Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 3 - From Marx to Mao

284
V. I. LENIN
has assumed the clearly expressed speculative character
of an industry” (p. 145), developing particularly on rented
virgin and disused land. Moreover, it is noted that in some
gubernias, where free land is still available (virgin soil,
wasteland, forest-cleared tracts), flax growing is particularly
expanding, but in some of the old established flax-growing
gubernias “the cultivation of flax is either on the old scale
or is even yielding place, for example, to the newly-introduced
cultivation of root-crops, vegetables, etc.” (Vestnik
Finansov, 1898, No. 6, p. 376, and 1897, No. 29), i.e., to
other types of commercial farming.
As for flax exports, during the first two decades after the
Reform they increased with remarkable rapidity: from an
average of 4.6 million poods in the years 1857-1861 to
8.5 million poods in the years 1867-1871 and to 12.4
million poods in the years 1877-1881; but then exports seemed
to become stationary, amounting in the years 1894-1897 to
an average of 13.3 million poods.* The development of commercial
flax growing led, naturally, to exchange not only
between agriculture and industry (sale of flax and purchase
of manufactured goods), but between different types of
commercial agriculture (sale of flax and purchase of grain).
The following data concerning this interesting phenomenon
clearly demonstrate that a home market for capitalism
is created not only by the diversion of population from
agriculture to industry, but also by the specialisation of
commercial farming.**
Railway traffic to and from Pskov (“flax”)
Gubernia. (Averages, in thousand poods)
PeriodsOutgoing Incoming grain
flax and flour
1860-1861 255.9 43.4
1863-1864 551.1 464.7
1865-1866 793.0 842.6
1867-1868 1,053.2 1,157.9
1869-1870 1,406.9 1,809.3
* The figures are for the exports of flax, flax-combings and tow.
See Historico-Statistical Survey, P. Struve, Critical Remarks and
Vestnik Finansov, 1897, No. 26, and 1898, No. 36.
** See N. Strokin, Flax Growing in Pskov Gubernia, St. Petersburg,
1882. The author borrowed these data from the Proceedings
of the Commission on Taxation.