by Pyotr DZYUBENKO, Dr. Sc. (Hist.), and Maxim SAVCHENKO, Cand. Sc. (Hist.), Russian Customs Academy

Research activities of the great Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev (1834-1907) have many facets to them. The author of the periodic table, he is also the mastermind of a custom tariff which contemporaries named after him. "Customhouses should and can give two good things, and they do it indeed," the scientist said. "First, treasury revenue, and second, labor incentives at home."

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The Mendeleyev custom tariff... To understand what's it all about we should travel back into the 1880s when the issue of protectionist custom barriers came to be in the limelight both for the Russian public and for the government. It sparked a good deal of controversy between "protectionists"* and "freetraders"** These debates went far beyond custom duties proper levied on merchandise, important as this matter was. Our country's socioeconomic development and modernization was on the anvil. Which course to follow? Russia's best minds-state and public personalities, scientists and scholars-likewise threw themselves into the debates. Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev was in their midst.

Much earlier, in the 1860s, Dmitry Mendeleyev had buckled down to in-depth studies of the economy and specific industries and regions. Having collected a large body of data, he got down to the job of drawing up a program of the country's socioeconomic development-the way he saw it.

In September 1889 Finance Minister Ivan Vyshnegradsky offered him an assignment: outline a plan for a custom tariff on chemical products and submit the draft by January 1890. Taking a hard close look, Mendeleyev saw that raising custom duties on particular items would fall short of the desired result. Therefore he decided to conceptualize a general approach and map out fundamentals of custom policy and a system of merchandise distribution.

It was a formidable, mammoth job that had to be done fast, within a short span. Yet Mendeleyev coped with this tall order. All things considered, he realized: Russia's future and economic independence was in the balance.

Custom tariffs had to be revised. So in due course Mendeleyev filed a memorandum in which he presented a general outline of Russia's custom policies, with respect to imports in particular.

Fundamentals of protectionism came first. Here's his view of custom tariffs: "Tariffs will always be a matter of time, and of the country's conditions and circumstances..." Tariffs could work only if they were well-established within an integral system. And last, each and everyone should understand the purpose of custom duties, their principles.

Dmitry Mendeleyev formulated the principles of tariff policy: protective safeguards for the development of home industries so as to provide steady earnings to the people and required commodities to the nation; custom duties should stimulate Russian industry in its further growth; then, taking into account the limited possibilities of the state in the use of free capital and specialists, Mendeleyev deemed it necessary to focus on key industries as a nucleus of Russia's further economic advancement (he named the coalmining, metallurgical, engineering and chemical branches); custom duties on imports should be reasonably balanced: "Contradictions may often crop up between fiscal interests and protectionism, and ... therefore it is necessary to revise tariffs in a purposeful manner..." Furthermore, Mendeleyev wrote in his memo, high custom duties were useful only for goods which Russia was producing in abundance; but one should avoid "duties whereby the treasury revenue is transferred into profits pocketed by individual entrepreneurs and of no benefit to the people."

In his memorandum Mendeleyev substantiated tariff scales depending on the class of commodities. Here's what he recalled: "This report determined a lot in the further course of my life and in further deliberations on the tariff issue. The plan was there after all. S. Vitte*** became my ally from the outset, and many others joined up."

In October 1890 Mendeleyev filed an addendum to his memorandum on the custom tariff. Taking a broader view of the range of related problems, Mendeleyev noted in particular that free trade could "give beneficial results only to countries that have developed their industrial entrepreneurship". Citing concrete examples, Mendeleyev showed "benefits of the protectionist system for countries like Russia where the manufacturing, mining and even farm industries have not emerged yet from the primitive state."

In Mendeleyev's view, Russia outgrew the land-farming period of its history and hence should develop its industry; but that was impossible in the absence of a protective custom tariff. Free trade advocates, however, contended that overprotective custom barriers were harmful to agriculture. Mendeleyev riposted: most favored conditions for foreign goods in the interests of Russian farming reflected a narrow, one-track approach, a retrograde attitude that would keep our country in the old land-tilling age.

From the 1860s on Mendeleyev was actively involved with problems of agriculture too. A program he suggested ushered in innovative experiments in Russia's farming industry. Matters bearing on farm productivity and produce marketing were also of major concern to him.

In February 1891 Mendeleyev filed yet another memo to Finance Minister Ivan Vyshnegradsky - "Custom Duty on Sulphur and Pyrite". In acute debates that flared up Mendeleyev won in defending the principles of his draft program which were incorporated in fundamentals of a major document dealing with the Russian Empire's custom tariffs and European trade. His Majesty endorsed this policy document on June 11, 1891. Contemporaries, economists among them, described it as a "Mendeleyev tariff'.

At this stage a dramatic event occurred in Mendeleyev's life: the scientist had to leave St. Petersburg

* Protectionism-a system of economic measures meant to protect domestic producers against foreign competition. Custom barriers are an important part of this package. - Ed.

** Free-traders - protagonists of free trade, a trend among capitalist industrialists opting for laissez-faire and noninterference of the government in economic life. They advocate a lifting of custom duties and come out for free imports and exports. Economic liberalism of the first water.- Ed.

*** Count Sergei Vitte: from 1889 to 1892 served as director of the Railways Department of the Finance Ministry; in February-August 1892, Minister of Railways, and in 1892-1903, Russia' Finance Minister.- Ed.

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University where he had been teaching for about 30 years.* But his scholarly activities did not end there. In 1892 Mendeleyev published a Reasonable Tariff Compendium, or a survey of the development of Russia's industry after the adoption of the custom tariff of 1891. The author reviewed the custom tariff in all its bearings, specifically, the economic side of the matter, and development prospects. Labor was "the father of well-being", and parsimony - "its mother", he said. Industrial development was the be-all and end-all of progress for every social class, of popular welfare and enlightenment. And he pledged to do his utmost in furthering this cause... Mendeleyev was satisfied with his work and took pride in his accomplishments in a field other than chemistry, that is political economy.

Being an adherent of rational protectionism, Mendeleyev did not regard it as something absolute or perfect. He took a liberal view of free trade, but made one important reservation: "The free trade approach befits only those countries which have consolidated their manufacturing industries; ... protectionism as an absolute teaching is the same rationalistic humbug as the absolute free trade, and ... the protectionist approach is quite opportune to Russia now as it was opportune to England in the past when she was facing a threat of becoming a ruined and poor island in the Atlantic Ocean."

Protectionism did not amount just to high duties on imports, let alone a ban on imports; its aim was to ensure economic conditions for industries vulnerable to foreign competition. A "reasonable" tariff, Mendeleyev said, is one that applies to particular, concrete commodities. The abstract theo-

* Mendeleyev quit to protest the anti-democratic policies of the Public Education Minister I. Delyanov. - Ed .

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lies of free-traders and protectionists are irrelevant in practical terms. Hence the conclusion: besides the primary protectionism, with its overemphasis on self-reliance and prohibition of foreign goods, there can also be ... a stimulating reasonable protectionism characterized by a selective approach: reasonably high import duties should be levied only on imports of those commodities that are underproduced at home. That is to say, such duties should create incentives for home producers. Later on, in his Cherished Thoughts (1905), Mendeleyev stressed this point: "Custom duties under protectionism should be a means, not an end, albeit a fiscal one."

Vyshnegradsky and Vitte, two Russian finance ministers, thought highly of Mendeleyev's economic talents and tried to make the best of them. His expertise was welcome on more than one occasion in economic, fiscal and scientific problem-solving. From 1892 to 1907 the celebrated Russian chemist was the manager of the Central Chamber of Weights and Measures under the jurisdiction of Russia's Finance Ministry.

Mendeleyev had particularly good rapport with Vitte. Both men saw eye to eye on many problems of Russia's economic development. Both favored crash growth rates for industry and protectionist policies as important tools toward this end. Here's what Vitte wrote in his reminiscences: "In fact, the significance of Russia's industry is yet to be realized and comprehended. Only our great scientist Mendeleyev, my true collaborator and friend, did understand this issue and tried his best in enlightening the Russian public."

Hailing from Siberia in Russia's east, Mendeleyev had some of the traits common to the natives of those parts; somewhat awkward and boorish, he acquired none of the high-society polish. To cap it all, he was rather short-tempered and domineering in his manners. Tough and straightforward, he stood in the forefront of the struggle for his country's economic advancement. He had no peers as a polemicist and seemed invincible. True, there were setbacks now and then. One occurred at an industrial-commercial assembly in

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Nizhni Novgorod where delegates became divided on the issue of custom duties. They split into two parties-those of agrarians and industrialists. Here's what Pavel Buryshkin, an eminent entrepreneur and writer, wrote in his book Merchant Moscow. "At this assembly the question of duties on farm implements was a central one on the agenda, something that served as a pretext for reverting to a controversy common to 19th-century Russia: was Russia an agricultural land, and should one create and promote industries in it? The agrarian faction was led by Professor Leonid Khodsky, and the industrial faction-by Professor Dmitry Mendeleyev... The agrarians overcame in the end..." The majority spoke out for lower duties on farm machinery and metal.

But Professor Mendeleyev did not give up. In his article "Justification of Protectionism" (July 1897) he cautioned against a narrow view of protectionist policies: "Protectionism implies... a sum total of state measures favorable to industries and trade, and elsewhere too, be it schools or foreign policy, roads or banks, law enactments or world fairs, land struggle or transportation speed... It [protectionism] is mandatory and makes up a general formula in which custom duties are but a small part of the whole."

Thus Mendeleyev took a rather broad view of the economy. He outlined yet another fundamental idea in the above article- namely, the state should vigorously act upon the economy to overcome its own backwardness. "The state is obliged to stimulate and protect industry and trade of the home country by all possible means" - by custom protectionism above all. The tariff adopted in 1891 was a correct decision: imports did not go down, custom revenues were up, and so were the state incomes.

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Meanwhile, the controversy on Russia's economic development prospects grew ever hotter. Count Vitte turned to Mendeleyev again for support so as to win over the new emperor, Nikolai (Nicholas) II, to his cause. From 1897 to 1901 Professor Mendeleyev wrote a few letters to the emperor in which he pleaded for protectionist policies and further foreign investments in Russia.

Lurking behind fierce clashes of ideas and material interests were often ulterior motives and mean self-interest. Mendeleyev antagonized a bunch of self-seekers who started hounding him, for one, they questioned his competence in economic and financial matters. Mendeleyev was a cat's paw of certain quarters pursuing selfish interests of their own, some pen-pushers wrote in the press. Mendeleyev snapped back by refuting such preposterous charges. "My voice was heard both in the administrative and in the entrepreneurial spheres," he wrote in one of his letters to the press. He helped Russian entrepreneurial interests a good deal "not only by advice but in practical matters too, and always declined to take part in profit sharing, for... that could prejudice our possible influence in the top spheres." On June 10, 1905, Mendeleyev confided to his diary he saw his task in attracting capital investments into industry without "soiling" himself by touching that capital. "This is how I - through I. Vysh-negradsky and in alliance with S. Vitte - became a protectionist... Let them judge me as they see fit... I have nothing to repent, because I in no way served capital, or crude force, or my personal welfare, but only tried, and shall be trying as long as I can, to do a real thing for my country's industries... Sciences and industries-these are my dreams."

Count Vitte likewise left comments on that foul campaign of slander. He recalled: "Mendeleyev was a rabid protectionist and thus became a butt of violent criticism... He was not elected to the Academy of Sciences, and one even spread rumors he might have been bribed by some industrialists because in his articles and books he came out in support of industry and saw Russia's future in it. All that is vicious slander, of course," Vitte said.

The Mendeleyev phenomenon was in no way something accidental; it catered to our country's vital needs in the wake of the 1861 reform which abolished serfdom and paved the way for capitalist development. A great mind of encyclopedic erudition, Professor Mendeleyev was part and parcel of his time in all its historic implications. His specialist knowledge came pat as Russia was embarking on a path of industrial development. Industrial modernization was a felt need for Russia of those days, it had to catch up with other countries; hence the inevitable contradictions that bounded back on the scientist who found himself slap on the borderline of two ages in his country's history.

Dmitry Mendeleyev epitomized the flower of the progressive Russian public of those days in its patriotic sentiments and urge to promote Russia's welfare. A brilliant thinker, he not only discovered a basic natural law-the periodic law. He was awake to the challenges of his time, of the contradictory and volatile situation in his native country, Russia.

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