The causes of this condition are usually sought and found by the foreign (Russian and Polish) “standard-bearers of culture” in the indifference and incapacity for culture of the Ukrainians. This explanation, however, can be objected to when we recall the great commercial importance of the ancient Kingdoms of Kiev and Halich, as well as the long perseverance of the Ukrainian trade down into the 16th Century, despite its systematic suppression by the Polish Government. Naturally, the five centuries of Tatar invasion caused severe injuries to Ukrainian trade. And when the commercial activity of the Ukraine of the hetmans began to flourish in the 17th and 18th Centuries, it was systematically suppressed by the Russian [293]Government, following the ill-fated rebellion of Mazeppa. Then we must consider the difficulties of competition with the Russians, a very talented commercial race, with the Jews, the Armenians and the Greeks. Most keenly, however, the calamitous lack of education is being felt. Wherever the education of the people is more advanced, as, for example, in Eastern Galicia, there is a revival of the commercial spirit in the Ukrainians. The Galician Ukrainians have thousands of shops, large commercial co-operative organizations (Narodna Torhovla, with seventeen branch warehouses and several hundred shops, Soyuz tohorvelnick spilok, Soyuz zbutu khudobi, etc.), with the large annual turnover (large for Galician conditions) of 25 million crowns. The enlightened peasantry of Sinevidsko and vicinity (Boiko country) carries on an active fruit-trade far beyond the Austrian borders. Even in the Russian Ukraine trade is coming to life in all places. The co-operative movement has taken such a bound in advance, in spite of the frightful illiteracy, that in 1912 there were over 2500 such organizations, while all of Russia (including the Ukraine) had 5260, and Poland only 920. From these facts we may safely conclude that, with the elevation of the grade of culture, the former commercial spirit of the Ukraine is reawakening. To be sure, the sturdy, upright nature of the Ukrainian, which abhors every form of dishonesty, will not lend to this new commercial spirit a world-conquering character, but it will, on the other hand, increase the influence of the Ukrainian merchant in the commercial world. The present condition of commerce in the Ukraine is still very primitive; first, because of the generally low grade of culture; second, because of the very primitive traffic conditions of Eastern Europe.