BOOK Natives of Crim Tartary and the Kuban - - 80,000
X I .
. ■ Wandering hordes of Siberia « - - 600,000
And the total population of the Ruffian empire
will, according to this calculation, he 26,764,360
A number, however large, greatly difproportioned to the extent
of the empire.
Since I gave alfo to the public the general account of the
Ruffian Revenues *, feveral changes have taken place in the af-
feffinent of the poll-tax j and iome augmentations have been
made in the other branches of the revenue, which it will be ne-
ceffary to mention and explain, in order to form a more accurate
ftatement of the Ruffian finances, which my fubfequent travels
enabled me to colleft.
But firft it will be proper to premife, that in my former work,
when I reduced the Ruffian money to the Engliih ftandard, I
eftimated the average value of the rouble at 4 s.; and confe-
quently five roubles at a pound fterling, which, in 1776, when
I firft vifited Ruffia, was the average value.
When Peter the Great reformed the coinage, he propofed
making the value of a rouble equal to a rix-dollar, or about
4s. (>d. ; at which value, with a fmall fluctuation, owing to accidental
circumftances, it continued till the commencement of the
* Book XI. Ch. vi.
5 Turkiih
Turkiih war in 1770, Since that period the alteration of the c h a p .
coin has reduced the intrinfic value, as tried in the mint of Lon- v——.— -
don,"to 3/. 2d. The excefs of the imports above the exports,
the number of remittances neceflary for the payment of the
troops employed againft the Turks, and the great quantity of
paper money in circulation, have alfo ftill farther contributed to
diminiih the value of the rouble in exchange with foreign countries;
and in the courfe of 1789, the rouble has been more than
once fo low as 21. 4f d. and its prefent value, in 1790, fcarcely
exceeds 2 s. 6 d.
But as this diminution is owing to circumftances not permanent
in their nature, it may be prefumed, that, at the termination
o f the war the nominal value will, as in moll: cafes, foon
exceed the intrinfic value of the rouble, we may therefore fairly
rate the average value at 3 4 d. or fix to a pound fterling.
In my former account, for the year 1776, I ftated the amount
of the Ruffian revenue in time of peace, at £ . 6,144,968, or,
as I then eftimated a pound fterling as only equal to five roubles,
at 30,724,840 roubles.
Since that period the revenue has been confiderably augmented
in the following articles:
Firft, In regard to the poll-tax.
This aiTeffinent, which was not levied in the Ukraine and the
provinces conquered from Sweden, namely, Livonia, Eftho-
nia, Ingria, and Carelia, now comprifed within the governments
G g 2 of