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

408
V. I. LENIN
far back as the first half of the 18th century and reached
the peak of its development in the 60s of the 19th century
having become “a stable organisation of a purely commercial
character.” The whole business was monopolised by
contractors, who bought the leather and gave it out to be
processed by handicraftsmen. The railways destroyed this
monopoly character of capital, and the capitalist contractors
transferred their capital to more profitable undertakings.
Today it is organised as follows: there are about
120 big entrepreneurs; they own workshops where wageworkers
are employed, and also distribute work to homes;
there are as many as 3,000 small independent masters
(who, however, buy their leather from the big ones); there
are 400 people who work at home (for the big masters),
and as many wage-workers; then there are the apprentices.
The total number of boot-makers is over 4,000. In
addition, there are handicraft potters, icon-case makers,
icon painters, table-cloth weavers, etc.
A highly characteristic and typical example of capitalist
manufacture is the squirrel-fur industry in Kargopol
Uyezd, Olonets Gubernia, described with such knowledge of
the facts, and with truthful and artless presentation of the
whole life of the industrial population by a craftsman and
teacher in the Transactions of the Handicraft Commission
(Vol. IV). According to his description (in 1878), the
industry has existed since the beginning of the 19th century:
8 masters employ 175 workers, in addition to which
they have as many as 1,000 seamstresses and some 35 families
of furriers working for them at home (in different villages),
1,300 to 1,500 persons in all, with an output totalling
336,000 rubles. As a point of interest, it should be noted
that when this was a flourishing industry it was not included
in the “factory” statistics. The Directory for 1879 makes
no mention of it. But when it began to decline the statistics
included it. The Directory for 1890 listed for the town and
the uyezd of Kargopol 7 works, with 121 workers and an output
totalling 50,000 rubles, whereas the List gave 5 works, with
79 workers (plus 57 outside) and an output totalling 49,000
rubles.* The order of things prevailing in this branch of
* Here is some information about the “handicraftsmen” relating
to 1894. “The squirrel furs are sewn by some of the poorest women