STORCH, Heinrich. Statistische Übersicht der Statthalterschaften des Russischen Reichs nach ihren merkwürdigsten Kulturverhältnissen in Tabellen. Riga: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch. 1795.
Large 4to. Contemporary half-calf over drab board, spine with raised bands and with gilt-stamped lettering-piece, compartments ornamented in gilt, marbled paste-downs, red cotton bookmark; pp. [6], vi, 131, large allegorical vignette engraved by Meno Haas in Berlin to title-page; only very light rubbing to extremities, title-page a little spotted, otherwise very good; near-contemporary oval red collector's stamp of R. Gr. V. Veltheim, member of the landowning noble family from the Braunschweig region.
Rare first edition of one of the best-informed economic statistics of the Russian Empire, its production and trade. Heinrich Friedrich von Storch (1766-1835), a Russian economist of German descent, launched a statistical project to document the state of affairs of the entire Russian Empire and was tutor the sons of Tsar Alexander I in political economy. Here he gives town-by-town information on the male inhabitants, number of churches, houses (wooden and of stone), manufacturing and export. For example, Tula, the oldest industrial centre of Russia, had already two iron works with blast furnaces and more than 600 metal working businesses.
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