although the North-West Mongolian trade still remains chiefly influenced by the Siberian markets, the whole of the East and South-East Mongolian trade, which is by far the most important, trends more and more towards Central China.
But not only is the economic influence of Inner China extending more outside the Great Wall than formerly, but the influence of the Siberian markets has correspondingly begun to decline within the last ten years. As I have shown above, the Mongolian raw material trade is gradually passing into the hands of the Chinese traders, and its exchange is effected almost entirely through the medium of silver, which passes from the Siberian wool trader into the hands of Chinese and Mongol officials, and the Lama monasteries. Cheap Chinese manufactures, moreover, are everywhere beginning to overrun the land and to undersell the goods which the Siberian wool traders have to offer in return for the raw material of the Mongol. The cause of this phenomenon is not far to seek.
The industrial system of the Russian Empire is still backward, and, although it is developing steadily, its imperfect condition can be judged by the fact that it only very partially supplies even its own home markets. Any export of manufacture, therefore, from Russia can only be carried on successfully, under present conditions, to those countries across her eastern frontiers, where an even lower standard of industrial development exists than within the Russian Empire itself. Mongolia and similar countries, such as Persia and Chinese Turkestan, have provided these markets in the past. Russia's export trade to these countries is, however, on an insecure basis, and the
