Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(Download PDF) The Contemporary Russian Economy A Comprehensive Analysis Marek Dabrowski Full Chapter PDF
(Download PDF) The Contemporary Russian Economy A Comprehensive Analysis Marek Dabrowski Full Chapter PDF
https://ebookmass.com/product/a-comprehensive-russian-
grammar-4th-edition-terence-wade/
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-substance-of-consciousness-a-
comprehensive-defense-of-contemporary-substance-dualism-brandon-
rickabaugh/
https://ebookmass.com/product/repairable-systems-reliability-
analysis-a-comprehensive-framework-john-wiley-sons/
https://ebookmass.com/product/joint-structure-and-function-a-
comprehensive-analysis-5th-edition-ebook-pdf/
The Political Economy of Russian Aluminium: Between the
Dual State and Global Markets 1st Edition Jakub M.
Godzimirski
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-political-economy-of-russian-
aluminium-between-the-dual-state-and-global-markets-1st-edition-
jakub-m-godzimirski/
https://ebookmass.com/product/radical-politics-on-the-causes-of-
contemporary-emancipation-peter-d-thomas/
https://ebookmass.com/product/a-companion-to-the-russian-
revolution-1st-edition-edition-daniel-orlovsky/
https://ebookmass.com/product/contemporary-scientific-realism-
the-challenge-from-the-history-of-science-timothy-d-lyons/
https://ebookmass.com/product/a-different-approach-to-work-
discipline-1st-ed-edition-marek-bugdol/
Edited by Marek Dabrowski
THE CONTEMPORARY
RUSSIAN
ECONOMY
A Comprehensive Analysis
The Contemporary Russian Economy
Marek Dabrowski
Editor
The Contemporary
Russian Economy
A Comprehensive Analysis
Editor
Marek Dabrowski
Bruegel
Brussels, Belgium
Higher School of Economics
Moscow, Russia
CASE—Center for Social and Economic
Research
Warsaw, Poland
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,
whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation,
reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any
other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation,
computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in
this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher
nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material
contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains
neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
v
vi PREFACE
ix
x CONTENTS
2 Human Resources 21
Irina Denisova and Marina Kartseva
2.1 Human Capital in Russia from an International
Perspective 22
2.1.1 Population Size and Growth Rate 22
2.1.2 Human Development Index 22
2.2 Population Structure and Main Demographic Trends 24
2.2.1 Trends in Fertility and Mortality 24
2.2.2 Regional Variation 25
2.2.3 Mortality from an International Perspective:
Russia’s Mortality Crisis 26
2.2.4 Fertility in Russia from an International
Perspective 27
2.2.5 Age and Gender Structure of the Population 30
2.2.6 Aging (Dependency Ratios) 31
2.3 Health 33
2.3.1 Causes of Death 33
2.3.2 Socially Significant Diseases: Tuberculosis
and Diabetes 34
2.3.3 Health Detrimental Behaviour: Alcohol
Consumption and Smoking 35
2.4 Education 36
2.4.1 Enrolment Rates and Education Structure 36
2.4.2 Quality of Education 38
2.5 Conclusions 39
References 40
Index 399
Notes on Contributors
Abramov Alexander is the Head of the Laboratory for the Analysis of Insti-
tutions and Financial Markets at the Institute of Applied Economic Research
at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
(RANEPA) in Moscow. Since the 1990s, he has held various advisory positions
in Russian institutions dealing with economic and financial policy, privatisa-
tion, and the securities market. He is the author and co-author of more than
200 publications on these issues and a member of the Board of Directors of
the National Association of Securities Market Participants (NAUFOR).
Avdasheva Svetlana is a Professor of Applied Economics at the Faculty of
Economic Sciences, Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and Head of its
Department of Applied Economics. She specialises in industrial organisation
and competition economics as well as institutional economics. Her main field
of interest is the comparative analysis of institutional aspects of competition
enforcement. She is the author of several publications on corporate and value
chain governance in the Russian economy under transition.
Dabrowski Marek is a Non-Resident Fellow at Bruegel, Brussels, Professor
at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and Co-founder and Fellow
at CASE—Center for Social and Economic Research in Warsaw. He was the
First Deputy Minister of Finance of Poland (1989–1990) and a Member of
the Monetary Policy Council of the National Bank of Poland (1998–2004).
He has also been involved in policy advising and research in several coun-
tries of Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle
East, and Africa. He was a Fellow under the 2014–2015 Fellowship Initia-
tive of the European Commission—DG ECFIN. He is a member of the
Academia Europaea and the author of more than 300 international publica-
tions analysing, among others, the transition in Russia and other emerging
market economies.
xix
xx NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
record of more than 30 academic articles and more than 20 book chapters,
primarily on inward and outward FDI in transition economies. He holds a
Ph.D. from Corvinus University.
Kartseva Marina is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Social Analysis and
Forecasting, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public
Administration (RANEPA) in Moscow. She was previously a Senior Fellow
at the Center for Economic and Financial Research in Moscow. She is the
author of several academic publications on social policy, income distribution,
demography, the labour market, and economic sociology related to Russia and
other transition economies.
Kowalski Przemyslaw is a Senior Economist at the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) specialising in interna-
tional trade and macroeconomics. His previous roles include President of
CASE—Center for Social and Economic Research in Warsaw; teaching and
research positions in economics at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris,
Sciences Po in Paris and the University of Sussex, UK; and various consultancy
roles in international macroeconomics and finance, development economics,
and international trade. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Economics from the
University of Sussex, UK and holds an M.A. and M.Sc. in Economics from
the University of Sussex and the University of Warsaw, respectively. He has
contributed to several articles and books on economics and economic policy.
Limonov Leonid is the leading Russian expert on regional economic devel-
opment. He is the Research Director of the International Centre for Social
and Economic Research—Leontief Centre in St. Petersburg and a Professor
at the St. Petersburg campus of the Higher School of Economics. He is
(from May 2021) an Honorary Professor of Cardiff University, UK (School of
Geography and Planning). He has also held visiting posts at the University of
Liverpool, the Ecole Polytechnique (France), and the University of Maryland
(USA). From 2012 to 2018, he was a Research Professor at the IWH (Institute
of Economic Research in Halle-am-Saale, Germany). He has published over
100 academic books and papers on social and economic transformation, sub-
national territorial strategic planning, and spatial development in Russia and
other countries of the former Soviet Union. He is the Editor of Area Devel-
opment and Policy, an international journal published by Francis and Taylor
Group (Routledge).
Melchior Arne is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of
International Affairs (NUPI) in Oslo and an Associate Professor at the Arctic
University of Norway, Tromsø. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the Univer-
sity of Oslo. His areas of expertise include international trade and global
development, trade policy and international economic institutions, interna-
tional inequality, geographical economics, and regional development. He has
written numerous publications on, among others, trade and economic devel-
opment in Europe, Russia, India, China, and the global economy, often
xxii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
using numerical models as a tool. An example is the book Free Trade Agree-
ments and Globalisation—In the Shadow of Brexit and Trump (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2018), analysing the world economy, China’s growth and the role
of commodity trade, and Russia split into regions. Before starting his research
career, he gained experience from international trade negotiations as a govern-
ment official, including via multilateral and bilateral negotiations with several
Asian countries.
Radygin Alexander is the Head of the Department for Institutional Devel-
opment, Ownership, and Corporate Governance at the Gaidar Institute
for Economic Policy in Moscow and Director of the Institute of Applied
Economic Research and Professor at the Russian Academy of National
Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) in Moscow. Since the 1990s,
he has held various advisory and consultancy positions in Russian and inter-
national institutions dealing with economic policy, privatisation, corporate
governance, the stock market, and structural and industrial policy, among
others. He is the author and co-author of more than 400 publications on
these issues and a member of the editorial boards of Economic Policy and the
Russian Journal of Economics.
Rusetskaya Olga is the Head of the Investment Planning Department of
the International Centre for Social and Economic Research—Leontief Centre
in St. Petersburg and docent at the Saint Petersburg State University of
Economics and the St. Petersburg campus of the Higher School of Economics.
Since 1994, she has served as a coordinator and expert in numerous research
and consulting projects in municipal and regional development. Between 2004
and 2007, as a Consultant at the World Bank Institute, she provided training
for representatives of federal, regional, and municipal authorities, instructors,
and consultants in the World Bank Institute’s distance learning course Munic-
ipal Governance. She is the author and co-author of several publications on
the socio-economic development of cities and regions in Russia.
Scott Leonard Carol is an Emeritus Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Univer-
sity of Oxford, Lead Researcher at the Institute of Regional Studies and
Urban Planning at the Higher School of Economics, and Professor and
former Director of the Center for Russian Studies at the Russian Presiden-
tial Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) in
Moscow. Previously, she was a University Lecturer in Regional Studies of the
Post-Communist States at the University of Oxford and has been a Fellow at
St. Anthony’s College since 1997. She has also held positions at Lafayette
College in Pennsylvania, the State University of New York, and Harvard
University’s Russian Research Center. She is the author of several books on
the Russian economy, including Agrarian Reform in Russia: The Road from
Serfdom (2010). In the 1990s, she was a Consultant on economic reforms to
the Government of the Russian Federation.
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xxiii
Serova Eugenia is the leading Russian expert on the agriculture sector and
agrarian and land reforms in post-Soviet Russia. She is a Professor and Director
of the Institute of Agrarian Studies at the Higher School of Economics
in Moscow. Between 2007 and 2018, she worked in various positions at
the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Previously,
she participated in multiple projects for the World Bank, OECD, and the
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). She also has teaching
experience at several US and UK universities. She is the author and co-author
of several publications on agriculture, agri-food business, rural development,
and land reform. She is also a member of the editorial boards of several
academic journals.
Voskoboynikov Ilya is a Leading Research Fellow and Director of the Centre
for Productivity Studies and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economic
Sciences at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He is Head of the
Russia KLEMS Group, part of the global World KLEMS initiative, which has
been set up to promote and facilitate the analysis of growth and productivity
patterns worldwide based on a growth accounting framework. He is the author
of several publications on the factors of economic growth and productivity in
Russia from an international comparative perspective.
Zhunda Nikolay is a Senior Researcher at the International Centre for Social
and Economic Research—Leontief Centre in St. Petersburg and Associate
Professor at the Saint Petersburg State University of Economics. He was
awarded a Ph.D. in Economics from the Institute for Regional Economic
Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2002. Since 1998, he has held
various consultancy positions within research projects and technical assistance
programmes run by international organisations, including the World Bank and
the UNDP, among others. Between 2011 and 2017, he held various academic
positions at the St. Petersburg campus of the Higher School of Economics.
He is the author and co-author of several publications on urban and regional
economics and finance, and development issues.
Abbreviations
xxv
xxvi ABBREVIATIONS
Fig. 2.1 Crude death, crude birth, and natural population growth
rates in Russia, per 1000 people, 1980–2019 (Source World
Bank, World development indicators, https://datatopics.wor
ldbank.org/world-development-indicators/) 24
Fig. 2.2 Life expectancy at birth, men (Panel A) and women (Panel
B) (Source World Bank, World development indicators
[https://datatopics.worldbank.org/world-development-ind
icators/]) 27
Fig. 2.3 Total Fertility Rate in Russia, Poland, France, and the United
States, 1970–2018 (Source Human Fertility Database,
http://www.humanfertility.org) 28
Fig. 2.4 Mean age of mother at birth by parity (Panel A), 1970–2018
and Unadjusted and Bongaarts-Feeney (BF) Adjusted
Period TFR, 1970–2018 (Panel B) (Source Human Fertility
Database, http://www.humanfertility.org) 29
Fig. 2.5 Number of people by age and sex in Russia in 2019 (Source
Federal State Statistic Service [Rosstat], https://rosstat.gov.
ru/) 30
Fig. 2.6 Age dependency ratio, %, 1970–2050, Old-age (Panel A)
and Total (Panel B) (Source OECD statistics http://www.
oecd.org/std) 32
Fig. 2.7 Performance in reading, mathematics, and science (mean
scores), OECD members and candidate countries and Russia,
2018 (Note Results for Spain based on 2015 data. Source
OECD. https://pisadataexplorer.oecd.org/ide/idepisa/dat
aset.aspx) 38
Fig. 5.1 Federal Government expenditures as % of GDP and annual
growth, in %, 1991–2020 (Source World Bank World
Development Indicators) 93
xxix
xxx LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 9.1 Primary energy consumption per unit of GDP and per capita,
world economy and Russia, 1980–2020 (Source Author’s
calculations based on IMF’s World Economic Outlook,
October 2021 for world GDP in purchasing power parity
international dollars and BP [2021] for world’s primary
energy consumption) 163
Fig. 9.2 CO2 emissions, per USD 1000 of GDP, world economy
and Russia, 1985–2020 (Source Author’s calculations based
on IMF’s World Economic Outlook, October 2021 for world
GDP in purchasing power parity international dollars and BP
[2021] for CO2 emissions) 164
Fig. 9.3 The energy and related sectors and the Russian
economy—selected indicators (Sources ∧Federal State
Statistics Service [Rosstat [2020]; *WITS [2021]; #NRGI
[2021]) 165
Fig. 9.4 Primary energy consumption and production by fuel: Russia
and the world economy (Note shares calculated on the basis
of calorific values.Source BP [2021]; author’s calculations) 169
Fig. 9.5 IEA’s Net Zero CO2 emissions by 2050 scenario: total global
energy supply by source (Source IEA [2021] and author’s
calculations) 181
Fig. 10.1 Russia: structure of gross agricultural output by farm
type (% of total in current prices), 1990–2018 (Note
AgEnt—agricultural enterprises; HH—household plots;
PF—peasant farms Source Yanbykh et al. [2020]) 190
Fig. 10.2 Russia: support to the agri-food sector (PSE*), in %,
1986–2020 (Note PSE—producer support estimate,
the conventional measure of level of price and budget transfer
to agricultural producers. Conventional measure of support
to agriculture, developed by the OECD Source OECD) 191
Fig. 10.3 Russia: annual growth rate of gross agricultural output
(previous year = 100), 1990–2020 (Source The Federal State
Statistics Service [Rosstat]) 192
Fig. 10.4 Russia: dynamic of production of major crops, million tonnes
(Source The Federal State Statistics Service [Rosstat]) 194
Fig. 10.5 Russia: agri-food trade, USD million (Source The
Federal State Statistics Service [Rosstat]; for 2019
and 2020—Customs data) 196
Fig. 10.6 The Global Food Security Index, top 10 countries and Russia
from 113 monitored, 2021. Note: 100 is the highest level
of food security (Source https://impact.economist.com/sus
tainability/project/food-security-index/) 196
Fig. 11.1 Growth of real monetary incomes of the population in 2020
against 1999, % (bars) (Note The ratio of the population’s
average nominal monetary income to the subsistence level
in 2020, % (line). Note AO—autonomous okrug (district).
Source authors’ calculations based on the Federal State
Statistics Service [Rosstat] data) 206
xxxii LIST OF FIGURES
xxxv
xxxvi LIST OF TABLES
Table 11.7 Regions with the highest and lowest levels of investment
per capita (average for the period 2000–2018) 217
Table 11.8 Regions with the largest and smallest stock of investments
for the period 2000–2018 218
Table 12.1 The composition of Russia’s non-fuel exports, 1996–2020 239
Table 13.1 Direct investment income and reinvested earnings in Russia,
2013–2020 (USD billions and %) 263
Table 13.2 The 20 largest Russian MNEs, ranked by foreign assets
in 2019 266
Table 15.1 GDP yearly average growth rates in Russia and in the World
1990–2019, in comparable prices, % 294
Table 15.2 Structural changes in the Russian economy in 1995–2015 298
Table 15.3 Growth accounting of the Russian economy in 1990–2019 303
Table 16.1 Russia: structure of general government expenditure
(functional classification), % of GDP, 2000–2020 330
Table 16.2 Russia: Structure of general government revenue (selected
items), % of GDP, 2000–2020 331
Table 17.1 Educational composition of employment, of all employed, % 352
List of Boxes
xxxvii
PART I
Highlights
• The size of Russia’s territory exceeds 17 million square kilometres, or
one-eighth of the Earth’s surface. It stretches for about ten thousand
kilometres from east to west and for more than four thousand kilometres
from north to south. The maritime area under the country’s jurisdiction
extends for more than eight million square kilometres.
• Russia, being the largest country in the world, possesses vast and diverse
natural resources, from land and aquatic resources to mineral resources
(most notably, oil, natural gas, coal, gold, silver, iron, copper, nickel,
uranium, diamonds, phosphates, and potassium salts).
• Natural resources provide the foundation for the country’s processing
industries and bring in a substantial share of export revenues.
• Historically, access to natural resources and climatic and environmental
conditions have always been important in determining not only Russia’s
economic specificity but also its human settlement patterns and infras-
tructural needs and challenges.
• Today, the changing climate along with the need to develop new reserves
creates new challenges as well as opportunities for the Russian economy.
1.1 Geography
Russia is the world’s largest country in terms of area, occupying more than 17
million square kilometres, or one-eighth of the Earth’s surface. It stretches for
about ten thousand kilometres from east to west and for more than four thou-
sand kilometres from north to south. About one-third of Russia’s territory is
located in Europe and two-thirds in Asia. Most of the country’s territory is
a continuous landmass; however, it also includes the exclave of Kaliningrad
Oblast (on the coast the Baltic Sea), as well as numerous islands.
The maritime area under Russian jurisdiction extends for 8.6 million square
kilometres, including 3.9 million square kilometres of the continental shelf
and 4.7 million square kilometres of deep-water areas. Russia’s coastlines are
washed by 12 seas from 3 oceans (the White, Barents, Kara, Laptev, East
Siberian, and Chukchi Seas of the Arctic Ocean; the Baltic, Black, and Azov
Seas of the Atlantic Ocean; and the Bering and Okhotsk Seas and the Sea of
Japan of the Pacific Ocean) and one landlocked body of water (the Caspian
Sea). Most of Russia’s rivers flow into the Arctic Ocean, the trade and trans-
portation importance of which has been limited for centuries but is now
growing due to global warming as well as the development of Russia’s fleet of
icebreakers. Russia’s major seaports have long been those on the coasts of the
Baltic and Black Seas; however, the role of its Pacific seaports is also growing.
Although there are different approaches to identifying the physiographic
divisions of Russia, one widely used approach recognises 12 regions: the Arctic
Islands; Fennoscandia, the Russian (or East European) Plain, and the Caucasus
in the European part of Russia; the Ural Mountains—separating Europe and
Asia; and the West Siberian Plain, Middle Siberia, Northeast Siberia, Koryakia-
Kamchatka-Kurils, the Altai-Sayan Mountains, the Baikal Mountains, and
Amur-Sakhalin in Asia (Vampilova & Manakov, 2012). Each of these physio-
graphic divisions is characterised by distinctive landscapes and natural features,
and there is further significant variety of natural conditions within each divi-
sion. About one-fifth of the Russian territory lies within the North Polar Circle
and approximately 60% of Russia’s surface is underlain by permafrost, mostly
in Siberia.
1 NATURAL RESOURCES, GEOGRAPHY, AND CLIMATE 5
and 137,302 shorter rivers (Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian
Federation, 2020, p. 70). Russia’s longest river is the Lena (4.4 thousand kilo-
metres long), which flows through Siberia to the Arctic Ocean. However, the
river that played a key role in the historical development of the Russian state
and economy is the Volga (3.5 thousand kilometres long; it is also Europe’s
longest river), which flows to the Caspian Sea. A system of human-built canals
augments the natural system of rivers. Most of these canals can be found in
European Russia, ensuring connections between the rivers flowing into the
Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the White Sea, thus connecting these seas. Canals
also serve to bring water to water-scarce agricultural areas in the south.
The size of Russia’s freshwater reserves is estimated at around 89 thou-
sand cubic kilometres (Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the
Russian Federation, 2019, p. 10)—almost one-fifth of the world’s total. Of
this amount, 23 thousand cubic kilometres of freshwater is contained in Lake
Baikal alone. The geographical distribution of water resources (including fresh-
water) is uneven; thus, along with the water abundant regions, there are
regions experiencing a shortage of water resources.
Swamps are primarily found in the north-western regions of European
Russia as well as in western Siberia. They play an important role in the bio-
ecological system due to, among other things, the ability of swamp plants to
effectively bind carbon thus decreasing its concentration in the atmosphere. At
the same time and for the same reason, peat (accumulated remnants of swamp
plants and organic matter) is a valuable natural fuel and fertiliser, although
its use inevitably releases substantial amounts of carbon. Russia (along with
Canada) possesses a substantial share of the world’s peat reserves.
Russia’s aquatic biological resources include the fish, shellfish, other aquatic
animals, algae, and water plants which are naturally living in the country’s
lakes, rivers, swamps, man-made water reservoirs, internal seas, and in the 200-
mile maritime exclusive economic zone (on the country’s continental shelf).
The volume of harvested aquatic biological resources in Russia grew substan-
tially during the twentieth century due to advances in catching and storage
technologies, as well as due to the growing Soviet fishing fleet, which by the
1980s became the largest in the world. In the 1980s, the amount of catch
in Russia reached its maximum of more than eight million tonnes (the Soviet
Union’s total was 14 million tonnes). Following the breakup of the Soviet
Union, the Russian fishing industry and fishing fleet experienced a period of
decay, accompanied by the growth of poaching and shadow trade schemes;
the amount of catch by 2004 decreased to less than three million tonnes,
a historical low since the 1960s. Reforms in the fishing industry and anti-
poaching measures, however, allowed for a reversal of this trend, bringing
Russia back among the world’s top five capture producers by 2016 (Food and
Agriculture Organization, 2020) and the top 10 exporters of fish products.
As of 2019, the harvesting of aquatic biological resources by Russian compa-
nies amounted to almost five million tonnes, 97% of which were harvested
from maritime fisheries and 3% from inland lakes, river, and other water
1 NATURAL RESOURCES, GEOGRAPHY, AND CLIMATE 7
1.3.2 Land
Russia is the largest country in the world according to its total land mass;
therefore, it is not surprising that one of its largest natural resources is land.
As of 2019, 66% of Russia’s total land mass was covered by forests and
22% was used for agricultural purposes (Federal Service for State Registra-
tion, Cadastre and Cartography—Rosreestr, 2019). Russia’s remaining land is
used for settlements, industry, infrastructure and transportation, military and
other special purposes, protected and recreational areas, and reserved lands.
During the Soviet period, all land was owned by the state; however, along
with the market reforms beginning in the 1990s, private ownership of land
was permitted and the process of privatisation began (see Chapters 7 and 10).
In 2019, the share of lands of all kinds in private ownership was around 7%,
the share of private agricultural lands was 33%, and the share of private lands
under settlements was 25% (Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre
and Cartography—Rosreestr, 2019).
Agricultural lands include lands used for crop cultivation, cattle farming,
and aquaculture, among others. The relative share of agricultural lands in
Russia is not high compared to the world’s average, in particular, due to its
climatic conditions, but the absolute area of lands suitable for agricultural use
is substantial. As of 2019, in terms of the total area of agricultural lands, Russia
ranked fifth in the world after China, the United States, Australia, and Brazil (it
ranked close to the latter, despite obvious differences in climate) (see Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2021). While the climate,
even in the southern parts of Russia, is generally not as beneficial for crop
production as in countries located closer to the Earth’s equator, the large area
and quality of its soil partially compensate for this (see Chapter 10 for more
information on agriculture production).
Russian forest lands account for one-fifth of the world’s total, commensu-
rate in their area to the combined forest lands of Brazil and Canada; Russia is
one of the world’s top producers and exporters of roundwood and sawn wood
(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2021). Russian
forests play an increasingly important ecological role globally: according to
some estimates, over the last three decades, despite deforestation and natural
disasters (such as fires), the productivity of the vegetation, tree cover, and total
biomass of Russian forests have increased substantially, thus balancing the net
forest stock losses in tropical countries (Schepaschenko et al., 2021).
in remote areas with limited transportation access and/or harsh natural condi-
tions. In many cases, there are high relative and absolute costs associated with
the extraction and transportation of certain minerals, which leads to lower
economic efficiency and profitability as compared to some other international
examples. Nevertheless, the mineral resources of Russia are strategically impor-
tant for the development of its processing industries, agriculture, and exports,
as well as to ensure the country’s security and sustainability.
In 2018, the Federal Government adopted the strategy for the develop-
ment of the mineral resource base until 2035 (Ministry of Natural Resources
and Ecology of the Russian Federation, 2018). This document is intended to
guide Russia’s executive bodies in formulating and carrying out policies aimed
at the effective exploration, exploitation, and renewal of the nation’s mineral
resources. The strategic goal in this sphere is to ensure sustainable access to
the mineral resources needed for the country’s economic development and to
maintain the economic and energy security of Russia. To achieve this goal, the
strategy envisages various measures of state support for geological exploration,
the introduction of new mining and processing technologies, and the recovery
of the existing resource base, among others.
The strategy identifies three groups of minerals based on reserve size,
production volume, and prospects.
The first group includes minerals with reserves sufficient for the needs
of the national economy up to the year 2035 and beyond under all devel-
opment scenarios: natural gas, copper, nickel, tin, tungsten, molybdenum,
tantalum, niobium, cobalt, scandium, germanium, platinoids, apatite ores, iron
ores, potassium salts, coal, and the mineral components of cement (carbonates
and clay minerals). It is noted that while the economy-wide needs for these
minerals are—and for the foreseeable future will be—largely met by domestic
production, the accessibility of these minerals for some regions of Russia is
currently limited (due to infrastructural and other reasons). This results in
higher costs and/or unstable supplies and calls for the development of new
infrastructure and the exploration of new reserves.
The second group includes minerals where the existing levels of production
cannot be maintained in the long term without the development of new mines
or fields: oil, lead, antimony, gold, silver, diamonds, zinc, and pure quartz. It
is also reasonable and possibly even necessary to find and use non-traditional
sources of these minerals.
The third group includes the scarce minerals which Russia must import
in significant amounts due to either a lack of natural reserves or their low
quality: uranium, manganese, chromium, titanium, bauxite, zirconium, beryl-
lium, lithium, rhenium, yttrium, fluorspar, bentonites for foundry production,
feldspar raw materials, kaolin, large-leaf muscovite, iodine, bromine, and
optical raw materials. While substantial reserves of chromium and certain rare
earth metals can be found in Russia, they remain underdeveloped. One way
envisioned in the Strategy to ensure an increase in the domestic production of
10 L. LIMONOV AND D. KADOCHNIKOV
1.4.1 Oil
As of 2019, Russia possessed 8% (18.7 billion tonnes) of the discovered world
reserves of liquid hydrocarbons (including oil), ranking among the top six
countries, and has extracted about 12% (558.5 million tonnes) of the global
annual production volume, being one of the top three major producers and
exporters of oil (Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian
Federation, 2020, p. 15). More than half of Russian oil is extracted in
the Ural Federal District (i.e., the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District, the
Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, and the Tyumen Oblast). Another oil-
rich territory, producing about one-fifth of the total, is the Volga Federal
District (i.e., the Republic of Tatarstan, the Orenburg Oblast, the Samara
Oblast, Perm Krai, the Republic of Bashkortostan, and the Udmurt Republic).
The remaining oil is extracted predominantly in Siberian regions. The signif-
icance of Russia’s continental shelf in oil extraction is expected to increase in
the future.
As the productivity of existing oil fields is decreasing with time, Russian
corporations are undertaking projects to discover new oilfields; some of these
newly discovered oilfields are expected to start production in the 2020s, which
is important for maintaining and increasing the overall production volume.
Untraditional oil sources, such as shale oil fields, have only recently begun to
be exploited, although there is growing interest in them among Russian oil
producers, as the country’s estimated shale oil reserves are among the largest
(and possibly—the largest) globally.
Around half of Russia’s extracted oil and processed oil products are
exported (see Chapter 9). Oil pipelines deliver Russian oil directly to Germany,
Eastern Europe, and China; there are also oil pipelines leading to Russia from
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Some oil pipelines end at Russian seaports, where
oil and oil products are transported in oil tankers.
of the Russian Federation, 2020, p. 42). The production and export volumes
of natural gas from Russia have been growing over the last decade (see
Chapter 9), although the dynamics have lagged behind that of the United
States, where untraditional sources of natural gas (shale) were being actively
exploited, while Russia relied solely on traditional sources.
As of 2021, the network of gas pipelines used to transport gas to Russian
and foreign consumers had a total length of 177 thousand kilometres.
In recent years, many new gas pipelines are under construction, which is
key to ensuring that the increased demand from international consumers is
met. Recently completed major gas pipelines include the Nord Stream and
Nord Stream 2 (which has not become operational due to sanctions—see
Chapter 14), delivering gas from Russia to Germany and Central Europe; the
Power of Siberia, delivering gas to Russia’s Pacific coast with a second pipeline
to China; and the Turkish Stream, delivering gas from Russia to Turkey.
While gas pipelines have traditionally been the most important means of gas
delivery, liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade is growing rapidly. The demand for
LNG increased dramatically in the 2010s and is primarily shipped in tankers
to consumers without sufficient access to gas pipelines—mostly to consumers
in Asia. In 2019, Russia was among the major exporters of LNG, ranked third
after Qatar and Australia (Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the
Russian Federation, 2020, p. 51).
As of 2019, 86% of Russia’s natural gas production was concentrated in the
Ural Federal District (primarily in Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District). Major
ongoing projects to develop new natural gas fields are also being implemented
on the Yamal Peninsula, as well as on the Island of Sakhalin and on Russia’s
continental shelf.
1.4.3 Coal
Russian proved reserves of coal (of all types) account for 11% (113 billion
tonnes) of the world’s total, ranking it fourth in this respect (after the
United States, China, and Australia). During 2010–2019, coal production in
Russia expanded, reaching more than 400 million tonnes (Ministry of Natural
Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, 2020, p. 64). More than
half of all production is concentrated in the Kuznetsk Basin (Kuzbass) in
the Kemerovo Oblast (south-western Siberia), which possesses one of the
world’s largest coal deposits; the rest is also produced mostly in Siberia (see
Chapter 9). More than 100 companies are involved in coal mining.
1.4.4 Uranium
Russia possesses 8% of the proved world uranium reserves, sharing third place
with Canada after Kazakhstan and Australia and ranking seventh in terms of
uranium production—producing 2997 tonnes in 2019 (Ministry of Natural
Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, 2020, p. 82). Most of
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
despairingly upward.
'She is yielding,' thought Sir Ranald; 'but I see how it is—this fellow
Goring is in our way.'
'The sooner you become sensible, Alison, and forget your foolish—your
most unwise fancy for that young fellow at Aldershot, the better for
yourself and for—me.'
He never forgot himself with all his love for his daughter.
'No doubt,' snarled Sir Ranald, through his set teeth. 'People cannot live
on love, however, and your friend "Bevil," as you call him, cannot pay my
debts.'
'Till recently you have always been accustomed to luxury and ease.
These Cadbury lays at your feet, offering you—who by position and
education are unfit to be a poor man's wife—absolute splendour.'
'But Bevil is not so poor as you think, and, moreover, may be richer in
time,' urged Alison, piteously; 'he has prospects, expectations——'
'Of course—what sharper is without them?—and for the realization of
these visions you would be waiting to the sacrifice of your youth, your
beauty, and your poor old father's few remaining years.'
She wrung her white hands. She had often thought before of the
tradesmen's unpaid bills—of her dresses made to do duty for a second
season she had never thought at all; but now the letter of Slagg had filled
her with vague and undefinable terror.
She could not, poor girl, understand the tenor of it altogether, but she
knew it meant ruin, for she could read that in her father's anxious face; yet
why should fate compel her to marry Lord Cadbury?—she could work—
work or die!
'I do not see that love has much to do with marriage, but know that
money has a great deal,' said her father, smoothing out the letter of Solomon
Slagg for re-perusal. 'Love is a luxury the poor can't afford, and it is better
to marry on a little of it, and find that little increase by residence together
and force of habit, than marry on much, and find that much dwindling away
into mutual toleration and cold indifference.'
Sir Ranald had not an atom of sympathy with or toleration for this love
fancy, so he deemed it, of his daughter. His own lover-days and his
marriage seemed to have come to pass so long ago as to have belonged to
some state of pre-existence. He could scarcely realise them now; yet he
knew they must have been; Burke and Debrett told him so; and Alison was
there as a living proof of both; but his love—if love it was—had been a
well-ordered arrangement with a lady of good position and ample means,
not with an obscure nobody.
'Papa,' said Alison, after a silence that had been broken only by her
sighs and his own, 'when urging me to do what you wish, have you no
thought of the long line of the Cheynes of Essilmont, who lived there for so
many centuries—who so often lost their lives in battle, but never honour,
who never stained their name by any base or ignoble transaction, who lived
and died so spotlessly?'
This little outburst was something precisely after his own heart; he
patted Alison's head of rich brown hair, and said, with a kindling in his
eyes,
'It is precisely because I do think of them that I wish to see you wealthy
and ennobled, raised out of this now sordid life of ours.'
'If you will not save me by doing so, we have nothing left for it now but
a disgraceful flight.'
'Flight?'
'For where?'
'You look worn and weary, Alison,' said Sir Ranald, observing the
pinched expression of her little white face.
'Then go to bed, child; think over all I have urged, think of what is
before us, think well, and give me a final answer in the morning.'
She kissed him with lips that were cold and quivering, and retired to her
room, while he threw open his bureau, drew the lamp towards him, spread a
sheet of paper with a vague idea that he was about to make some monetary
calculations, and mechanically dipped a pen in the ink-bottle.
Then he threw it down, and, resting his aching head upon his delicate
and wrinkled hands, sank into a kind of stupor of thought.
From this he was roused by a hand being laid gently on his shoulder,
and by the voice of old Archie Auchindoir saying, while he shook his white
head,
'Puir Sir Ranald—oh! my dear maister; eild and poortith are sair
burdens for ae back.'
'Sir Ranald, sir, I've a sma' matter o' three hunder pound and mair saved
up in your service, and at your service it is now, every bodle o'd—tak' it and
welcome; it may help ye at this pinch—tak' it, for God's sake, if it will tak'
the tears frae Miss Alison's een.'
'Poor Archie, I thank you,' said Sir Ranald, shaking the hand of this
faithful old man, whose eyes were inflamed with the tears he was, perhaps,
too aged to shed; 'it is very generous of you, this offer, but is—pardon me
saying so—simply absurd!'
Again and again Archie pressed the little man in vain upon the
acceptance of his master, till the pride of the latter turned his gratitude into
something of his usual hauteur, on which Archie withdrew sorrowfully,
muttering under his breath,
'Troth, he's weel boden there ben, that will neither borrow nor lend.'
Meaning that Sir Ranald must surely be well enough off, if he could
afford to dispense with all assistance.
With her gorgeous brown hair unrolled and floating over her shoulders,
Alison, with her hands lying listlessly in her lap, sat lost in her own terrible
thoughts, with her tear-inflamed eyes gazing into her bed-room fire, which
had just attained that clear, red light, without flickering flame, in which one
may fancy strange scenes without end—deep valleys, caverns, rocks,
castles perched on cliffs, faces, and profiles; and therein had she seen, more
than once, Essilmont with its Scoto-French turrets with their conical roofs
and vanes, its crow-stepped gables and massive chimneys, that she now
might never see in reality again!
How often had she read in novels and romances, and how often had she
seen on the stage, the story of a heroine—a wretched girl placed in
precisely the cruel predicament in which she now found herself, and
deemed that such dramatic and doleful situations could only exist in the
fancies of the author or of the playwright!
Without, the cold and wintry wind had torn away the last leaves from
every tree long since; the last flowers were also long dead; the chill night
rain pattered, with sleet and hail, upon the windows; and, like the heart of
Alison, all nature seemed desolate and sad.
She shuddered when she heard the moaning of the wind, and thought of
the Spectre Hound.
CHAPTER XVI.
And now to relate what more came to pass at Chilcote, and where
Alison had vanished to.
The morning came to her after a sleepless night, and she was incapable
of giving the answer to which Sir Ranald had hopefully looked forward.
She was in a species of mental fever. So passed the day—the day she knew
that she could not meet Bevil—and the short winter evening was passing
into another night, when the ringing of the door bell gave her a kind of
electric shock, so thoroughly was her whole nervous system shaken.
The hour was a dark and gloomy one; snow flakes were falling athwart
the dreary landscape of leafless trees, and the north wind moaned sadly
round old Chilcote and its giant beeches, with a wail that seemed consonant
with disasters impending there, when Lord Cadbury arrived, by chance as it
seemed, but in reality to see the effect of the bomb he had fired from the
office of Mr. Solomon Slagg, in St. Clement's Lane.
The curtains had been drawn over the windows by the tiny little hands
of Daisy Prune; a coal fire blazed pleasantly in the grate, and threw a ruddy
glow over all the panelled room and the family portraits, particularly on
those of the two Cavalier brothers, looking so proud and defiant in their
gorgeous costume, that ere long would be finding their way to the brokers
in Wardour Street or elsewhere.
Sir Ranald and Alison sat alone—alone in their misery—when the peer
came jauntily in, and took in the whole situation at a glance—the poor girl,
with all her rare beauty, looking utterly disconsolate; the bankrupt father,
with all his pride, looking utterly desperate!
They formed a lovely picture, but it touched not the heart of my Lord
Cadbury of Cadbury Court.
The bezique cards lay on the table close by, where old Archie had
placed them as usual; but they were unnoticed now. Father and daughter
were quite past playing their quiet game together.
Cadbury took in the whole situation; all that he anticipated had come to
pass; the result was exactly what he had foreseen, and he now hoped that he
would be able to triumph over Alison, whose repugnance for him piqued his
pride and excited his revenge.
'What is the matter, Cheyne—you look seriously unwell?' said he, with
well-feigned interest.
'I think I can guess,' said the latter, tugging at his long white
moustaches; 'but tell me in what form.'
In a few words, but with intense shame and mortification of spirit, Sir
Ranald told of Slagg's threatening letter, and of all that his listener had been
aware of days before.
'What is before you?' asked the peer, a cunning smile twinkling in his
eyes, unseen by his visitor.
'Death or disgrace!'
'Arrest or flight.'
Cadbury continued to pull each of his moustaches in a kind of nervous
way, and after a minute's silence he said, with a kind of laugh,
'I am not a man who has been used to seek help from others,' said Sir
Ranald, with a little of his old pride of bearing.
'Yes.'
'And with what result—for she knows what I can do, if I choose?'
'None—none!'
'No.'
'No!'
Lord Cadbury's ferret-like eyes flashed; he actually ground his teeth and
clenched his coarse, vulgar hands.
'Look here, Cheyne—if I take up your paper and pay Slagg, could you
not force her—I say, force——'
'Hush—she might fall ill and die, as her mother died, of a decline,'
groaned Sir Ranald.
'Oh! not a bit, not a bit,' said Cadbury; 'but change of air will do her
good. Let us get her out of this place, anyway.'
'The fact is, she has a fancy for that infantry fellow, Bevil Goring, at
Aldershot,' said Sir Ranald, who carefully omitted to state that Alison had
admitted her engagement.
'But how?'
'Take her over to the Continent. Let us get her on board my yacht, with
you as her protector, and all will come right in the end, and I'll leave you
ashore somewhere when you least suspect it,' was Cadbury's concluding
thought.
'In mine.'
'Yours?'
'Yes—look here.'
Cadbury opened his pocket-book and laid before the startled eyes of Sir
Ranald eight or nine bills and promissory notes, all of which he knew but
too well.
'I know Solomon Slagg. I knew him to my cost ere I came to the title.
You mentioned that he had acceptances of yours. I got them all up, and trust
that in quietude Alison will end this nonsense and become Lady Cadbury.'
Sir Ranald shook his head and sank back in his chair.
'If I put these papers in the fire, will you stick to my plan of getting her
on board my yacht, and leaving the rest to time and to me?' asked Cadbury,
in a voice that intensity rendered husky.
'Yes,' replied Sir Ranald, in a faint voice, while eyeing the fatal
documents as if they had serpent-like fascination for him.
Sir Ranald put his cold, thin hand in the peer's rough and pudgy one,
and in another moment the documents were vanishing in the fire.
It is an old aphorism which says with truth that a man is usually more
inclined to feel kindly towards one on whom he has conferred favours than
to one from whom he has received them; thus, barely had Sir Ranald seen
the last of his blue paper shrivel up in the flames, and thus felt a load lifted
off his mind, when his natural sense of gratitude jarred with his equally
natural constitutional pride, which revolted at the idea of being favoured or
protected by any man.
However, they mutually resolved, after Sir Ranald had poured forth his
expressions of gratitude, with promises to refund whenever it was in his
power to do so, that Alison should be kept in ignorance of what had been
done with the bills till they had her on board the yacht, when they both
hoped to count upon her gratitude; and now, when the pressure of the
present danger had passed away, Sir Ranald felt more than ever annoyance,
even rage, at his daughter's folly and obstinacy—folly in permitting herself
to be swayed by a regard for Goring, and obstinacy in declining the
proposal of Cadbury.
'And now that is arranged,' said the latter, 'I'll telegraph to Tom Llanyard
to get the Firefly into Southampton Water. We can take the train at
Basingstoke and be off to-morrow, bag and baggage. Pension off or pay off
that old Scotch fellow, Auchindoir—he is not worth his salt, and would only
be in the way on board the Firefly; ditto with old Prune your housekeeper.
We'll take Daisy with us, however, as Alison must have a maid; and, until
we are at sea, watch well that she has no means of posting letters.'
Now that the keen and aching sense of immediate danger had passed
away, or been replaced by gratitude and thankfulness, Sir Ranald's spirit, in
addition to his annoyance with Alison, writhed under the part he found
himself compelled to act, in silently permitting Lord Cadbury to direct his
daughter's movements and to arrange their household matters.
But now the packing and preparations for departure began that very
night, and were resumed with fresh energy on the following day, Alison
toiling with a will in the selection of her father's wardrobe and her own.
Alas! there was but little in either to make the selection difficult, sorrow for
the sudden separation from Goring on one hand being tempered on the
other by a belief that immediate departure alone could save Sir Ranald from
the peril that menaced him but yesterday; and so closely was she watched,
and so much were her movements hampered, that she was totally without an
opportunity for writing or dispatching even the smallest note to Aldershot.
'And sae you're gaun awa', and without me?' said Archie, rather
reproachfully, to Sir Ranald.
'Where to?'
'In time, perhaps, Archie; in time, but not now,' said Sir Ranald, with a
bitter sigh.
'Tak' tent, Sir Ranald; for gudesake gang hooly. Dinna wade if ye canna
see the bottom,' resumed Archie, in a low and confidential voice; 'and
beware ye o' that Lord Cadbury. I ken a spune frae a stot's horn as weel as
maist men, and I distrust him sairly.'
'That I do not. He has just been a good friend to me, Archie; and now a
word in your ear—when I want advice from you concerning my friends or
my affairs, I shall condescend to ask it.'
The old servitor looked abashed and crushed. He bowed very low, and
withdrew in silence.
At last the hour of departure came, and Lord Cadbury's carriage and a
light luggage-van were at the door; and, ere Alison was assisted into the
former, she shook old Archie's hand, and then with a sudden impulse kissed
his cheek, for she had known Archie from her infancy. Thus he seemed to
her as a part and parcel of Essilmont; and, when the carriage rolled away
with her in it, the old man lifted up his hands and voice and wept as only
the aged and the hopeless weep.
'Poor girl!' thought Cadbury, with a grimace, when after a time there
came a distant view of Aldershot, with its camp of huts, its church spire,
and Twesildown Hill, 'she'll hold, I suppose, for a time, to her little rag of
fidelity—her promise to that fellow Goring in the infantry lines; but, faute
de mieux, we shall cure her of that. We shall see what we shall see, when an
hour on board the Firefly.'
Well did Alison know where Aldershot lay, but, conscious that her
tormentor's keen eyes were upon her, she turned hers away and gazed
steadily in the opposite direction.
'I thought I had bidden good-bye to the world, Cadbury,' said Sir
Ranald, with the nearest approach to a smile Alison had seen on his thin,
worn face for some time past; 'and here I am about to see it again in your
yacht. Alison will require some additions to her wardrobe, I fear, but we
have no time for that; and though she has Daisy for her attendant, I should
like her also to have the society of some lady friend—do you know of one?'
'What need of a lady friend or chaperon when you, her own father, are
with her? Besides, we are close run for time, and Llanyard awaits us at
Southampton,' he replied, almost with irritation.
The veteran lover chuckled in his vanity at this, and, ideas of marriage
apart, he actually began to scheme how he might 'drop' Sir Ranald
somewhere on the Continent, compromise the girl in some way, and thus
revenge himself on her and Goring too.
He had scarcely made up his mind yet in what direction to sail at that
inclement season, but, wherever it was, another route would be announced
in the papers, to throw adventurous lovers off the scent.
CHAPTER XVII.
MORE MYSTERY.
The baronet and his daughter had left England in Lord Cadbury's yacht
the Firefly several days ago.
'Oh! he has gone too; the Court is shut up,' replied Mrs. Trelawney, with
a faint approach to a smile.
Was she yielding to the pressure put upon her by Sir Ranald—yielding
after all?
'I am indeed surprised that—that Alison did not write about the whole
affair to me.'
'Perhaps she did not know in time, or her letter may not have been—
may have from some cause miscarried. So whether they are seeking the
fiords of Norway or the source of the Nile we cannot know.'
'Old Mrs. Rebecca Prune, who came with a farewell message from
Alison to me—a circumstance which I thought strange, as courtesy required
that she should have called, or at least written.'
'None. I assure you, Captain Goring, I miss Alison very much, and so
does my child here, little Netty.'
'How is Captain Dalton? I have not seen him for some time.'
After a pause—
Mrs. Trelawney's bright hazel eyes sparkled, and her bosom heaved,
while an undoubtedly joyous expression spread over all her animated face.
'You will pardon me for saying this, when I know that you are the friend
of Alison Cheyne, whom I love with my whole life, and shall follow over
the world if I can trace her!' said Goring, whose voice trembled with
emotion that sprang from love and anger.
'And poor Dalton,' said Goring, anxious to plead his friend's cause; 'can
you not love him as he deserves to be?'
'I have not said so,' replied Mrs. Trelawney, now laughing excessively,
and added, 'what an odd question for a gentleman visitor!'
'Do pardon me; but will you give him time to hope—through me?'
'Why?
'There is—I know—a secret in his life—he knows it too—a secret that
in some measure fetters alike his words and his actions.'
'Yours!'
'But when?'
'When the proper time comes. Till then, Captain Goring, I shall trust to
your friendship for myself and Captain Dalton not to attempt to probe it, or
act the umpire or match-maker between us.'
She said this emphatically, and with one of her sweetest smiles, while
her soft white hand was placed confidently in that of Goring.
'I shall be silent as the grave,' said he. 'I have suspected something of
this kind. At times a great gloom comes over poor Tony; there has been
some mystery about his early life; what, I cannot divine; but it drove him
into the ranks, and made him for years loathe England and English society,
which he avoided as much as possible. He seems to have got over that
whim now, and to you I look forward as the means of effecting a perfect
cure.'
She gave Goring one of her soft and inexplicable smiles, and then,
drooping her eyelids said, with a sigh, but apparently one of pleasure,
Mrs. Trelawney promised him, the moment she could obtain, through
any source, some tidings of Alison's whereabouts, to let him know, and he
bade her adieu with his mind full of doubt and anxiety—not doubt of
Alison's faith, but of their mutual future; and anxiety for the annoyances to
which she might be subjected, and the pressure that might in many ways be
put upon her.
'So—she seems to have refused Tony, as she did Jerry Wilmot; by Jove,
she must be difficult to please!' thought he, as he turned his horse in the
direction of Aldershot, often giving a long, earnest, and hopeless farewell
glance at the old trysting-place beside the beeches.
But Jerry by this time had quite got over his fancy for Mrs. Trelawney,
and found a new divinity in the person of her friend, Miss Bella Chevenix,
whom he had known from her girlhood, but who now became invested with
new and sudden interest to him.
WILMOTHURST.
His changed mood of mind did not escape the attention of his friend
Jerry Wilmot, who said to him one day,
Goring agreed to this. The colonel readily granted a few weeks' leave to
both, as the spring drills were a long way off, or the alternate mud and dust
of the Long Valley were not sufficiently deep for military manœuvres; and
they started for Wilmothurst, which was situated in one of the prettiest and
most wooded parts of Hampshire, Goring being glad of anything that drew
him from his own thoughts and aided him to kill the harassing time.
Jerry's man secured their seats and saw their luggage duly placed in the
van.
'Now, O'Farrel,' said he, as the latter saluted and retired, 'don't get drunk
at the "Tumble-down-Dick," or you'll never be the Sultan of Turkey.'
Farnborough Station was soon left far behind; Fleet, with its pond and
moorlands; Winchfield, Basingstoke, with its market and town-hall. The
carriage from Wilmothurst met them at a station some miles eastward of
Salisbury, and the short winter evening saw them deposited at the porte-
cochère of the stately modern mansion, which occupied the site of an
ancient one, and of which Jerry was the lord and owner.
'A fine place this, Jerry,' exclaimed Goring as they alighted; 'the grounds
are beautiful.'
'Yes, but the devil of it is that the lands are mortgaged, I believe, to an
awful extent; my father was a man of expensive habits and tastes. The old
lady ma mère hopes, nay, never doubts, that I shall, with my handsome
figure and rare accomplishments, pick up an heiress, as if such prizes were
to be found like pips on every hedge; but I have my own fancy to consult in
the matter of marriage.'
'Now to dress for dinner, and then I shall introduce you to the ladies in
the drawing-room.'
Jerry had, during the last few weeks, especially since his fancy for Mrs.
Trelawney had been cooled by her laughing repulse of his suit, gone much
after Bella Chevenix, a former flame, wherever he had met her—a young
lady of whom we shall have much to tell anon—but, as yet, he had given no
token of his actual feelings towards her, save a rather marked attention,
which she—knowing the views, the necessities, and, more than all, the
general bearing of Lady Julia Wilmot towards herself—had never in any
way encouraged.
Lady Julia Wilmot (she was an Earl's daughter) received them with a
stately grace peculiar to herself, but she was too well-bred to display the
least warmth of manner; and Jerry kissed her cheek, then her firm, white
hand, and, after introducing 'Goring of Ours,' saluted his pretty cousin.
Lady Julia was a fine-looking woman past her fortieth year, but still
very handsome, her complexion brilliantly pure, her face and forehead
without a line, for thought and care had been alike unknown to her since she
left her cradle. Her delicately pencilled black eyebrows and general outline
of features were decidedly what are deemed aristocratic, and she gave her
hand to Goring, while receiving somewhat frigidly Jerry's kiss upon her
white cheek.
She was not emotional evidently, and deemed that any exhibition of
pleasure on seeing her only son after an absence of a few months would be
'bad form.'
Emily Wilmot was decidedly a pretty girl, with blond hair, light blue
eyes, a rather retroussé nose, a cherub-like mouth and dazzling skin.
'My cousin Emily,' said Jerry, 'Goring of Ours. I hope you will be great
friends, but be careful, Emmy. Bevil is our regimental lady-killer—has
passed the Guards' School of Instruction in the science of flirtation.'
'Absurd as ever, Jerry,' said his pretty cousin, tapping his hand with her
feather fan, but beginning a conversation at once with Goring.
Aware that Jerry would arrive that day about dinner time, Cousin Emily
had made her toilette with unusual care. She wore a rich black silk trimmed
with amber satin; ruffles of rich old lace fell around her tapered arms that
were white as a lily, and made the delicate lace seem quite yellow. Bracelets
of topazes clasped her slender wrists. The colours chosen became the blond
character of her beauty—for she was more than pretty—and yet the whole
costume, though rather extreme, was not too much for a family dinner.