The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia · Voltaire
CHAP. XXX.
Works and establishments in 1718, and the following years. Throughout the whole of the foregoing dreadful catastrophe, it appeared clearly, that Peter had acted only as the father of his country, and that he considered his people as his family. The punishments he had been obliged to inflict on such of them, who had endeavoured to obstruct or impede the happiness of the rest, were necessary, though melancholy sacrifices, made to the general good. 1718.] This year, which was the epoch of the disinheriting and death of his eldest son, was also that of the greatest advantage he procured to his subjects, by establishing a general police hitherto unknown; by the introduction or improvement of manufactures and works of every kind, by opening new branches of trade, which now began to flourish, and by the construction of canals, which joined rivers, seas, and people, that nature had separated from each other. We have here none of those striking events which charm common readers; none of those court-intrigues which are the food of scandal and malice, nor of those great revolutions which amaze the generality of mankind; but we behold the real springs of public happiness, which the philosophic eye delights to contemplate. He now appointed a lieutenant-general of police over the whole empire, who was to hold his court at Petersburg, and from thence preserve order from one end of the kingdom to the other. Extravagance in dress, and the still more dangerous extravagance of gaming, were prohibited under severe penalties; schools for teaching arithmetic, which had been first set on foot in 1716, were now established in many towns in Russia. The hospitals, which had been began, were now finished, endowed, and filled with proper objects.
To these we may add the several useful establishments which had been projected some time before, and which were completed a few years afterwards. The great towns were now cleared of those innumerable swarms of beggars, who will not follow any other occupation but that of importuning those who are more industrious than themselves, and who lead a wretched and shameful life at the expense of others: an abuse too much overlooked in other nations. The rich were obliged to build regular and handsome houses in Petersburg, agreeable to their circumstances, and, by a master-stroke of police, the several materials were brought carriage free to the city, by the barks and waggons which returned empty from the neighbouring provinces. Weights and measures were likewise fixed upon an uniform plan, in the same manner as the laws. This uniformity, so much, but in vain desired, in states that have for many ages been civilized, was established in Russia without the least difficulty or murmuring; and yet we fancy that this salutary regulation is impracticable amongst us. The prices of the necessaries of life were also fixed. The city of Petersburg was well lighted with lamps during the night; a convenience which was first introduced in Paris by Louis XIV., and to which Rome is still a stranger. Pumps were erected for supplying water in cases of fire; the streets were well paved, and rails put up for the security of foot passengers: in a word, every thing was provided that could minister to safety, decency, and good order, and to the quicker dispatch and convenience of the inland trade of the country. Several privileges were granted to foreigners, and proper laws enacted to prevent the abuse of those privileges. In consequence of these useful and salutary regulations, Petersburg and Moscow put on a new face.
The iron and steel manufactories received additional improvements, especially those which the czar had founded at about ten miles distance from Petersburg, of which he himself was the first superintendant, and wherein no less than a thousand workmen were employed immediately under his eye. He went in person to give directions to those who farmed the corn-mills, powder-mills, and mills for sawing timber, and to the managers of the manufactories for cordage and sail-cloth, to the brick-makers, slaters, and the cloth-weavers. Numbers of workmen in every branch came from France to settle under him; these were the fruits he reaped from his travels. He established a board of trade, which was composed of one half natives, and the other half foreigners, in order that justice might be equally distributed to all artists and workmen. A Frenchman settled a manufactory for making fine looking-glass at Petersburg, with the assistance of prince Menzikoff. Another set up a loom for working curious tapestry, after the manner of the Gobelins; and this manufactory still meets with great encouragement. A third succeeded in making of gold and silver thread, and the czar ordered that no more than four thousand marks of gold or silver should be expended in these works in the space of a year; by this means to prevent the too great consumption of bullion in the kingdom.
He gave thirty thousand rubles, that is, about one hundred and fifty thousand French livres,[110] together with all the materials and instruments necessary for making the several kinds of woollen stuffs. By this useful bounty he was enabled to clothe all his troops with the cloth made in his own country; whereas, before that time, it was purchased from Berlin and other foreign kingdoms. They made as fine linen cloth in Moscow as in Holland; and at his death there were in that capital and at Jaroslaw, no less than fourteen linen and hempen manufactories. It could certainly never be imagined, at the time that silk sold in Europe for its weight in gold, that one day there would arise on the banks of the lake Ladoga, in the midst of a frozen region, and among unfrequented marshes, a magnificent and opulent city, where the silks of Persia should be manufactured in as great perfection as at Ispahan. Peter, however, undertook this great phenomenon in commerce, and succeeded in the attempt. The working of iron mines was carried to their highest degree of perfection; several other mines of gold and silver were discovered, and the council of mines was appointed to examine and determine, whether the working of these would bring in a profit adequate to the expense.
But, to make so many different arts and manufactures flourish, and to establish so many various undertakings, it was not alone sufficient to grant patents, or to appoint inspectors: it was necessary that our great founder should behold all these pass under his own eye in their beginnings, and work at them with his own hands, in the same manner as we have already seen him working at the construction, the rigging, and the sailing of a ship. When canals were to be dug in marshy and almost impassable grounds, he was frequently seen at the head of the workmen digging the earth, and carrying it away himself. In this same year (1718) he formed the plan of the canal and sluices of Ladoga: this was intended to make a communication between the Neva and another navigable river, in order for the more easy conveyance of merchandize to Petersburg, without taking the great circuit of the lake Ladoga, which, on account of the storms that prevailed on the coast, was frequently impassable for barks or small vessels. Peter levelled the ground himself, and they still preserve the tools which he used in digging up and carrying off the earth. The whole court followed the example of their sovereign, and persisted in a work, which, at the same time, they looked upon as impracticable; and it was finished after his death: for not one of his projects, which had been found possible to be effected, was abandoned.
The great canal of Cronstadt, which is easily drained of its waters, and wherein they careen and clean the men of war, was also began at the same time that he was engaged in the proceedings against his son. In this year also he built the new city of Ladoga. A short time afterwards, he made the canal which joins the Caspian Sea to the gulf of Finland and to the ocean. The boats, after sailing up the Wolga, came first to the communication of two rivers, which he joined for that purpose; from thence, by another canal, they enter into the lake of Ilmen, and then fall into the canal of Ladoga, from whence goods and merchandizes may be conveyed by sea to all parts of the world. In the midst of these labours, which all passed under his inspection, he carried his views from Kamschatka to the most eastern limits of his empire, and caused two forts to be built in these regions, which were so long unknown to the rest of the world. In the meantime, a body of engineers, who were draughted from the marine academy established in 1715, were sent to make the tour of the empire, in order to form exact charts thereof, and lay before mankind the immense extent of country which he had civilized and enriched.
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