Witte

• Vyshnegradsky's successor Sergei Witte was totally committed to economic modernisation as a means to curbing the revolutionary activity.
• Witte believed that the only way forward was to continue with protective tariffs heavy taxation and forced exports to generate capital.
• Witte also sought additional loans from abroad and increased foreign investment considerably.
• Much of the investment went into mining the metal trades oil and banking. Witte also encouraged engineers managers and workers from France Belgium Germany Britain and Sweden to oversee industrial developments and advise on planning and techniques.
• With their help there was a huge expansion of the railway network
• Russia's state of growth enabled it to move up the league table of instrustialised nations to become the world's fourth-largest industrial economy by 1897.
• This growth helped to increase Russia's exports and foreign trade although the bulk of the export trade was still in grain rather than industrial goods