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and Belgian capital is already placed in the principal Ukrainian enterprises, but the greatest field still remains open. Besides these industrial enterprises, there still remains new railways to be built, quays and canals to be constructed, and the rivers have to be rendered more navigable.
One often hears that the Ukraine is economically tied to Russia. Certainly two neighbouring countries have always had more or less relations between each other. But the economic relations of the Ukraine and Northern Russia have never been very great.
What has Russia given to the Ukraine? Thanks to the protectionist policy of the Russian Empire, the Ukraine had to consume the products of the Northern industry, but the products of this industry were very inferior to the products of France, England, and America, also they were much dearer.
On the other hand, Russia did not constitute an important market for the Ukraine. The exportation of cereals to Russia never reached a very high figure (less than 15 per cent. of the exportation of Ukrainian corn). Besides, Russia herself possesses great resources upon which she has not drawn sufficiently. Taking into consideration the corn, she has the huge plains of the Volga, which should be sufficient for her own supply and allow even for exportation. It is only since the Bolshevik anarchy, the lands remaining uncultivated, that Russia has lacked the corn.
It is also said that the whole of the basin of the Donetz is necessary for the supply of Russia. Now more than three-quarters of the productions of this basin have always remained in the Ukraine. The Ukrainian Metallurgical Industry alone requires more than 30 per cent. of the total production of the Donetz. Northern Russia chiefly consumes the coal from Germany and England. The Moscow industry also uses the naphtha of Baku, and the wood and coal which we find in the environs of Moscow.
However, the Ukrainian Republic ought always to seek to effect economic arrangements with Russia. The
