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

424
V. I. LENIN
predominates,” and “four of the buyers-up have no workshops
at all.”*
The samovar and accordion industries in Tula town and
environs are highly typical examples of capitalist manufacture.
Generally speaking, the “handicraft” industries
in this district have a long history, dating back to the
15th century.** They evidenced a particularly rapid
development in the middle of the 17th century; Mr. Borisov
considers that the second period in the development of the
Tula industries then began. In 1637 the first iron foundry
was built (by the Dutchman Vinius). The Tula gunsmiths
formed a separate smiths’ suburb, constituted a separate
social estate, enjoying special rights and privileges. In 1696
the first iron foundry was erected in Tula by a famous Tula
blacksmith, and the industry spread to the Urals and
Siberia.*** Then began the third period in the history of the
Tula industries. The craftsmen set up their own workshops
and taught the trade to surrounding peasants. In the 1810s
and 1820s the first samovar factories were started. “By
1825 there were in Tula 43 different factories that belonged
to gunsmiths, while those in existence at the present time
nearly all belong to one-time gunsmiths, now Tula
merchants” (loc. cit., 2262). Here, consequently, we observe
a direct continuity and connection between the old guildmasters
and the principals of subsequent capitalist manufacture.
In 1864 the Tula gunsmiths were freed from serf
dependence 140 and assigned to the burgher estate; earnings
dropped as a consequence of the severe competition of the
village handicraftsmen (which caused a reverse flow of
industrialists from town to country); the workers turned to
the samovar, lock, cutlery, and accordion industries (the
first Tula accordions appeared in 1830-1835).
The samovar industry is at present organised as follows.
It is headed by big capitalists who own workshops employ-
* Vestnik Finansov, 1898, No. 42.
** See Mr. V. Borisov’s article in Transactions of the Handicraft
Commission, Vol. IX.
*** The Tula blacksmith, Nikita Demidov Antufyev, won Peter
the Great’s favour by building an ironworks near the town of Tula;
in 1702 he was granted the Nevyansk works. His descendants were
the famous Urals iron manufacturers, the Demidovs.