estuary to be accomplished by Siberian ships during the three months that the water is open.
More important perhaps than the navigation problem is the special attention which must be given to the kind of cargo for import into Central Siberia, so as to secure the readiest sale without difficulties with the customs authorities. All projected attempts have failed hitherto to take sufficient precautions on this point, and often trouble with the customs authorities on the Yenisei estuary and at Krasnoyarsk has ensued. At present the customs duties levied on the mouth of the Yenisei in accordance with the Imperial Tariff, added to the freight charges, would make the goods which are sent by the All-Sea Route so expensive on the Siberian markets, that they would not be able to compete with those sent by the direct route from Moscow by the Siberian railway. If, however, some of these duties were remitted or abated, a handsome profit on the transport of certain goods by this route would result. Sugar, for example, costing in European Russia 14 kopeks per lb. wholesale, of which 9 kopeks per lb. is excise tax, could, if the duty were remitted, be sold at such a price as to leave a profit after paying 9 kopeks for freight. Profits could also be made on tea transported from European Russia or Western Europe to Siberia by this route, if excise and customs duties were remitted. But the opening of the markets of Central Siberia to free importation from Western Europe, would be opposed to the interests of certain great manufacturing trusts in Moscow and St Petersburg, which fear the extension of this principle to other parts of the empire. The Russian sugar refiners and cotton printers of Moscow and the Polish towns would not
