As a result of the labors of this commission, and in accordance with the unanimous report of its members, the Czar has recently conferred very valuable privileges on those who establish breweries in his dominions. The object being to secure for the people good beer at a low price, all taxes on beer and articles used in its manufacture have been abolished, while the use of ardent spirits is still further checked by the imposition of heavy duties on all introduced to the country, and severe taxes on its manufacture or sale; and[16] whenever the crop of barley turns out to be light, the government prohibits exporting the same. [16] Owing to a light crop the Russian government has prohibited the export of barley for the current year, 1879. In Greece, breweries are springing up about Athens and the Piræus, and all over the Levant and the neighboring islands, and the _ek krithon methu_ (barley wine) of olden times is going to be the ordinary beverage of the people instead of the rather strong wines that the country produces. In France during the reign of Napoleon III., it was discovered that the ardent spirits most in use were so adulterated as to produce serious injury to consumers apart from that which always attends the free use of these liquors. Spirits were used to a much greater extent than could be justified on any sound principle. The Emperor, whose practical judgment was excellent in matters not immediately affecting his own ambition, offered inducements to English and German brewers to establish themselves in the country and the consumption of beer was increased with very advantageous results. The change has already gone so far as to alarm the wine merchants, and according to the “British Mercantile Gazette” the consumption in Paris alone now reaches one hundred million _liter_ bottles _per annum_ or nearly half a pint a day to every Parisian, which is not bad for a beginning. The beer used, however, is still chiefly of foreign manufacture, the lager beer coming chiefly from Vienna and Bavaria, and the ale from Alsopp and Bass. Some American brewers of New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis received gold medals at Paris for the excellence of their beer, and are now shipping considerable quantities to that place. Americans who have lately been in France must usually have been surprised to notice how _bogk_ (lager beer) is already the common beverage in the fashionable _cafés_ of the chief cities.