The following are the details of the principal branches of the fair in 1849, which were understood to be less than the transactions of the preceding year: money being scarce, and there was a stagnation in the grain trade. The total estimate of the Russian produce offered for sale was £7,916,016, of which there were sold raw produce £1,917,940; provisions £858,684; home manufactures £3,981,716—total £6,758,340, leaving £1,157,675 unsold. The value of the foreign goods and produce was estimated at £2,430,191; of these Asiatic articles sold to the extent of £1,329,131; European raw materials £493,955, and manufactured goods £204,888—leaving £402,217 unsold. So that the total merchandise at the fair was estimated at the value of 10½ millions sterling, of which about nine millions were sold. In Murray’s “Handbook of Russia,” written by Mr. Michell, the then well-known British Consul, and published in 1868, it is stated that the aggregate sale and purchases at the fair represented about sixteen millions sterling; which dealings were conducted by from 150,000 to 200,000 traders from the various countries of Europe and Asia. Mr. Doria, secretary of the British Embassy at St. Petersburg, reported that the trade of the fair had increased from about six millions sterling in 1847 to over £20,000,000 in 1874 (165 millions of roubles), when upwards of 6,000 shops were let. The iron sold in various forms amounted to 5,557,800 pouds of 36 lbs.—the value being £2,193,812. Tea of the value of about £1,200,000 was sold. At the fair of 1879 the iron trade figured largely, and the following facts were obtained regarding the supplies. The Russian ironmasters sent 15,130,498 pouds (1 poud = 36 lbs.) of wrought iron, steel, and metal work, of the value of 7,528,350 roubles. A considerable amount was also imported into the iron ports of the Volga, viz. at Laïchev, 1,337,541 pouds; Kasan, 16,474; Simbirsk, 22,066; Saratov, 92,361; Rostov, on the Don, 67,762. Cast iron was not in great force, there being only 530,488 pouds, of the value of 412,475 roubles. One of the largest contributions was sent from the works of Count Strogonof, being 6,725,588 pouds. _Revenue of the Fair._—The fair constitutes a source of State revenue. When in 1751 the fair first became the property of the State, its tolls or revenues were farmed at about £150 per annum. In the reign of the Emperor Paul (end of last century) the farmer of the tolls engaged to build a new bazaar, and to pay £4,500 a year into the exchequer. In 1824 a new governor’s house, bazaar, and shops were erected, already described, and an annual sum of £8,000, part of the rental of these, was appropriated to pay the cost of these buildings. The rental, as we have seen, is now approximating to £30,000.