Economic Condition of Russia in 1855

• Russia was economically backwards compared to Western Europe.
• 11 people lived in village to every 1 person living in a town. In Britain, this was 2 villagers to 1 townsmen.
• A lot of land was inhospitable and very cold and the size of the Empire made communication and travel very hard.
• Russia exported food and had reserves of coal, oil, timber and gold but failed to fully utilise its resources.
• There was little private enterprise or market forces.
• Serfs lived at a subsistence level and often faced starvation.
• Landowners made a good living off their serfs so they had little incentive to do anything else.
• Russian agriculture continued to use methods such as strip farming and lacked the machinery and fertilisers used in the West which made it very inefficient.