A panic? (July-September, 1873).

Farming]

At the beginning of July Tsar Alexander III meets with the finance minister Nikolai von Bunge, and some prominent men like Fyodor Abramovich Blinov (more associate administrators of the), Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev and some administrators and administrators of Zemstvo agricultural.

"For some reform in the future, remember the idea of a Ministry or Agroindustrial Committee." Tsar Alexander III mentions this to Nikolai von Bunge briefly.

"Understood". The finance minister was quick to respond.

"Well, how were the tractors in Mexico?" Tsar Alexander III asks those present at the Russian Carriage Works, led by Blinov and associates.

"Well, for the moment they are going well of course. I sent several annotations about maintenance and suggestions for modifications against the more arid climate of the region." Fyodor Blinov responds.

"We have some new buyers interested in Mexico and other foreign countries, the United States and Germany mainly." One of the financial managers responds.

"Interesting". It is the little that the Tsar mentions. "Have the fertilizer buyers mentioned anything new, Mendeleev?" He asks the Russian chemist.

"Not at the moment, it must be said that our fertilizer does not seem to have a serious 'environmental impact' as you are concerned, Your Highness. We tested over a period of four to five years the possible effects of the task on Russian soil, and neither there appear to be short-term or long-term damaging effects abroad. " Dmitri Mendeleev responds by reviewing the data provided by foreign scientists and buyers of Russian fertilizers.

"Very good." The Tsar responds somewhat more calmly.

With regard to the fertilizers developed in Russia during the second half of the 19th century, the first chemical fertilizers were not very harmful to the environment or regional biodiversity (partly due to the underdeveloped technology at that time).

Russian agriculture, however, did not grow only with chemical fertilizers, the use of more organic fertilizers was also promoted and became more common in some regions of the rural environment (due to being something easier to do based on manure and organic matter).

Later Russian investigations (by Mendeleev and more chemists) would give the basis to the discoveries of the importance of potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen, however they were also the first to worry about the environmental consequences of the extreme and careless use of chemical fertilizers and their materials.

Blinov tractors and the new agricultural technology arriving in Russia also greatly helped the productive development of Russian agriculture. It should be borne in mind that the Russian state is a transcontinental state with different biomes and climates throughout its extension.

This also means a considerable variety of crops that Russia began to exploit (some more than others), in 1774 it did the production of wine, from 1878 onwards cotton, cereals of all kinds over the years, etc.

*******

[Automotive industry]

In August, at the Stavropol headquarters of the Russian Carriage Works, Fyodor Abramovich Blinov and Tsar Alexander III met again. "So, how has the new project gone?" The Tsar asks.

"Well, in 1861, Alphonse Eugène Beau de Rochas already patented something similar but it never came to anything. So in essence we have been working for almost a year from scratch, practically speaking." Blinov exclaims. "But we have made considerable progress."

"Do you think you will have it ready before 1876?" The emperor asks.

Blinov watches his work for a few moments, a four-stroke internal combustion engine.

"Yes, I think we can have it completed by 1875 at the latest." Blinov mentions optimistically no doubt.

"I trust you, Blinov." The tsar exclaims.

The Russian Carriage Works was significantly increasing its production, not only for railway wagons but also for tractors (for foreign and national market).

Blinov and associates in particular developed some more efficient ways to start producing vehicles or parts much more quickly through an assembly line.

However, the economic explosion of Russian Carriage Works would still take a little longer ...

*******

[Studies of Russian fauna]

The rector of the Imperial University of Saint Petersburg, Karl Fedorovich Kessler, and his disciple Oskar Andréievich Grimm (current worker in the department of invertebrate zoology, laboratory assistant, etc) were collected. In addition, Nikolai Petrovich Wagner, professor at the Imperial University of Saint Petersburg, came.

The rarest meeting among the four was Vladimir Dmitrievich Alenitsyn, a member of the Ural Society of Naturalists. Mainly because at the age of 20 (in 1866), Alenitsyn was the writer of the lyrics and music of the "Hymn for the coronation of the Sovereign Emperor Alexander III".

This group of four was assembled by the aforementioned Tsar Alexander III.

"Very good gentlemen, the Russian Empire has some laws against hunting certain animals in Russian America and the Far East. It is the state who authorizes hunting licenses." Emperor Alexander III points out, information more or less known to the four guests of him. "Now I want to sponsor a scientific investigation to be able to explain in more detail the reason for our laws."

"What are we going to focus on?" Karl Fedorovich Kessler asked.

"In the local fauna, from the Caspian to the Far East and even Alyáska. In how and why relationships between living beings work". Emperor Alexander III responds, beginning to elaborate further on the group's investigation.

The research decision of Karl Fedorovich Kessler, Oskar Andréievich Grimm, Nikolai Petrovich Wagner and Vladimir Dmitrievich Alenitsyn had a remarkable importance in the following decades (more than expected without a doubt).

In the investigation of 1873-1875 the group focused on the Caspian Sea, the first important scientific investigations of the Aral Sea, the Russian Far East and Russian America.

Oskas Andréievich Grimm and Vladimid Dmitrievich Alenitsyn in particular were important from the 1875-1885 to 1921 and 1910 decades respectively.

Grimm and Alenitsyn were important environmental activists in the research of agriculture and fisheries (include fish farming), and their impacts and responsible ways in the coming decades.

Again Alenitsyn was the stranger of the two, because between 1884 and 1886 he called for a revision of the laws against Jews in the Russian Empire, deviating (very momentarily) from the fight for the environment to the fight against of anti-Semitism.

*******

[Sports culture: Semifinals]

The last two games of the first Russian Soccer League are taking place, and the expectation was in the sky that two teams would reach the final.

Arkhangelsk vs Smolensk: The first football team of all Russia

(Arkhangelsk) wins against the Smolensk team in a 4 to 1.

Kharkov vs Murmansk: The Kharkov team beats the Murmansk team by 3 to 0.

Now all that remains is the celebration of the last match, a historic event within Russia and its sports culture.

*******

[International]

Early in July the war between King Kofi Karikari of Ghana and the United Kingdom comes to an end with the establishment of the Gold Coast colony.

General Francisco Savalls of the Catalan Carlist army destroys the republican column in western Catalonia, leading to the rescue of the Carlist rebellion in the area.

Another important event in the Iberian Peninsula is that at this time various cities in southern Spain (Andalusia and the southern part of the central plateau, among others) are rebelling due to the slow pace of the republican constitution. These cities belong to the cantonalist movement, which wants to establish the Swiss system (cantons of wide autonomy) in Spain.

A severe blow to the republican courts in the midst of their war with the Carlists. Some Leopoldists (Germans) try an alliance with the cantonal cities, but it doesn't work.

Some monarchists are now divided on whether to bring another foreign king (Amadeo of Saboya, son of the Italian king) or to bring Alfonso, son of the exiled Queen Elizabeth II of Spain.

Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang in Iowa carry out the first successful train robbery in the Old West. On July 21, 1873.

The Veracruz-Mexico railway line is completed, another success of the industrialization and economic growth of the Second Mexican Empire under Emperor Maximiliano I and Minister-President Porfirio Diaz.

On September 16 in France the forces of Napoleon IV carried out a major offensive in the north against the forces of Henry V, resulting in a considerable victory for the Bonapartists against the army of Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d'Orléans, forcing the Legitimists-Orleanists to lose their northernmost possessions.

On the other hand, Patrice de MacMahon's army manages to crush much of the urban resistance in the south, forcing the Austro-Hungarian volunteer legion to retreat together with the Bonapartist forces.

The loyalist victories in the south and the Bonapartist victories in the north have allowed the Prime Minister of the Second French Empire, Eugène Rouhe, to carry out his diplomatic proposals towards the French moderate republicans, to carry out an alliance against the legitimist claimant- Orleanist.

September 18 causes a particular resonance at the world economic level, with a panic in the New York Stock Exchange. Some economists dispute whether this is the exact beginning of the Long Depression (called the Great Depression in its time) or whether the Long Depression began in early October of the same year.

In the United States, a series of bank failures that were very important for the country's economy at that time were unleashed, causing a chain reaction that caused the failure and closure of various rail lines, and some other industries.

The panic spread to various nations and geographic regions (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, South Africa, India, the United Kingdom, etc.).

Socialist theorists of the time and later called this "the peak state of capitalism" or the effects of the capitalist market.

The protectionist measures of the economy would allow its economic reactivation somewhat earlier than the rest of the countries.

*******

[Russian Arctic: Deepening and possible development]

On the islands of the Kholadya archipelago (which includes Medvezhiy Island at its southernmost point), Russian research groups found sources of coal.

This in the northeast of the island Medvezhiy and other parts of the main archipelago, this news could be extremely remarkable for the development of the islands at an economic level (if they were proven viable).

However, it was not the only possible economic activity, some Austro-Hungarian stakeholders paid sums of money to travel for tourism and research to the Russian archipelago and other Arctic islands owned by the Russian Empire around this time.

In the past before the Russian claim to the islands there was also a whaling and hunting industry for native fauna, but it was extremely temporary according to later research.

The problem that postponed the development of the islands after the coal discoveries was the Russian biological investigations of the time, due to early concerns about the environment.

Only on Medvezhiy Island is there a remarkable ecosystem that was initially ignored during biological research. On Medvezhiy Island there are no trees, but there are mosses and grass (from the Cochlearia family), the native fauna are arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus), land birds (snow buntings and rock ptarmigans), sea birds (northern fulmars, purple sandpipers, red phalaropes, glaucous gulls, black-legged kittiwakes, little auks, common guillemots, thick-billed guillemots and black guillemots), and certain species of fish (such as arctic trout / Salvelinus alpinus), while there are regular bear migrations polar (ursus maritimus), ringed seal (Pusa hispida syn. Phoca hispida), bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus), walruses, pink-footed geese, barnacle geese and long-tailed ducks.

That's only on the southernmost island. In the archipelago itself there is, for example, an endemic species of reindeer.

Next update: Mainly cultural issues and a bit of economics, changes in Korea and the Russian-Japanese perspectives. In addition to international news.

First update of 1874: Immigration to Russia, urban and more agricultural-economic development and personalities of this Russia.