have evolved mainly through their own innate forces, Russia has at all times called for the vivifying influence of the more advanced lands and received it in men and in capital. Inhabited by wandering and warring tribes, ravaged by the Mongolian invasions, cut off from easy access by the inclemency of the seasons which periodically closed the Baltic approach, that great Continental plain remained in a condition of semi-barbarism after its Western neighbours had proceeded a good way on the road of civilisation. Greeks from Byzantium and Scandinavians were the forerunners, but from the end of the fifteenth century Italians, Danes, Germans, and English were brought over by the Tsars to instruct their people. The history of this process of education is the theme of Dr. Ischchanian's book. He traces all its ramifications and assembles all the available information in a manner useful alike to the historian of culture and to the business man studying the scientific basis of investment.

Roughly speaking there were two colonisations, one by men, the other by money. The former has two modes, the earlier being the introduction of instructors, as we know from the familiar stories of Peter the Great; the second, as followed by Catharine and her successors, of the settlement of German agricultural colonies in Poland, South Russia, and Transcaucasia. In 1890 there were 310,000 such colonists in South Russia, in 1901 there were 600,000 in Poland. The administrative measures by which that movement were furthered are set forth in detail by the author and are of much interest. The colonies have been economically successful, but their civilising influence, in his opinion, has been very limited. With the nineteenth century we come to the exploitation of Russian material resources by foreign men and capital. The textile industries of Poland and of Moscow are German; the coal and iron industries are Belgian and French; the petroleum industry is Swedish and English. Of course, men of all nations took part in each industry, but the dominant nationalities are as stated. Most noteworthy is the story of Ludwig Knoop, of Bremen, who stood as the intermediary between English capital and Russia in the 'forties and 'fifties. He was the guarantor of credit; he founded spinning mills and equipped them with English machinery-in his life-time he founded 122; he was the great organiser and also a monopolistic and speculative contractor. The Russian proverb ran, "Where there is a church, there is a priest; where there is a factory-a Knoop." All this development is carefully traced out with lists of companies, their capitals, and their dividends. Parallel with it there is an analysis

of the foreign population of Russia and its activities. The growth of the Russian national debt is also described, and its burdensome character, owing to its unproductive nature, is also brought out. France is the chief creditor; Britain took part mainly in loans for railway development.

HENRY W. MACROSTY

The Control of Trusts. By J. B. CLARK and J. M. CLARK. Enlarged and rewritten. (The Macmillan Company. Price 4s. 6d. net.)

THIS larger edition of Professor Clark's earlier book contains an interesting development of his scheme for dealing with the great corporations. It should be read in connection with President Wilson's chapters on the same subject in his book The New Freedom, and Mr. Stevens' valuable collection of original documents. Professor Clark holds that it is possible, by a variety of different safeguards applied at different points, to retain the Trusts as a valuable result of economic evolution and regulate their action in the public interest. The field must be kept open for the independent producer, both actual and possible, mainly by the suppression of that formidable method of Trust activity, the discriminated price. Professor Clark believes this can be met by the enforcement of a level price, at least within certain areas, and with the possible help of the zone system of transport rates; and by such a reduction of the tariff as will prevent the huge subsidies out of which these local "cuts" have been financed. This is the main theme of his argument; the instrument of its application to be an Interstate Trade Commission on the lines of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

The points which seem to me of most interest in the argument, which is closely reasoned and of great economic value, are, in the first place, the claim that a rigorous suppression of combinations cannot be afforded in view of their possible working economies, the more so when the land is taken up, and a nation is thrown back for its future sustenance on industrial invention; and, in the second place, the phenomenon of competition called in as a remedy for the evils of combination-competition which was the disease which combination was itself to cure. The interlacing of these two economic forces, as both in their measure necessary to economic life and progress, is the moral of the argument.

D. H. MACGREGOR

Leasehold Enfranchisement. By E. A. COLLINS. (London: 1913. Pp. 117.)

P. S. King and Son. 1913.

MR. COLLINS writes as an advocate of compulsory enfranchisement. In the main, he bases his case on a general statement of the leaseholder's grievances. This is to be regretted. No one would now deny that the leasehold system is capable of abuse, and that, in fact, it sometimes is abused. The extent of the evil is more difficult to ascertain. Mr. Collins throws no light on that point. True, he tells us that he has twenty-five years' experience as a solicitor in London, and his general impressions are therefore entitled to some weight. But the leasehold system which is the rule in London is the exception in the country as a whole. We are not confident that Mr. Collins has altogether avoided the mistake-so common in Londoners-of assuming that the metropolis is typical of all large towns. At any rate, he affords us no material for a quantitative analysis of the situation.

The fact that an evil is not widespread is, of course, no reason for neglecting it if the remedies proposed are effective and do not involve any considerable inconveniences. It is doubtful whether the somewhat old-fashioned proposal which Mr. Collins supports satisfies either of these conditions. He suggests that all future leases (other than mining leases) granted for a life or lives, or with a perpetual right of renewal or for terms exceeding thirty years, should by statute include the same right of compulsory purchase as is now given to railway companies and other corporate bodies. This right should be given also to the holders of existing leases that fall within the above definition. Contracting out should be forbidden. There is one serious weakness in this scheme, as in all schemes of a like nature. If a long lease is made to carry with it an option to buy the freehold, there will be a tendency among owners who object to selling outright-and Mr. Collins tells us that they are numerous-to substitute for the long lease a short lease with a tacit undertaking to renew. The short lease is open, in a greater or less degree, to almost all the objections that apply to the long lease, and its tenure is less. secure. With the details of Mr. Collins's plan we have not space to deal. It must suffice to remark that he considerably underrates the difficulties in his way. It is surprising, for instance, to find a lawyer calmly accepting the principles of valuation laid down in the Lands Clauses Acts, and in the case-law that has grown up round them, as "a system that has worked satisfactorily" the tendency of all recent legislation providing for the compulsory purchase of land is to override and upset that system.

Though Mr. Collins is chiefly concerned with leasehold enfranchisement, he makes one or two other proposals which are more in accord with the trend of modern opinion. Thus he would empower the leaseholder to have onerous covenants set aside by showing cause before a permanent Commission constituted for this and similar duties. In the case of short leases the leaseholder should, he urges, have a statutory right of renewal subject to an appeal to the Commission. There seems to be a growing consensus of opinion that the problems connected with the tenure of land are to be solved by the institution of some such machinery for arbitration between landlord and tenant, rather than by rigid regulations like the statutory provision for a universal right of compulsory enfranchisement. But those who wish to obtain a clear and concise statement of the arguments advanced by the older school of reformers cannot do better than read Mr. Collins's little book.

G. F. SHOVE

NOTES AND MEMORANDA

THE ECONOMIC REVIVAL OF MESSINA.

OF all the inhabitants of Messina whom the evening of December 27th, 1908, called to rest, only two-fifths saw the dawn of the 28th. When, in a few moments, sixty thousand people had been killed and many thousands wounded, it might have been supposed that all life would abandon in horror a region doomed to destruction and death, and that-as in the case of Pompeiionly the ruins of the unhappy city would remain as a witness to future ages of the impotence of man against the forces of nature. The houses had all fallen; the wharves of the port were shattered; the railway lines derelict; where a city had been, there extended a desolate stretch of ruins.

In less than five years Messina is reviving. The number of the inhabitants, which in 1908 exceeded 160,000 in the whole territory of the commune, and 100,000 in the city itself, has already risen again to 130,000 (of whom 75,000 inhabit the city). How does so large a population live?

Agriculture and fishing suffice to maintain about 25,000. These industries did not suffer seriously by the earthquake; and the farmers are able to derive large incomes from the cultivation of oranges and lemons. Fishing is still carried on in a primitive manner, and might easily be made very remunerative. There are no large manufacturing establishments; still, altogether, manufactures provide a living for about 60,000 persons. Those they directly occupy are about 20,000 of these 5,000 are engaged in the treatment of vegetable and animal produce (baking and the manufacture of macaroni, preparation of preserved foods, tanning, work in wood); 2,000 in metal work and the manufacture of machinery; 11,000 in house building and kindred industries; 1,500 in weaving and making clothes. Almost all the manufacturing businesses were destroyed in the disaster of 1908, together with the buildings and machinery; but year by year the old factories have returned to life, and the manufacturing