The Russian petroleum industry is in the hands of a large number of operating firms, the majority of which work quite independently of each other, and these independent firms are responsible for more than one-half of the total output. The other production of the crude oil, representing certainly over 40 per cent., is in the hands of combines representing the large and middle-class firms, prominent among which we get the firm of Messrs. Nobel Brothers, the “Shell” group, and the General Russian Corporation. The refining of the crude oil is carried out in Baku, the portion of the town in which this operation takes place being known as Blacktown. It does not belie its name either. At one time these refineries, or at least many of them, were erected in the centre of the town of Baku, or near it, and made it almost uninhabitable by their smoke, smell, and refuse, the latter flowing into the streets and the harbour. A special district was therefore selected, to which all had to remove, and it is this portion of the town which forms “Blacktown” to-day. One of the great difficulties of the Russian refining industry in its commencement was due to the fact that sulphuric acid, so absolute a necessity in petroleum refining, had to be brought from Europe at great expense, but in 1883, Messrs. Nobel built a factory for its production on the spot from Caucasian pyrites, mined in the neighbourhood of Alexandropol. Other factories for the same purpose and for the regeneration of the acids have since that time been established. As in other great industries, so in regard to the methods by which the Russian crude oil is transported and to-day handled, great strides forward have been made since the early days. Then the whole of the prevailing conditions were primitive: crude oil, for instance, was carried from the Baku wells to the refineries in skins and barrels loaded on carts or camels. Messrs. Nobel Brothers were the first to lay a pipe-line to their factory, but later on pipes were laid between the refineries and the harbour, these obvious improvements meeting with fierce resistance on the part of the workpeople. The transport of the refined products from Baku to the consumers was equally difficult. There was then no railway from Baku to Tiflis, and the only way to the Black Sea was thus effectively shut off. On the other hand, the navigation of the Volga was only possible during six months of the year, while the monopoly of water transport on the Caspian Sea imposed high rates on all Baku petroleum products.