultivated over consider¬
able areas in Elisavetopol and Erivan, and to a smaller
extent in Baku, Tiflis, and Kutais, while a beginning
had been made in Sukhum and Kars. Indeed the
cotton crop, which was superseding rice, was looked
on as a promising source of future prosperity, and
Caucasia] AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 53
its cultivation was encouraged by the Government.
American cotton gins, irrigation pumping plant, traction
engines, and ploughs had been introduced, and cleaning
mills of modern pattern built, and it was hoped that
on the completion of the irrigation schemes, by whic
the surplus waters of the Kura and Aras (Araxes) were
to be utilized (see pp. 59-60), it would be possible greatly
to enlarge the area under cultivation. That area, which
thirtv years ago was only about 30,000 acres, had
already increased by 1910 to 150,000 acres, and by
1912 to 223,000 acres. With regard to the area sown
in 1914 there is a wide discrepancy between the
Russian’official return (186,000 acres) and the figure
(337,500 acres) supplied by the British Consul at
Batum. The Consul states, however, that owing to
a decreased demand and consequent fall in prices,
caused by the closing of the Polish mills and the
shortage of labour in the manufacturing centres of
Russia, there was a tendency among growers to aban¬
don cotton for cereals ; and it is possible that his
figure is based on an estimate of the probable acreage
before this tendency had become fully operative, while
the Russian figure represents the area actually culti¬
vated. Of the 186,000 acres of the Russian return,
half lay in the Government of Elisavetopol, about a
third in that of Erivan, and some 20,000 acres in that
of Baku ; while of the yield, which was a little under
60 000 tons, 35,500 tons came from Elisavetopol and
18000 tons from Erivan. This yield, however, owing
to heavy rains and cold weather, was below the average.
Flax was grown on 168,000 acres in Ciscaucasia and
18,000 acres in Transcaucasia in 1914, the total yield
being 38,000 tons, which was double the yield of 1910.
The cultivation of hemp is on a very much smaller,
though an equally increasing, scale, and is almost
entirely confined to the north. There is, however,
a plant closely resembling hemp, called Icanap, which
is easily grown and might be used for the same
Fruit.—Practically all the districts in Transcaucasia
54 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

are suitable for the cultivation of European and sub¬

tropical fruits. Oranges and lemons thrive particularly
well, and peaches, apricots, plums, apples, pears, and
olives are also grown. The plums of Sochi and the
oranges of Chavka have a special reputation, and in
the Batum district strawberries attain great perfection.
Sukhum district and the neighbourhood of Artvin grow
the best olives. Melons are intensively cultivated.
Fruit-growing is being developed on scientific principles
by the peasants and small landowners of Kuban.
In 1913 the total area devoted to hay was 1,895,000
acres, of which 373,000 were in Terek, 278,000 in
Chernomoria, and 227,000 in Baku.
The collection of liquorice root, which grows wild, is
an industry of some significance, and before the war
the shipments from Batum, chiefly for America, were
increasingly large. The manufacture of liquorice paste,
however, was much affected by the high price of crude
oil, used as fuel by the factories, and there has been no
export of it since 1914.
An attempt has been made to grow beet-root for
sugar in Kuban, but the production was very small;
8,785 acres were under cultivation in 1914, of which
7,380 belonged to a sugar factory at Gulevichi.
The sunflower is cultivated for the sake of the oil to
be obtained from the seeds, which is used as a substitute
for linseed oil. The seeds are crushed in local mills
and the stalks are used for the manufacture of potash.
The crop covers a greater area than any other except
the cereals, but is practically confined to Kuban. In
1914 there were 698,000 acres under cultivation, of
which 681,500 acres were in Kuban, and the total
output was 298,000 tons, of which the Kuban fields
gave 292,000 tons, the rest being grown in the neigh¬
bouring Province of Stavropol. In that year the pro¬
duction of Ciscaucasia represented seven-eighteenths
of the total production of sunflower oil in the Russian
Empire. Its share in the total for 1915, however, was
less than one-third, a decrease probably due to the
necessity of growing more cereals than usual to meet
CaucasiaJ AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 55

the falling off of supplies from Russia since the out¬

break of war. Up to 1914 the export of oil was
considerable. „ , , 7 , ,,
There were 2,020 acres of land under tea along the
Black Sea coast in the Province of Batum and 75 acres
in the Government of Kutais in 1914. Of this area,
1 080 acres were in the Imperial Domains, 489 acres
were the property of the firm of Popoff Brothers and
the remaining plantations belonged to thirteen villages
near Chavka. The revenue from the sale of tea was in
1909 about £26 per acre on the Imperial plantations.
As a result of the success achieved on the Imperial
Domains, tea-growing was beginning to be taken up as
a local industry, and the National Government granted
a sum of about £1,500 towards the construction of
a factory at Batum, under the management of the
Batum Agricultural Society, where locally-grown tea
could be cured. Another factory was also to be erected
at Ozurgeti, under the management of an instructor
from the Imperial plantation at Chavka. The cultiva¬
tion of tea was proceeding successfully at Ozurgeti in
1914. In that year the plantations near Batum pro¬
duced about 160 tons of leaf.
Tobacco is grown in all the provinces of ( aucasia
except Stavropol, where its cultivation has been aban¬
doned since 1911; but the most important centres are
in Kuban, Sukhum, and Chernomona. The Kuban
plantations apparently give the heaviest crops,1 but
the tobacco of the best quality grows on the Black Sea
coast, especially near Sukhum and Sochi. Of the
total Russian output of high quality Turkish tobacco
in 1915, 90 per cent, came from Caucasia, and of this 57 b
per cent, originated from Kuban, 21-2 per cent, from
Sukhum, and 11 2 per cent, from other districts. In
1914 out of a total cultivated area of 80,500 acres,
producing 32,600 tons of tobacco, 29,000 acres, pro-
i Judging by the returns for 1914 ; but the figures vary in different
reuorts and moreover the yield fluctuates considerably according
to the weather, so that the figures for one season are not a safe basis
for generalization.
56 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

during 15,000 tons, were in Kuban, nearly 33,000

acres, producing 9,700 tons, in Sukhum, and 10,000
acres, yielding 3,600 tons, in Chernomoria. In Trans¬
caucasia tobacco is most cultivated in Tiflis, Batum,
and Kutais, but the acreage and output of Zakatali,
though actually small, is not inconsiderable in relation
to the size of the district.
Wine is made throughout the country, but though
the produce of Ciscaucasia is not inconsiderable in
quantity, the grapes are comparatively poor in quality
and their juice is thin and acrid. So excellent, on the
other hand, are those of Transcaucasia, and in such
abundance do they grow, that until the appearance of
oldium, which of late years has necessitated the applica¬
tion of some 4,000 tons of sulphate of copper per annum,
thus greatly increasing the cost of production, the
peasants were able, by their primitive methods, to make
sufficient wine at a cheap rate for their own very liberal
consumption. With the introduction of scientific treat¬
ment of the vines and of French methods of manu¬
facture the industry should prove lucrative. In a few
places modern establishments already existed in 1914,
but at present too many kinds of grapes are grown
and the plantations are too close together. The dis¬
trict in which the vineyards are most extensive is
that of Tiflis; but whereas in 1914 in that Government
81,000 acres yielded only 73,000 tons of grapes, Kutais
produced 89,000 tons from 50,000 acres. The localities
most celebrated for their wines, however, lie in the
Gelendjik district and also in the country round
Shemakha and Geokchai, where 22,500 tons of grapes
were produced in 1913; in the district between the
rivers Kura and Alazan, the ancient Kakhetia, on the
borders of Zakatali andElisavetopol; and at Echmiadzin
in the Government of Erivan. In 1914 the total area
covered by the vineyards of Caucasia was a little over
300,000 acres, and the yield of grapes 350,000 tons.
Other crops grown in Caucasia, with their acreage
and production in 1914, were the following: potatoes,
234,000 acres. 586,500 tons; spelt, 24,000 acres’
Caucasia j AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 57
7,000 tons; buckwheat, 21,000 acres, 7,000 tons;
lentils, beans, and haricots, 20,000 acres, 5,300 tons ;
peas, 9,000 acres, 3,000 tons. Ramie fibre and attar of
roses are produced on the Black Sea coast.
Live-stock and Animal Products.—Owing to the ten¬
dency to convert pasture into arable land, there has
been a great decrease in the numbers of live-stock
raised in Caucasia of late years. To this rule, however,
the Jevat and Geokchai districts in Baku Government
present an exception ; for cattle and horse raising has
there been developed into an important industry, the
profit obtained in the former region in 1914 being
estimated at £70,000. In 1913 the total area devoted to
pasturage, which is situated in the steppes and on the
mountain slopes up to an elevation of 9,000 ft., was
3,700,000 acres, and the animals in the country com¬
prised 6,327,000 head of cattle, 2,135,000 horses,
13,336,000 sheep and goats, and 1,215,000 pigs. The
largest numbers of animals are found in Kuban and
Terek; there were in 1912 nearly 4,500,000 of all kinds
in the former province and nearly 3,500,000 in the
latter.
Buffaloes and a small breed of oxen are bred in large
numbers ; they are used as draught animals, and in
some districts as beasts of burden and for ploughing.
The best breed of buffaloes is reared in the Governments
of Elisavetopol and Kutais.
Horses are raised in other southern districts of Baku
besides those already named, and on the Karabagh
steppe, which extends from Baku into Elisavetopol;
in the valley of the Terek and the Kabarda districts
near Vladikavkaz; and in the Provinces of Kuban
and Stavropol. A breed of mountain ponies is reared
in Kutais. There are numerous private studs.
Camels, which are bred in the south-eastern provinces,
are used chiefly as pack animals in the transport of
goods to and from Persia, but occasionally also for
draught purposes.
Great numbers of sheep and goats are bred on the
steppes and plateaux and in the hill districts. The
58 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [»o. 54

wool production was 14,946 tons in 1908, 13,339 tons

in 1909, and 17,356 tons, of which 16,473 tons were
fine wool and 883 tons coarse, in 1913. The nomad
Kurds, the Tatars, the Ossetes, the Svanetians, the
Kabards, and the Abkhasians live principally by
their flocks and herds, which they raise by primitive
methods. Part of the wool crop is sold in the Tatar
camps at shearing time to local carpet-weavers ; part
is exported.
Honey and wax are obtained throughout the Cau¬
casus. In 1912 there were 26,000 apiaries, containing
nearly 600,000 hives, and the production was 2,500 tons
of honey and 300 tons of wax, most of which was con¬
sumed locally.
Silk.—Mulberry-trees are grown on the lower slopes
of the Transcaucasian mountains, and the silkworm
industry, after a period of depression due to the spread
of disease amongst the silkworms, has developed greatly
of late years, especially in the Governments of Tiflis,
Erivan, Elisavetopol, and Kutais. In the Baku
Government, where it was once widespread, the
industry is only continued to any considerable extent
in the district of Geokchai. Much of the output, which
in 1914 amounted to over 5,000 tons, is normally con¬
sumed in local silk manufactures. Silkworm eggs were
imported, principally from Turkey and Italy, and were
strictly examined by the Imperial Agricultural Society
at Tiflis. The failure of the Turkish supply after 1914
adversely affected subsequent cocoon crops.
(b) Methods of Cultivation
Ciscaucasia is far in advance of Transcaucasia in
respect of agricultural methods, a fact due in part to
the more enterprising character of the Cossack popula¬
tion and in part to the less isolated geographical
position of the northern provinces. • In both divisions
of the country, however, there has in recent years been
a notable advance in agricultural science, evidenced
by the rapid development of co-operation. Whereas
in 1909 there were 100 agricultural associations in the
CaucasiaJ METHODS OF CULTIVATION 59

Caucasus, in 1913 there were 803. Agricultural methods

were taught in some of the industrial schools. There
were experimental botanical gardens, subsidized by
the State, at Tiflis and Batum, and a sericultural
station. The grants made by the Caucasian Board
of Agriculture for the promotion of rural industries in
1913 amounted to £100,000, an advance of 50 per cent,
on the sum granted in the previous year. Of this
total, £61,000 was allocated to research, £2,000 to im¬
provement of live-stock, and £5,000 to grants in aid
to agricultural societies.
In 1913 a commission of agriculturists appointed by
the Viceroy of the Caucasus recommended that all
educational and experimental institutions should be
brought under the Board of Agriculture, and that
a permanent commission should be formed to control
and initiate such institutions, to organize the supply
of information, and to compile statistics.
Partly on account of labour difficulties (see p. 50) there
was an increasing demand for agricultural machinery,
but better methods of cultivation were simultaneously
being introduced.
Extensive iTvigcttion schemes had been carried out
and others were in contemplation. At Chamlik, a canal
from the Laba, the largest tributary of the Kuban,
irrigates several thousand acres of steppe land. There
is an irrigation canal near Tiflis. In 1906, 62,100 acres
of land in the Mughan steppe were reclaimed, at a cost
to the State of £31,000 ; 14 villages were planted, and
land which had been practically worthless yielded
about £4 an acre. In 1913 the Irrigation Board set
up a modulation section to test the rise and fall of
water for irrigation purposes in the Karayaz experi¬
mental fields and the Mughan steppe. The irrigation of
the Mughan steppe was completed and the adjoining
Mil steppe was made fertile by means of the Romanov
Irrigation Canal, which was opened in 1914; in this
vear a large barrage was under construction at Saalti,
and was to have been completed by 1915. A total
of 190,000 acres on the Mughan had been reclaimed,
 60 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

and 20,000 settlers planted. These improvements had

cost £425,000 up to 1914. The water for irrigation
was to be obtained chiefly by controlling the rivers
Aras and Kura, which in their lower reaches over¬
flow their banks and form permanent marshes. The
question of the regulation of all the principal rivers of
the country was being officially studied.

(c) Forestry
The total area of forest land in Caucasia cannot be
stated with certainty. The extent of the forests under
the control of the Ministry of Forests was 12,218,000
acres, or about 11 per cent, of the total area of the
country and rather more than half of its cultivated
area. Kasperowicz 1 puts the total at 16,000,000 acres,
and specifies as being favourably situated for com¬
mercial exploitation, 1,372,000 acres in Tiflis and
Zakatali, 1,008,000 in Elisavetopol, 863,000 in Cherno-
moria, 807,000 in Kuban, 705,000 in Terek, 647,000 in
Batum, 453,000 in Kutais, and 417,000 in Sukhum.
The largest tracts of virgin forest are to be found on
the mountain slopes of the Black Sea coast; there is
a large forest north of Lake Gokcha, and another in the
east of Elisavetopol Government; the middle course
of the Kura is wooded throughout, and there are con¬
siderable forests in the Armenian Highlands. The best
exploited forests in Transcaucasia are those in the
Ateni valley near Gori, in the Adzhamer valley near
Rion, and at Borzhom—all to the west of Tiflis or the
east of Kutais.
The trees include walnut, box, beech, -oak, birch,
Caucasus palm, wych-elm, pine, alder, &c., of which
the first five are the most valuable. The walnut and
box tree grow extensively in Transcaucasia; their
timber formed a valuable article of export, but the
quantities exported are declining, since the remaining
walnut forests are remote from railways, and the box¬
wood is being held back to await more favourable
1 Raffalovich, Russia : its Trade and Commerce, p. 94.
 Caucasia] FORESTRY ; LAND TENURE 61
prices. Special varieties of conifers, birch, oak, and
palm grow in the Caucasus. The Caucasus palm or
samshita is not plentiful, but is greatly valued. The
commonest tree is the b<5ech, which occupies 25 per
cent, of the total forest area ; the oak occupies 16-7
per cent, and the pine 81 per cent. Plantations of
bamboo at Chavka and Sukhum have been very
successful, the cane being used for industrial purposes.
The Italian firm of Sbrajavacca was in 1914 exploiting
the pine-forests of Svanetia and Ratce, the timber being
floated down the river Rion. The firm has saw-mills
at Socilava and Poti.
The Russian State levied on all timber a royalty
varying according to the kind of wood, &c. The State
also fixed the amount of timber to be felled in each
area, which was then sold to the highest bidder. The
total amount of timber which might be cut in the Cau-
. casus was fixed in 1913 at nearly 220,000,000 cubic feet,
of which only a little more than a quarter was actually
delivered.
(d) Land Tenure
The Caucasus as a whole has no fixed system of land
tenure, nor are any of the characteristic Russian
features of land-holding found there. The various
kinds of landowner may be divided into six classes :
the old nobility of Georgia; Tatar and Armenian
peasant holders ; nomad pastoral tribes, who occupy
large areas of steppe land, especially in Stavropol
Province; Russian settlers, placed on land vacated
after the conquest; the Russian State, which owned
large areas, mainly forest; and the Imperial family,
which had acquired valuable appanages in the Caucasus.
• No figures are available to show the proportions in
which the land is held by these various owners; and,
as a large part of the total productive area is occupied
by nomads, no exact statistics would be possible.
Moreover, recent events have to a great extent obli¬
terated the old divisions, and new claims to ownership
of much valuable land will have to be settled in the
course of time.
62 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [ No. 54

(3) Fisheries
The fisheries off the Caucasian shore of the Caspian
Sea are an extremely important source of revenue, and
employ large numbers of men, though of late years the
more valuable kinds of fish have decreased greatly both
in numbers and in size. The catch of puzanka, a small
variety of herring, off the coasts of Daghestan and
Terek averages about 44,000 tons a year, while in
1910 it reached 80,000 tons, with a value of £1,000,000.
Owing, however, to the deficiency of means of com¬
munication between the Terek coast and the commercial
centres of the country the industry is far less profitable
than it should be to those engaged in it.
The sturgeon fishing in the River Kura, which has
its centre at Salyani, is the richest in the world. The
bank fishery at the mouth of the river produces from
160 to 240 tons of caviare, worth from £75,000 to
£150,000 a year, while the total production of the
river averages 320 tons. There is ample cold storage
accommodation.
The Caspian Sea fisheries are divided into plots,
which are let by auction by the Government. In 1910
two large firms obtained two-thirds of these, and
a combine of all the Caspian fisheries was expected to
follow.
The Kuban Cossack fisheries in the Sea of Azov give
some 350 to 400 tons a year, with an average value
of over £50,000. The output from Chernomoria in 1911,
the only year for which figures are available, was 880
tons of fish, of which 260 tons were herrings and 170
tons were flat fish ; the value was £15,000.
All the streams of the Caucasus abound in fish >
trout, salmon, and various coarser varieties are caught
in large quantities. The total number of fish caught
in Caucasian waters in 1911 was, in round figures,
2,400,000 salmon and sturgeon, and 232,000,000 other
fish. The total output of caviare in the same year was
418 tons.
Caucasia j FISHERIES ; MINERALS 63

(4) Minerals
The mineral resources of Caucasia have never yet
been systematically surveyed, but they are known
to be both varied and extensive. As at present worked,
and excepting mineral oils (see below, p. 68), which
as a source of wealth have hitherto stood alone, the
most valuable products are manganese and copper.
Baryta is produced in Kutais by six enterprises;
the output in 1910 amounted to 1,750 metric tons, or
five-sixths of Russia’s total output.
Coal is mined chiefly at Tkvibuli, in Kutais, where
the mines are served by a branch railway. This coal
yields a dense strong coke useful for metallurgy.
A very little coal is also produced in Kuban, and
lignite of poor quality is found and consumed locally
in the Migri valley, at Manglis and Borchka. Un¬
exploited deposits exist on the Black Sea coast, where
the Tkvarcheli forest is believed to cover 54,000 acres
of coal of excellent quality. A large deposit occurs
near Tiflis, in the valley of the River Oltinsk, and coal
has recently been found at Akmetovskoi. The pro¬
duction in recent years shows a steady increase, the
total output having been 45,700 metric tons in 1910,
51,000 in 1911, 69,000 in 1912, and 75,000 in 1913.
Copper.—The rich copper deposits have hitherto
been only partially worked, but three distinct areas
are now exploited by foreign capital:
(i) The Kedabek mines, in Elisavetopol (north-east
of Lake Gokcha), are worked by the American
firm of Siemens Brothers. There are three mines,
at Kedabek, Kalakent, and Karabulakh, which are
connected by a metre-gauge railway. The ore con¬
tains from 2 to 20 per cent, of copper, and the pro¬
duction of copper in 1913 was 1,272 metric tons.
Benzene brought from Baku by pipe line is used for
smelting, whereas the companies referred to below use
electricity. Siemens Brothers had begun before the
war to exploit copper at Kvartshana in the Province of
 64 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [»„. 54
Datum, and were about to erect blast furnace smelting
works there.
(ii) The Allahverdi, Aktala, and Shambru mines, in
the Lialvar Mountains (Tiflis), are worked by the French
Compagnie Metallurgique et Industrielle du Caucase.
At Allahverdi, the most productive mine, the ore (copper
sulphide) contains 7'18 to 18 56 per cent, of copper,
and the output of copper in 1913 was 4,760 metric tons’
(iii) The Dzansul, Chiakathevi, and Erga mines, on
the borders of the Provinces of Batum and Kutais,
are exploited by the Caucasus Copper Co., a British
company formed in 1900. Heavy initial outlay and
climatic difficulties necessitated a large capitalization,
but in 1913, when some 12,000 workmen were employed,
the profit obtained was £87,800. The ore in the mines
contains from 16 to 18 per cent, of copper. In 1912
the production was 40,000 metric tons of ore and
3,000 metric tons of copper, but in 1913 the progress
of the company was described as disappointing, the
amount of copper produced being only. 3,280 metric
tons.
In addition to the above, there are various native
enterprises. In the Okchi valley in the Sangesur district
of Elisavetopol, old mines of great productivity have
been reopened, but pack-horses are the only available
means of transport. The Katar mine in' Sangesur is
now worked by electricity. In the Pambak Mountains,
also in the Government of Elisavetopol, there are mines
at Delij an, Sirimadan, Sagali, Mishkan, and Seifalu ;
at the last of these the ore yields from 20 to 30
per cent, of copper. The most important native
companies are the Melik Azariantz, the Kunduroff,
and the Grielsky.
The output of copper in Caucasia was 7,536 metric tons
in 1908, 9,520 in 1909, and 7,631 in 1910. In 1912,
303,225 metric tons of ore were mined, of which 200,000
were smelted, yielding 9,270 metric tons of metal. In
1913 the production was 9,220 metric tons. The figures
for 1912 and 1913 refer to the British, French, and
American companies only. It is not clear whether those
Caucasia ] MINERALS 65
for earlier years include also the production of the
native undertakings, hut in any case their quota is com¬
paratively small. In 1913 Caucasia furnished 31 per
cent, of the total Russian output. All Caucasian
copper is disposed of in Russia.
Unexploited copper exists in the Naltchinsky Hills
and over a small area on each side of. the Ossetian
Military Road ; in both cases the. deposits are estimated
to be rich.
The production of Glauber’s salt in Tiflis in 1910,
amounting to 725 metric tons, represented nearly half of
Russia’s total output.
Iron is worked only spasmodically. It occurs chiefly
in the Government of Elisavetopol, at Chinarlidz, where
the veins are from 2 to 21 metres thick, and as haematite
at Sirimadan in the Pambak Mountains and in the
Boy an valley. Nearly 2,000 metric tons were produced in
1908, but in no subsequent year does anything approach¬
ing that amount appear to have been obtained.
Lead.—There are extensive deposits of argentiferous
lead, but they have been little worked. The largest
production is that of the Alagir Smelting Co. in Terek;
but the metal also occurs in the Lialvar district, in
the upper valley of the Kura, and near Kedabek, and
shortly before the war was found near Akmetovskoi
station in Kuban.
Manganese.-—The principal deposit covers an area
of nearly 100 square miles in the Kvirili valley in the
Government of Kutais, the head-quarters of the in¬
dustry being at Chiaturi. The ore contains on an
average 40 per cent, manganese, 016 per cent, phos¬
phorus, and 8 per cent, silicon, but in some workings
the proportion of manganese is as high as 50 per cent.
The ore is got out by means of hand picks, and is
sorted by hand in a primitive way. It is soft
and readily mined, and the firmness of the rock renders
extensive timbering unnecessary. The miners do not
fully exhaust the drifts, but work on them until they
become dangerous or, on account of diminishing yield,
unremunerative, a point which is soon reached owing
F
 66 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [No. 54

to unscientific methods of removal. Much ore is con¬

sequently wasted. Since 1909 an increasing amount
of ore has been washed for the preparation of ferro¬
manganese, and this has resulted in the serious pollu¬
tion of the River Kvirili, which runs through the mining
district. Regulations have been made to control the
practice of discharging refuse into the river, and plans
formed to collect the refuse-laden water in an artificial
basin, where it could be purified and utilized for generat¬
ing electric power to be employed in the ferro-manganese
furnaces. Little improvement, however, had been
effected by 1914.
Many small native firms are occupied in manganese¬
mining. A little before the war foreign capitalists
were acquiring manganese-bearing land, which is
usually leased in small lots of from half an acre to
50 acres in extent; about 1910 there was an extensive
acquisition of unworked land by German firms. The
recent tendency has been for the control of the industry
to pass from small to large concerns.
There was a heavy slump in manganese just before
1908, but since that year the output has greatly
increased: in 1910 it amounted to 548,300 metric tons;
in 1911 it fell again to 451,600 metric tons, but in 1912
it rose to the high figure of 913,500 metric tons, and in
1913 to 1,051,500 metric tons. Nearly the whole output
is exported ; export figures are given on pp. 83 and 84.
The trade was very heavily hit by the war.
Chiaturi competes with India and Brazil for pride
of place as supplier of manganese to the world. It
has, however, been handicapped by difficulties of
transport, though favoured to some extent in the
matter of freight rates. The Sharopan-Sachkeri rail¬
way lies some distance from the mines, and the ore
has to be conveyed in carts or on pack animals to the
station, whence further carriage to Poti or Batum is
both slow and expensive. The Association of Man¬
ganese Producers (see p. 79) had up to 1914 failed to
secure from the State anything beyond promises of
improvement.
Caucasia"j MINERALS 67
Other places in Caucasia at which manganese occurs
are Kvartala in Batum, where the French Manganese
Ore Co. had arranged for the erection of plant at the
end of 1913, Seifalu in Elisavetopol, and in the neigh¬
bourhood of Samtredi and Novo-Senaki.
Huge beds of marl are now being exploited near
Novorossiisk by the cement companies there.
Salt.—There are rock-salt deposits in Erivan and
Kars, and a certain amount of evaporated salt is pro¬
duced in Baku and Daghestan. The total output of salt
in 1910 was 28,340 metric tons, which consisted of 16,600
tons of rock-salt from Erivan, 6,930 tons of rock-salt
from Kars, 4,370 tons of evaporated salt from Baku,
and 440 tons of evaporated salt from Daghestan. The
total output in 1911 amounted to 37,830 metric tons,
and in 1913 to 32,260 metric tons.
Zinc is worked by the Alagir Smelting Co. at Sadon
and Alagir, and from blende ore near Vladikavkaz.
The company’s works, which are 60 miles from the
mines, are fitted with modern plant. In 1914 the company
were planning a new exploitation, on a large scale, of both
lead and zinc. The output of zinc in 1910 was 3,400
metric tons, and in 1912 the combined production of
zinc and argentiferous lead was 26,000 metric tons.
Other Minerals.—At Soglik, near Dash Kessan, in
the Gokcha range (Erivan) there is an inexhaustible
supply of alunite, containing 37'58 per cent, of alum,
but it is very little worked. Antimony is mined in
small quantities in Tiflis. There is arsenic ore at
Bechenakh, but up to the present it has not been
exploited. There is a small output of asbestos from
Sharopan, Vzhinevi, and Lechgum in Kutais. There
are excellent bitumen beds on the Black Sea coast, and
asphalt is a by-product of the petroleum industry.
Cobalt is mined in small quantities in Elisavetopol.
White diatomite (infusorial earth), containing 87 per
cent, of silica, is worked at Kissatip, near Akhaltsikh
(Tiflis). Emery is found at Karabulakh (Elisavetopol).
Gold exists in very small quantities in the alluvial
deposits of the Alindja river, and in the ore of the
 68 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [»<,. *4
Kedabek copper mines. Grap>hite and mercury have
recently been found. Pyrites is worked for sulphur in
Elisavetopol and Tiflis, and sulphur is also obtained at
Bechenakh and Gunur, in Kutais.

(5) Mineral Oils

(a) Sources of Supply
Mineral oil, the great source of Caucasian wealth,
is found chiefly in the Governments of Baku, Terek,
and Kuban, although small quantities occur elsewhere.
Hitherto by far the richest oil-producing area has been
that of Baku, comprising the Apsheron Peninsula,
Cheleken Island and Holy Island, and the outlying
district of Benagadi. In the Apsheron Peninsula lie the
older oil-fields: the five belts of Balachani, Sabunchi,
Romani, Bibi-Ebyat, and Zabrat, and the comparatively
newly-discovered oil district of Surachani, about 12 miles
away. Second to those of Baku in importance and
apparently of increasing productivity are the Grozni
fields in Terek Province. The Maikop oil-fields, in Kuban
Province, have since 1912 yielded unsatisfactorily.
In 1908 the Caucasian oil-fields supplied about 22 per
cent, of the world’s total production, but the pro¬
portion has sunk very considerably since then. General
figures of the output from 1910 to 1916 are given in
Table II of the Appendix (p. 93)."
The products of the mineral oil include illuminating
oils, engine and cylinder oils, solar oils, goudron
(asphalt), benzene, residuum (ostotki), and crude oil
(untreated). Of these, ostotki was for years treated
as waste, but it is now by far the largest product,
having superseded kerosene, which bears a heavy duty,
while ostotki is untaxed ; it has a large sale as fuel
for factories, railways, and steamships. Balachani oil
is the heaviest in quality ; ostotki is not so readily
formed from the Bibi-Ebyat and Grozni products.
Cheleken Island and Telav produce ozokerite (or
paraffin wax). The lowest percentage of benzene
 MINERAL OILS 69
is yielded by Balachani. Grozni oil is particularly
adapted for the manufacture of first grade petrol,
great quantities of which have accumulated there
during the war.
The following particulars may be given of the chief
oil-fields :
(i) The Baku Fields.—The first well was bored at
Baku in 1871. Since that year the oil-fields have been
developed one after another, with capital supplied
partly by the Swedish firm of Nobel Brothers, and
partly by the French Rothschilds and others. The
Balachani-Sabunchi—Romani field occupies about 2,640
acres on a plateau a few miles from the Caspian
Sea.1 At Sabunchi eight very productive belts are
known. At Romani there was a natural depression
into which ran the water and refuse from adjoining
properties, forming a lake of 432 acres; this was
drained in 1904 by the Moscow Caucasian Co., by
means of a subterranean channel, and an outlet into
the Caspian Sea was also provided, which serves as
a permanent drain for the whole oil-field. Bibi-Ebyat
contains five rich belts, but its productivity is declin¬
ing. Puta, a continuation of the Bibi-Ebyat fields, has
been very little developed. Zabrat has been prospected
by a French company, but the yield is only spasmodic.
Between 1908 and 1911 there was a marked decrease
in production in all but one of the old Baku oil-fields,
as seen by the following comparative table :
Balachani. Sabunchi. Romani. Bibi-Ebyat. Total.
Metric tons. Metric tons. Metric tons. Metric tons. Metric tons.
1908 1,124,784 3,181,936 1,222,304 1,914,128 7,443,152
1911 2 755,200 2,131,200 1,019,200 1,225,600 5,131,200

After 1911, in spite of new borings, the production,

though increased, did not reach the 1908 level, whilst
after 1914 the Surachani output is reckoned in with
the old Baku output, and the separate yield of the
original oil-fields cannot therefore be calculated. There
1 On this plateau 120,000,000 gallons of oil were thrown up in
1873 before it was understood how to conserve it.
2 Ten months only.
70 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

are, however, many localities left in the Apsheron

district to be tested when the exhaustion becomes more
pronounced.
Surachani, the new Baku oil-field, gives a supply of
natural gas, which, through the enterprise of the Baku
Naphtha Co., is now conducted in 8 and 10 inch pipes
to the various oil-fields, where it is used for boiler¬
heating. Some wells, about 1,200 ft. deep, yield about
5,000,000 cubic ft. of gas daily. Surachani wells also
produce white oil, a medicinal product, of which the
output is about 48 tons daily. Crude oil, which lies
beneath the natural gas, has also been exploited with
good results.
In 1902, 24,000 workers were employed at Baku ; by
1916 this number had doubled. The average number
of producing wells in the Baku district in 1914 was 2,894,
the output per well before exhaustion being from
40,000 to 50,000 tons.
Holy Island produces oil which is shipped by Nobel
Brothers in its crude state to the Volga for fuel. The
output in 1914 was 94,000 tons.
Cheleken Island produces a heavy petroleum, from
which ozokerite is extracted. In 1912 the yield was
209,000 tons, but since that year it has greatly declined.
The oil is sent abroad to be refined.
Benagadi produces a very heavy oil, pumped through
pipe lines to the railway. The Benagadi output was
steadily increasing in 1914. Digga and Sarai localities,
near Benagadi, are both petroliferous, and in 1914
were about to be exploited by Baku companies.
The Baku oil-fields seem to have escaped damage
and pillage during the military events of 1918.
(ii) The Grozni Fields consist of a belt of petroli¬
ferous land, 1,800 ft. wide and about 7 miles long.
The oil-bearing strata usually lie 1,500 to 1,800 ft. below
the surface, but sometimes even deeper, and the deposits
are impregnated with lime. The Grozni oil often issues
in great spouts, but the life of the wells is usually short.
At Mamakai the oil reaches the surface, and has been
obtained from hand-dug wells for fifty years past.
 TVTTMP'RAT, OILS 71

The European Petrol Co., a British concern, was

founded in 1893 to exploit the Grozni oil, and another
British company, the Kazbek Syndicate, struck a
prolific fountain in 1903. The Anglo-Terek Co.
found oil on the western field in 1907 at 2,500 ft.
deep, and the parallel ridge of Sundja is expected
to prove rich. The area occupied by wells in
1913 was 2,497 acres, in the hands of twelve firms.
Several new fields were proved in 1913 in the neigh¬
bouring localities of Belik and Chermoff, and 200,000
claims have been staked ; the whole country round
Grozni for a radius of about 30 miles has been covered
with oil claims. The principal new oil districts are
Sleptsovskaya, Voznesenskaya, Broguni, Kakhanovs-
kaya, Isstissu, and Chir-Urt nearer Petrovsk. Pipes
from both eastern and western fields take the oil to
Grozni station, and in 1914 pipes were completed
leading to Petrovsk, on the Caspian Sea.
In 1917 the Grozni oil-fields employed 9,000 work¬
men. The average number of producing wells in that
year was 398.
The Grozni oil-fields suffered much more than those
of Baku or Maikop in 1918. Almost all the oil-wells
and plant have been destroyed or burnt, so that
production will be impossible for some years to come.
(iii) The Mailcop Fields have been scientifically
exploited since 1908 only, chiefly by British capital.
There are four districts, Shirvansky, Apsheronsky,
Nephtianoi, and Hadizhensky, and the wells number
about 200. Before the completion of the new
Armavir-Tuapse railway, the oil went either to
Novorossiisk or Petrovsk. There are two pipe lines,
one from Maikop to Tuapse, the other from Shirvansky
to Ekaterinodar for transport on the Ekaterinodar-
Novorossiisk branch railway ; both pipes belong to the
Maikop Pipe Line and Transport Co., Ltd., a British
concern. Nearly all the Maikop oil has been con¬
sumed in Russia. It is refined at Ekaterinodar. The
output has been very disappointing, and has steadily
declined since 1912.
 72 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [No.84
(iv) Other Sources.—Berekei and Kaikent in Daghestan
have been exploited, but in both the oil is damaged
by the inflow of sulphurous water. Berekei was closed
“ Kaikent’ in thc hands of the Anglo-Russian
Betrol Co., only yields spasmodically.
Kaluga, in Kuban Province, showed oil in 1907
but work only began in 1914. The Vladikavkaz Rail¬
way Company hold 15 plots of promising petroliferous
Jund there, and intend to use the oil for the railway
The prospects are good.
In Tiflis Government two localities have been ex¬
ploited, one east of Tiflis and the other at Telav. In
1904 the Southern Oil-Fields of Russia Company was
working there, and in 1914 the Tiflis locality was again
being explored.
In 1914 prospecting was going on at many other
places, where there are unmistakable indications of
large quantities of oil, notably at Guria, where a thick
black oil was found, and at Shemakha, Jevat, and
Lenkoran. Jingy (or Djeng), near Shemakha, forms
the extremity of a huge oil-field with a reputed
area of 70,000 square miles, lying chiefly in the Ural
Province. Nobel Brothers have already sunk wells
there with good results ; in October 1915, 225 plots of
petroliferous ground near Borz and Jingy were
declared open for new claims.
Oil is also obtained from numerous wells on small
plots worked by peasants, especially in the Grozni and
Maikop districts.
(b) Methods of Working
At Baku the Russian system of boring is still in
use, the American, although generally superior, being
declared to be unsuccessful on account of the frequency
o landslips and fractured tubing. Another view
however, is that the continued use at Baku of
a comparatively wasteful system has been a factor
contributing to the successful competition of American
oil m the world market, in spite of the fact that at
Baku a few square miles produce as much oil as several
Caucasia] MINERAL OILS; MANUFACTURES 73
thousands of square miles in America, and that a single
Baku oil fountain has actually yielded as much in one
day as 25,000 wells in America. The American system
has been adopted at Grozni and Maikop. Manila ropes
have been very generally replaced by wire ropes.
Pumps cannot be used at Baku to raise the oil, and it is
therefore baled by steam or electric power ; air-lifts
have recently been found successful. In default of
fresh water, steam at Baku has to be obtained from sea¬
water, which causes rapid destruction of the boilers.
Oil is conveyed to the Black Town (Baku) refineries
in pipe lines, of which in 1906 there were 39 in private
ownership besides the State pipe lines. Large firms
had their own pumping stations in addition to those
provided for general use. Fountain oil was pumped
direct to the stations and measured there. Some of
the Bibi-Ebyat oil goes by barge.
From Baku the oil has four means of transit: by
rail to Batum or Poti; by pipe line (kerosene) to
Batum ; by rail to Petrovsk ; and by tank-steamer
to Astrakhan and thence up the Volga. The last
route, by which the Volga factories are supplied, is
only open from April to October.
Electric power was steadily replacing steam power
on the oil-fields in 1914. The Spies Petroleum Co.
at Grozni run their works almost wholly by it.
There are generating stations at Sabunchi, belonging
to Nobel Brothers ; at Zabrat, belonging to the Societe
de la Caspienne et de la Mer Noire; at White Town
(1,200 horse-power); and at Baieloff (4,500 horse¬
power). At Sabunchi and Zabrat the Surachani gas
is used to generate electricity.

(6) Manufactures
Ciscaucasia and Transcaucasia have each their own
characteristic industries, which, in the former case,
are those proper to a region predominantly agricultural,
and in the latter are dependent on the output of the
oil-fields.
74 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [n°.»4
The caviare industry of the Caspian littoral is declin¬
ing, but is still important (see p. 62).
Cement is made at Novorossiisk, Gelendjik, Tuapse,
and Yeisk. It is used for lining oil wells, and also for
harbour works and other purposes. There were nine
large cement factories at Novorossiisk in 1917, with an
annual output of 4,600,000 barrels, the most important
being the Black Sea Cement Manufactory, the
Franco-Russian Cement Manufactory, and the Zep
Cement Works.
Leather-work is a fairly extensive industry, of which
the chief centres are Alexandropol, Elisavetopol,
Shusha, and Tiflis. Tanning is done at Tiflis, and
saddlery is well made in Daghestan and the Black Sea
districts.
Metallic and Allied Industries.—The copper and zinc
smelting works have already been mentioned (see pp. 63-
64 and 67). There are iron foundries at Ekaterinodar,
Baku, Tiflis, Batum, and Armavir. ‘ Colonist ’ reap¬
ing machines are made at Novorossiisk, and galvanized
iron roofing and hardware goods at a factory at Baku.
Among manufactures subsidiary to the oil industry
are those of oil-cases and oil-cans, carried on at Baku
and Batum, and of wire rope, carried on at several
factories at Baku. The manufacture of small-arms,
once a flourishing industry, is declining, but is still
carried on at Tiflis and Nukha and in the bazaars
of Daghestan and Sukhum. The number of skilled
native workers in enamel, filigree, and inlaid metal¬
ware is also decreasing.
The milling industry is second in importance only
to the refining of oil. There are many flour-mills
worked by water-power; those in Stavropol produce
300,000 tons of flour per annum, and those in Kuban,
about the same amount; the mills of the Black Sea
district give some 20,000 tons yearly. Besides the
flour-mills, there are also mills for crushing sunflower
seed, linseed, and cotton seed.
The oil refineries are the most important manufactur¬
ing enterprises in the country. They exist at Baku,
Caucasia J MANUFACTURES 75
Grozni, and Ekaterinodar, and, on a smaller scale, at
Armavir. There are a number of large refineries at Black
Town, near Baku, where crude oil is refined to produce
kerosene. In 1914 the oil products received from the
stills amounted to 4,354,000 tons, while in 1916 there
were nearly 5,000 men employed. At Ekaterinodar
the oil from Maikop is treated, and the decline in the
production from that field has greatly reduced the
industry there.
Potash is made in Kuban from sunflower stalks, and
in 1910 a combine of eighteen firms of potash manu¬
facturers was formed. The industry has doubtless
been affected by the decline of sunflower cultiva¬
tion (p. 54).
Of the textile industries, which are in a very backward
state, silk-weaving and carpet-making are the most
highly developed. Silk is woven at Tiflis, and since
the revival of sericulture, steam silk-mills have been
started at Shusha and in the Elisavetopol Government.
Felt and carpets are made at home by women chiefly
at Shusha, but also at Akhaltsikh, Akhalkalaki, Gadrut,
Kasapet, and Kubrassy—with wool bought from the
Tatars. Both hand-knitted and woven woollen goods
are made. Cotton is spun at Tiflis and Akhaltsikh,
and a rough cotton stuff called Ichami and a little linen
of indifferent quality are woven by hand.
There are seventeen tobacco factories in Caucasia,
six being in Tiflis, four in Kuban, two in Daghestan,
two in Baku, two in Sukhum, and one in Terek. The
industry is controlled by a dozen large firms, and the
output in 1914 was 2,395 tons.
Wine-making and Distilling.—There is a good deal of
wine made, especially in the Province of Kutais ; the
best quality is produced in the Gelendjik district, and
Echmiadzin is one of the great centres. The best
known type of wine is the Riesling. At Abrau, a Crown
estate near Novorossiisk, is made the Abrau-Dursan
champagne, which is considered equal to a good
French champagne. The total output of wine in
Caucasia was 27,449,350 gallons in 1911 and nearly
76 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [No. 84

22,000,000 gallons in 1914. Were French methods of

manufacture employed more extensively, the industry
might be greatly developed. There is an Italian firm at
Kislovodsk in Terek which makes Riesling and other
wines under modern conditions.
Distilling is in part an independent industry and in
part a means of utilizing the inferior wines. In 1913
there were 15 distilleries—8 in Kuban, 4 in Terek,
2 in Stavropol, and 1 in Kutais—and the output of
alcohol in that year was 8,193,000 gallons, of which
more than two-thirds were distilled in Kuban.
Other industries of the country may be very briefly
enumerated. A tea factory has recently been opened
at Chavka, and has an annual output of about 55 tons,
and other factories are (or were) being built with
Government aid at Baku and Ozurgeti. A beet-sugar
factory, started in 1913 at Gulevichi, was brought to
a standstill for want of beetroot in 1914. There are
three saw-mills at Tiflis ; the Italian firm of Sbrajavacca
has saw-mills at Socilava and Poti, which turn out
300 cubic metres daily, and Ananov Brothers have
small saw-mills in Kutais, driven by electric power.
A factory for making bamboo furniture was opened at
Chavka in 1907. There are nine brick and tile factories
at Baku and four tile factories at Tiflis, while pottery
works have been opened at Ksauka, Tiflis, by an
Italian firm, which also makes tiles. Soap is made at
Tiflis, and sulphuric acid at Baku.

(7) Power
In 1914 there were ten chief power-stations : near
Beli Ugol on the Podkumka river (1,000 horse-power) ;
near Sukhum on the Besletk river (owned by the
Sukhum Electric Co.) ; near Gagri on the Jockvar
river (working the climatic station) ; at Batum (water-
driven), supplying Batum with electricity ; at Kutais,
supplying power for Ananov Brothers’ saw-mills ; at
Sanain (700 horse-power), belonging to the Caucasus
Metallurgical Co. ; at Katar copper mines (Sangesur
Caucasia] POWER; DOMESTIC COMMERCE 77
district) ; at Dzansul copper mines (1,000 horse¬
power) ; and two at Erivan.
Smaller electric plants are to be found at New
Athos Monastery (at Goro) ; at Borzhom, on the Grand
Ducal estates ; and at Akhalkalaki, in private hands.
The electric power-stations on the Baku oil-fields
have already been mentioned (see p. 73).
The water-power offered by the rapid streams of the
Caucasus has hitherto been almost entirely neglected,
but in 1914 an important scheme was set on foot for
the erection of two large power-stations, one on the
Terek at Kazbek on the Georgian Military Road, and
the other at Elenoffka, in Erivan, utilizing the waters
of Lake Gokcha. The concession for the erection of
turbines and generators for supplying power to all the
industrial centres of Caucasia as well as for the lighting
of cities was granted to a British company, and pre¬
liminary work had been carried out by August 1914.
A scheme was also under discussion in 1913 and
1914 for utilizing the refuse-laden overflow of the River
Kvirili for generating electric power to be used in
ferro-manganese furnaces.

(C) COMMERCE
(1) Domestic
(a) Towns, Markets, and Fairs
Baku, besides being the refining centre for the oil
produced in the neighbouring fields, is also a distribut¬
ing centre for the imports of Central Persia and Trans-
caspia. The volume of trade which passed through
Baku to and from Persia and Russian Central Asia in
1912 amounted to over 5,000,000 tons, and was steadily
increasing in 1914 at the expense of that of the trans-
Armenian and trans-Mesopotamian routes. The popu¬
lation of Baku and the adjacent oil-fields in 1914
amounted to nearly 380,000. In 1909 the municipality
raised a loan of £2,842,000 (of which £1,300,000 was
78 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

subscribed in London) for the purpose of a new water-

supply* drainage, and the construction of an electric
station. Only the first of these three works has been
carried out. A description of the port of Baku is given
above, p. 45.
Elcaterinodar is the centre of the increasingly im¬
portant trade in tobacco. It has an annual fair, at
which the value of goods exchanged is said to be about
£400,000. There are several refineries, dealing with
oil from the Maikop fields. As the town is both an
agricultural and an industrial centre, experimental
fruit-farms and technical schools have been opened
there.
Tiflis, the seat of Government, is a fine modern
town, with electric light, electric trams, and cold
storage facilities. Only in the oriental quarter are
there open bazaars. It is the distributing centre for
Russian manufactured goods, and also does a large
transit trade in Persian exports.
Vladikavkaz is the principal town of Ciscaucasia and
an important agricultural centre. Elisavetopol is a
centre for trade in wine, fruit, and cotton ; Erivan
and Kutais for trade in wine and fruit. Stavropol,
Akhaltsikh, Alexandropol, Kars, Grozni, Nukha, and
Maikop are all agricultural centres, the last especially
for wine, while Nukha, Akhaltsikh, and Alexandropol
are particularly concerned with fruit. Grozni and
Maikop are also petroleum centres.
The principal centres of industry are Tiflis, Baku,
Batum, Ekaterinodar, Shusha, Novorossiislc, and Chavka.
Batum is declining as an industrial centre, whilst
Baku and Ekaterinodar are progressing ; both these
last-named towns doubled their budgets between 1904
and 1909.
All Transcaucasian towns have their bazaars, and
in the less populated and poorer districts monthly fairs
take the place of shops.
Batum, Novorossiisk, Poti, and other ports are
described above (pp. 42-46).
Caucasia] TOWNS; TRADE ORGANIZATIONS 79

(b) Organizations to promote Trade and Commerce

It is only within recent years that any efforts towards
the organization of the trade and industry of Caucasia
have been made, but before the outbreak of war a good
deal had already been done in that direction. ' The
first chamber of commerce in the country was estab¬
lished at Batum in 1910. The number of trade associa-
tions increased rapidly, especially in Ciscaucasia, where
the Cossacks take kindly to co-operation, and many
credit societies were formed.
The chief organizations confined to particular in¬
dustries were the Association of Baku Naphtha Pro¬
ducers, the Manganese Producers’ Association, and the
Caucasian Cotton Growers’ Association. The first of
these levied a tax of 5d. a tin on oil products, which it
expended on hospitals, &c. It had a statistical bureau,
published journals, and held an annual conference
which was attended by delegates from the committees
of the various oil interests and by a representative of
the Minister of Agriculture. The Manganese Pro¬
ducers’ Association also levied a tax, which was devoted
to improvements in plant, &c. It brought pressure to
bear on the State to improve railway facilities and
rolling-stock, and was anxious to secure the connexion
of the mines with the railway, but did not succeed in
this. One of the objects of the Caucasian Cotton
Growers’ Association was to increase the cultivation
of cotton in Caucasia and Russian Central Asia, so that
the Central Russian mills could be fed entirely with
home-grown supplies. Extensive irrigation was among
its schemes.
(c) Foreign Interests
The largest field for the investment of foreign capital
in Caucasia is of course the oil industry. This being
a matter of international finance, it is impossible to
gauge with precision the share which any particular
nation has therein; but it was stated in 1919 by an
expert of the Mining Journal that the controlling
 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
power was the Deutsche Bank. Of the firms engaged
m extracting oil, the Swedish house of Nobel Brothers
has the largest interests, its production being double
that of any other single firm. French companies
financed by the Rothschilds also figure largely in the
Baku fields. The chief of these is the Societe de la
( aspienne et de la Mer Noire, which in 1912 combined
with others, among them the British concern known as
tfie Schibaeff Company, to form the Royal Dutch Shell
Combine, which is said to be responsible for ITS per
cent of the total Baku output. British interests in
x,ak,U fields are comparatively small, but at Grozni
and Maikop they are predominant. During the Maikop
boom sixty-six companies were formed in London, but
of these only five are still working. In 1913 a British
company, the Guria Petroleum Corporation, Ltd.,
acquired a lease of some 70 square miles of land
between Batum and Poti. Estimates of the total
value of British capital invested in Russian oil-fields
vary from £10,000,000 to £17,000,000. Armenian in¬
terests are rapidly increasing, especially in the new oil
districts round Grozni.
Copper is mainly mined with the aid of British
Irench, and American capital. The manganese in¬
dustry, on the other hand, has hitherto been for the
most part in native hands, though in recent years
British, Dutch, German, and French have begun to
participate in it.
Franco-Jewish financiers supplied the capital for the
construction of the Transcaucasian railway, which was
taken over by the State in 1906. In connexion with
the railway expansion schemes of more recent date the
1T^ust Company, having a capital of
£i,uuu,000 and debenture stock amounting to £500,000
was formed to place the shares of the Armavir-Tuapse’
the Black Sea-Kuban, and the Kakhetian railways on
the London' market, principal and interest in each
case being unconditionally guaranteed by the Russian
Government. The same company also invested in the
municipal 5 per cent, gold bonds of the city of Baku.
 FOREIGN INTERESTS 81

British capital has played an important part in various

other public enterprises.
Certain minor commercial undertakings, such as
pottery-making at Tiflis, wine-growing in Terek, and
timber exploitation in the Rion district, are in Italian
hands.
(d) Methods of Economic Penetration
For some years past the Germans have adopted their
usual business methods with success in the Caucasus.1
They appointed agents who spoke Russian fluently,
and who were invested with full powers to act for the
firms they represented. A single firm frequently
offered widely varying lines of goods, of which the
agents could produce samples. All catalogues and price¬
lists were printed with Russian quotations in the
Russian currency, and were therefore much more
popular than those of British firms, which were in¬
variably presented in English only, with prices quoted
in English money.
The nearest British agencies were at Rostov-on-Don.
British firms were unwilling to give the credit expected
by Russian merchants, and appeared indifferent to
local prejudices and preferences in regard to the nature
of goods to be supplied. They were, therefore, at a
disadvantage in competing with the more enterprising
German. In certain lines of goods, such as ready¬
made clothes, haberdashery, boots and shoes, drugs,
all kinds of fancy goods and stationery, Germany and
Austria-Hungary held the market; and they were
beginning to encroach on the steel, agricultural
machinery, engine, and motor trades, once almost
exclusively British.

(2) Trade with Russia

Most of the manufactured goods required by Caucasia
are supplied by Russia, the chief exceptions being
machinery and other metal goods ; produce of various
1 In 1916 a German-Georgian society was established in order to
cultivate economic intercourse between the two countries.
G
82 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [*o.B4
kinds is sent in exchange. Ciscaucasia, indeed, pro¬
duces little that cannot be obtained in other parts
of the Empire, except the oil of Grozni and Maikop ;
but Transcaucasia is in somewhat the same relation to
Russia as a sub-tropical colony to a northern mother
country.
Russia now takes by far the greater part of the
Caucasian oil output. At one time no more went
thither than was shipped to foreign countries, but the
labour troubles of 1905 combined with the competition
of America to deprive Baku of its market not only in
China and Japan but even in Arabia and Mesopotamia.
Compensation for this, loss has, however, been found
in the increased demand from Russia. In 1913, out
of 6,000,000 tons of oil products sent out of Caucasia,
5,000,000 tons went to Russia. Of these, at least
3,000,000 were residuum, which is used as fuel for
steamers, locomotives, and factory boilers ; 1,000,000
were crude oil; and 1,000,000 refined oil. The export
to foreign countries, on the other hand, consisted
almost exclusively of lubricating and illuminating oil.
Other commodities which Caucasia sends to Russia
are copper, tobacco, wine, raw silk and cocoons, wool,
cotton, and fruit. In the case of tobacco, cocoons,
and wool, there is also a foreign export, but it is small
in comparison. Russia also takes practically all the
cement1 which is shipped from Novorossiisk, and
probably the greater part of the live-stock.

(3) Foreign
(a) Exports
It is not easy to come to any conclusion as to the
value of the export trade of Caucasia immediately
before the war. No statistics are available for ship¬
ments from the smaller ports or for overland trade
with Turkey and Persia, but it is unlikely that either
was of considerable value. A more serious difficulty is
with regard to the value of trade passing through the
1 234.000 tons in 1910 ; 301.000 tons in 1912.
CaucasiaJ TRADE WITH RUSSIA; EXPORTS 83
three chief ports—Batum, Novorossiisk, and Poti.
The latest year for which complete figures are available
is 1908, when exports from Batum amounted in value
to £3,242,138, from Novorossiisk to £2,957,686, and from
Poti to £478,345, so that the total value was £6,678,169.
In 1913 the total exports from Batum and Poti
amounted in value to £5,388,172. A moderate estimate
for the export trade of all three ports in that year would
be about £14,000,000. If sales to Russia were reckoned
as part of the export trade, its total value would hardly
have been less than £30,000,000.
The following table shows the value of the principal
exports from the three chief ports in 1908 :
Article. Batum,. Novorossiisk. Poti. Total.
£ £ £ £
Carpets 36,000 36,000
Cement 26,533 26,533
Grain and flour . 40,402 1,573,197 12,735 1,626,334
Liquorice . 93,765 37,687 131,452
Manganese 11,130 — 458,250 469,380
Oil products 2,441,649 363,747 — 2,805,396
Oil-cake 19,334 626,900 — 646,234
Potash 68,632 — 68,632
Seeds (linseed and sun
flower) . 77,574 — 77,574
Silk and cocoons 87,000 ■ — 87,000
Timber 348,200 47,975 6,190 402,365
Tobacco . — 25,272 — 25,272
Wool 48,363 15,624 — 63,987

A few additional particulars may be given with

regard to some of these exports :
Grain and Flour.—Wheat and barley were shipped
largely from Novorossiisk, mainly to Germany direct
or via Holland, while the export from Poti consisted
almost entirely of maize destined for Turkey, Germany,
and elsewhere. The values of the Batum and Poti
exports in 1913 were £201,900 and £99,81-5 respectively.
Liquorice root was shipped from Batum mainly to the
United States. The value of the export in 1913 was
£148,700, but this was above the average, and the
export is said to have ceased.
Manganese exported from Poti in 1913 amounted in
value to £649,780, and that from Batum to £399,800.
G 2
84 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [ No. 54

Most of the Poti manganese went to Germany, which

country in 1913 imported from Russia nearly 447,000
metric tons, most of which, if not all, must have come
from Chiaturi.
Oil.—The market for western Europe has been
captured by America, but considerable quantities were
sent from Caucasia to eastern Europe. The largest
export is from Batum, whence in 1913, 610,400 tons
were shipped, amounting in value to £2,817,300. No
details of the destination of this oil are available. The
shipments from Novorossiisk, exclusive of those to
Russia, amounted in 1913 to 170,339 tons, and were
distributed as follows :
Tons.
France ..... 59,076
Holland ..... 17,000
Great Britain .... 54,993
Germany .... 22,527
Egypt ..... 12,300
Gibraltar .... 4>443
In the same year 26,500 tons were exported direct
from Baku to Persia.
Oil-cake.—The export from Batum in 1913 was
12,445 tons, valued at £77,200. No figures of value are
available for the much larger export of 149,244 tons
from Novorossiisk. Germany was the chief buyer.
Seeds.—The export of linseed seems to have ceased,
but a certain amount of cotton seed was exported to
Liverpool, and the export of sunflower seed rose from
10 tons in 1908 to 5,873 tons in 1913.
Silk and cocoons were exported from Batum only, and
in 1913 the value of the export was £207,700. In 1911,
and presumably in other years, the greater part of the
export consisted of cocoons imported from Persia or
Central Asia. Nearly all the cocoons from the Caucasus
went to Russia.
Timber was shipped from all three ports, but only
at Poti was there a steady increase in the quantity
exported, which rose from 1,541 tons in 1909 to 11,414
tons in 1913 ; this was due to Italian enterprise in the
Caucasia EXPORTS AND IMPORTS 85
Rion district (see above, pp. 61, 76). The export
values from Batum and Poti in 1913 were £27,900 and
£83,590 respectively.
Tobacco was exported from Novorossiisk, and, in
much smaller quantities, from Batum. The Novorossiisk
export gradually increased, as the quality of Kuban
tobacco became better recognized in European markets,
and during the Balkan wars Caucasian tobacco began
to supplement Turkish. In 1913 the total tobacco
export amounted to 4,950 tons, of which 2,000 tons
went to Egypt and most of the rest to Germany and
France, the United States and Great Britain at the
same time taking small quantities. The Sukhum
merchants were anxious to increase the export to the
United States, but were opposed by the American
Tobacco Trust. The value of the[export from Batum
in 1913 was £51,100.
Wool was exported mainly from Batum, but also
from Novorossiisk. The shipments from Batum in 1913
amounted to 4,677 tons, valued at £222,800, and those
from Novorossiisk to 185 tons. In all about 17,000
tons of wool were produced in Caucasia in that year,
the balance being either sold locally or sent overland
to Russia.
(b) Imports
The imports of Caucasia reach a much lower total
value than the exports. Very few statistics are obtain¬
able, no values being given in the British consular
reports except for 1913, and then only for goods received
at Batum. Imports at Novorossiisk were increasing
steadily before 1914, but those at Poti were quite
inconsiderable.
Of the total import value of £582,532 at Batum in
1913, £235,800 was assigned to sundries, and this
heading must include all the textiles, stationery, china
and glass, leather goods, fancy goods, &c. The chief
imports specified were tin plates (for oil cases and cans)
and machinery, of which the respective values were
£112,832 and £106,500. The tin plates were supplied
86 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [No. 54

largely, but probably not exclusively, by Great Britain

and Turkey. The machinery came from America, Great
Britain, and Germany, as well as from Russia. Agri¬
cultural machinery was supplied chiefly by the United
States,with the exception of ploughs, which for the most
part came from Germany. British agricultural imple¬
ments, though frequently found in Ciscaucasia, are rarely
seen in Transcaucasia. France took the leading part in
supplying motor-cars, though they were also imported
from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the United States and
Russia, and a few of superior quality came from Great
Britain. Hardware, house-fittings, lifts, and central¬
heating apparatus were imported exclusively from
Germany. Copper wire and copper sulphate came in
considerable quantities from Great Britain, which also
supplied fire-clay, iron-ware, carbolic acid, and the
best quality of belting, the rest of the belting coming
from Russia and Germany. Steel for Baku came
exclusively from Austria-Hungary and tiles from
France. Coal was imported at Novorossiisk from
Great Britain and Germany : in 1913 Great Britain
supplied 40,000 tons and Germany nearly 11,000 ; in
1914 Great Britain sent 164,000 tons. Small quantities
of chemical fertilizers for experimental purposes were
imported from Great Britain and South America.
Textiles no doubt came in bulk from Russia, but
Germany was working up a trade in haberdashery and
Great Britain supplied a little cloth of fine quality to
Baku. Great Britain had at one time a monopoly of
the supply of china and glass, but in 1914 the supply
came from Continental Europe.
The share of Great Britain in European trade with
Caucasia was estimated in 1910 to be about
17 per cent., but in the import of certain classes of
goods the competition of Germany was making itself
more and more severely felt (see also above, p. 81).

(c) Transit Trade

Caucasia does a large and increasing transit trade
between Europe on the one side and Persia and Russian
Caucasia] IMPORTS; TRANSIT TRADE 87
Central Asia on the other. In respect of trade with
Persia it has largely supplanted Mesopotamia and
Turkish Armenia, partly on account of the prohibition
of the transit of goods from Europe to Persia through
these countries, and partly on account of the superiority
of the railway system. Baku is the chief centre of
this trade, which is facilitated by the regular services
between that port and Astara, Enzeli, and Bandar-i-Gaz.
The total volume of trade which passed through Baku
in 1912 was 5,338,837 tons, made up of exports from
Persia, 194,249 tons, from Russian Central Asia, 583,774
tons ; imports 'into Persia, 90,946 tons, into Russian
Central Asia, 4,469,868 tons.
The chief articles exported from Persia in that year
were rice, 68,135 tons ; grain, 66,262 tons; cotton seed,
20,645 tons ; wool and carpets, 6,516 tons ; fruit, 5,914
tons ; and timber, 4,056 tons. The export of raisins
from Persia is a new and promising branch of trade.
The chief articles from Russian Central Asia were
crude oil, 182,490 tons; timber, 122,963 tons ; fish,
11,223 tons; drinking water, 98,310 tons; fruit,
5,859 tons ; and cotton seed, 3,200 tons.
The chief articles imported by Persia were sugar,
49,796 tons ; kerosene, 24,302 tons ; flour, 9,692 tons ;
metals, 2,095 tons ; and manufactured goods, 1,701
tons.
The chief articles imported by Russian Central Asia
were petroleum products, 4,313,971 tons ; rice, 35,779
tons ; flour, 28,200 tons ; metals, 15,000 tons ; sugar,
8,232 tons ; fruit, 7,966 tons ; provisions, 6,872 tons ;
and tea, 6,624 tons.
The transit trade in tea had declined in comparison
with 1910, when it amounted to about 18,000 tons (one-
third from China and two-thirds from India).
These statistics from Baku only represent a part of
the Russo-Persian transit trade, since considerable
quantities of goods used to come by sea to Poti or
Batum and were forwarded by rail through Tiflis and
Julfa, a roundabout route, but the shortest available.
The completion of the Julfa-Tabriz line in 1917 will
88 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS j No. 54

have greatly facilitated trade by this route. A direct

line from Batum to Kars would, however, effect a still
greater economy of cost and time.
A part of the Russian transit trade with Transcaspia
and Persia passes through Petrovsk when the Volga
is frozen. No statistics of this trade are available.

(D) FINANCE
(1) Public Finance
As a large portion of the Caucasus has only recently
been incorporated into the Russian Empire, and parts
of the country have been vacated by the former
inhabitants owing to their dislike for Christian rule,
the country has been treated more as a colony than
as an integral portion of Russia. Details of revenue
and expenditure are not easily available. It would,
however, seem that vast sums have been spent in the past
on settling the country, building military roads, &c., and
that, owing to the rapid expansion of the oil industry
and to fair success in some other mining ventures,
together with sound agricultural development and the
repute the country has gained as a tourist resort and
for its medicinal springs, the revenue was gradually
being adjusted to expenditure. The revenue is stated
to have risen by 35 per cent, between 1906 and 1910.
Taxation in Russia as a whole was mainly indirect,
only about 8 per cent, of the revenue being derived
from direct taxes on land and trades and industries.
Excise revenue furnished about 22 per cent., duties
about 8 per cent., royalties (including the profit on the
spirit monopoly) about 30 per cent., and profits from
State undertakings (forests, railways, State factories,
&c.) about 30 per cent. For the Caucasus considered
separately, these proportions might differ in certain
particulars. It is not possible to trace the incidence of
expenditure in the Caucasus at all.
Local taxation is either urban or rural. In 1912
nine towns were entitled to raise revenue for urban
Caucasia] PUBLIC FINANCE ; BANKING 89
purposes, and in that year their aggregate revenue
amounted to some £1,250,000 and their aggregate debt
to £1,800,000. Baku had a revenue of £670,000 in
1912, Tiflis of £218,000, and Ekaterinodar of £147,000.
The remaining towns had revenues of less than
£50,000 each.
Rural taxation in Russia was undertaken by the
zemstvos. Caucasia, however, had no zemstvos, and local
matters were administered by official boards. The
Province of Stavropol acquired a zemstvo in 1912,
but no record of its activities is available.
(2) Currency
The paper money and coinage current in Caucasia
is that of the Russian Empire, but certain silver coins
of the old Georgian currency are still in circulation,
namely, the shaur (worth 5 kopecks, or about Id.),
the half abaz (10 kopecks), the abaz (20 kopecks), and
the two abaz (40 kopecks).
(3) Banking
The most important distinctively Caucasian bank is
the Banque de Caucase, or Banque de Commerce de
Tiflis, which has its head office at Tiflis and branches
at Baku, Batum, Elisavetopol, Erivan, Grozni, Kars,
Kutais, and Nukha. Smaller Caucasian banks are the
Tiflis Agrarian Bank at Tiflis, the Tifliser Kaufmanns-
bank at Tiflis, and the North Caucasian Commercial
Bank at Armavir.
The following Russian banks have branches in the
Caucasus: the Imperial State Bank,1 at Armavir,
Baku, Batum, Ekaterinodar, Erivan, Stavropol, Tiflis,
and Vladikavkaz; the Banque Russo-asiatique (of
Petrograd), at Armavir, Baku, Batum, Yeisk, Ekateri¬
nodar, Grozni, Novorossiisk, and Vladikavkaz ; the
Banque de Commerce de VAzoff-Don (of Petrograd), at
Armavir, Elisavetopol, Erivan, Yeisk, Grozni, Novo¬
rossiisk, Poti, Stavropol, Tiflis, and Vladikavkaz ; the
1 The functions of the Imperial State Bank are described in
Don and Volga Basins, No. 53 of this series, p. 100.
90 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS No. 54

Volga-Kama Commercial Bank (of Petrograd), at

Armavir, Baku, Ekaterinodar, Grozni, and Tiflis, with
sub-agencies at Elisavetopol, Erivan, Kutais, Maikop,
and Novorossiisk ; the Russian Bank for Foreign Trade
(of Petrograd), at Armavir, Baku, Yeisk, Ekaterinodar,
and Novorossiisk ; the Russian Commercial and In¬
dustrial Bank (of Petrograd), at Armavir, Baku,
Ekaterinodar, Novorossiisk, Petrovsk, and Stavropol;
the Banque de V Union (of Moscow), at Baku and
Batum ; and the Banque Internationale de Commerce
de Petrograd, at Baku and Tiflis.
The Peasants’ Land Bank, a State institution, advances
money on the security of their crops to peasants
desirous of acquiring land. Loans are made either to
village communes, to associations of peasants, or to
individuals ; 2,297 such loans were made between 1883
and 1914—1,463 to individuals, 782 to associations of
peasants, and 52 to communes.
Of late years there has been a great increase in the
number of co-operative banks—including credit societies
(open and mutual), joint-stock mortgage institutions,
and mutual mortgage institution^—and a less marked
increase in the smaller communal loan and savings
banks. There were 95 mutual mortgage institutions in
1912. In 1914 there were 633 open credit associations,
with a total membership of 308,952, and a total grant of
loans to the value of £2,047,071 ; and 217 associations
of mutual credit and savings, with a membership of
105,358, and a total grant of loans to the value of
£1,296,706. Kuban has by far the greater proportion
of both kinds of credit association. Of the smaller
communal loan and savings banks there were 106 in
1914, of which 102 were in Stavropol.

(E) GENERAL REMARKS

Caucasia as a whole is handicapped by the length and
severity of its winters and the mountainous character
of the country. Up to 1914 little had been done to
relieve these natural disabilities by the provision of
Caucasia] BANKING; GENERAL REMARKS 91
railways and roads, or of adequate accommodation at
the ports. A further disadvantage lies in the lack of
union among the population, accentuated of late by
the increase of political power among the Armenians.
The exodus of the Turks, who owned the prosperous
tea and tobacco plantations, was an economic loss,
though they may be replaced by the Armenians, Tatars,
or Georgians.
The British consular report for 1913 described
Caucasia as a poverty-stricken country, making only
the slowest progress. This estimate seems harsh in
view of the increasing exports from the three chief
ports and the development of the large Russian oil
trade. The oil-fields, however, are exploited by inter¬
national capital, so that most of the profits derived
from the trade leave the country. It should be noted,
too, that in the new fields oil is found at greater depths
than in the old, so that, unless American deep-drilling
methods are introduced, production may cease to be
profitable. The manganese industry has made great
advances, but so far has yielded small profits only, on
account of the cost of transport. The increased value
of the cereal exports has chiefly benefited a few large
landowners.
The fact remains that Caucasia contains great
natural wealth, little exploited as yet. There are
openings for development in the use of its forests and
water-power; in the exploitation of minerals and
mineral springs ; in the cultivation of fruit, vines, tea,
and, with the help of scientific irrigation, of cotton ;
and in the production of silk.
Novorossiisk has already shown a remarkable in¬
crease in prosperity, although, since its bombardment
by the Turks, trade has temporarily deserted it. It
was long since pointed out that, with improved harbour
facilities and the increase of oil production, Batum had
a fair chance of becoming a port of world-wide impor¬
tance.
Caucasia] SHIPPING; MINERAL OIL

* Other Sources of which an unknown proportion is of Transcaspian origin, so that the totals for 1912, 1913, and 1914
1 The Maikop and other productions of 1914 and various other productions in 1912 and 1913 are classified under
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94 [No. 54

AUTHORITIES
Historical
Baddeley, J. F. The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus.
London, 1908.
Brosset, M. F. Histoire de la Georgie. Petersburg 1849.
Esadze, B. S. Letopis’ Gruzii. Tiflis, 1913.
Khakanov, A. S. Histoire de Georgie. Paris, 1900.
Kovalevski, P. I. Zavoevanie Kavkaza Rossiey. Petersburg,
1911*
Vermishev, K. A. Materialy dlya Istorii gruzino-armyanslcikh
otnosheniy. Petersburg, 1904.
Wardrop, J. 0. The Kingdom of Georgia. London, 1888.

Economic
British Diplomatic and Consular Reports, Annual Series
Reports for the years 1905-14 on the Trade of Batoum.
Italian Consular Reports. II Caucaso : Risorse, commerci ed
emigrazione italiana. 1913.
Recueil des donnees^ statistiques et economiques sur VIndustrie
agricole en Russie et dans les pays etrangeres. 1916.
Russian Year Book, 1914-17.
Statistical Information concerning the Mininq Industry of Russia
Petersburg, 1910.
IIin’gelstedt, V. Small Trades of the Caucasus (Scottish
Geographical Magazine, March 1892).
Drake, F. The Manganese Ore Industry (Colliery Guardian
July 8, 1898). V J
Engelbrecht, Th. H. Landwirtschaftlicher Atlas des Russisch-
en Reiches in Europa und Asien. Berlin, 1916.
Henry, J. D. Baku : an eventful history. London, 1905.
Mavor, James. Economic History of Russia. London, 1914.
Pares, Bernard. Russia and Reform. London, 1907.
Raffalovich, Arthur (editor). Russia : its Trade and Com¬
merce. London, 1918.
Redwood, Sir B., and A. W. Eastlake. The Petroleum
Technologist’s Pocket-Book. London, 1915.
Caucasia j AUTHORITIES 95
Thompson, A. Beeby. The Oil Fields of Russia. 2nd edition.
London, 1908.
Petroleum Mining and Oil Field Development. London,
1910.
Financial News, January 1919.
Mining Journal, 1910-14.
Russian Review, 1912, 1913.
Times (Russian Supplements), 1911, 1913-17.

Maps
Caucasia is covered by five sheets (Batum, K. 37 ; Tiflis,
K. 38 ; Baku, K. 39 ; Rostov, L. 37 ; Praskoveya, L. 38) of
the International Map (G.S.G.S. 2758) published by the War
Office, on the scale of 1 : 1,000,000.
A special map of Caucasia, on the scale of 1 : 2,027,520, has
been published by the War Office (G.S.G.S. 2167).
 LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY H. M. STATIONERY OFFICE.
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H. M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addresses
Imperial House, Kingsway, London, W.C. 2, and
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37 Peter Street, Manchester ;
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or from E. PONSONBY, Ltd., 116 Grafton Street, Dublin.

1920.
Price 2/- net.