RETAIL SALES IN CURRENT PRICES

Personal consumption expenditures in retail outlets are supplied in Table A.1. For the period 1889 to 1913, I use Dikhtiar's estimates of total retail sales in current prices. Dikhtiar's own estimates are based upon Strumilin's reporting of total wholesale and retail trade turnover for the entire 1885 to 1913 period; so a word on the Strumilin data is in order. The Strumilin trade series is based upon trade turnover data reported to tax authorities. In this period, trade and industrial establishments were subject to two types of taxation; first, patents (svidetel'stva) for the privilege of conducting trade were required, and the magnitude of the patent tax depended upon the particular order (razriad) to which the enterprise belonged. Trade establishments were ordered in five razriady, according to size and type of establishment. For example, large wholesalers, major agricultural brokers, large credit establishments, grain elevators, and expeditors belonged to the first razriad; large retailers, small agricultural brokers, spirits wholesalers, and wholesalers of imported tobacco belonged to the second razriad; small retailers, kiosk establishments, and so on belonged to the third, and so on. A fairly complete description of the various razriady is supplied by Dikhtiar, and summary statistics of tax revenues broken down by razriady are to be found in the Ezhegodnik ministerstva finansov series for the period after 1900 and in special publications for the 1880s and 1890s. In 1908 patent revenues from trade establishments yielded over 25 million rubles to the state treasury.