“ The prehistoric archaeology of Moscow has been carefully studied. This district has been inhabited since the Stone Age. Bronze implements are rare, and there are places where instruments of stone, bone and iron are found together. The inhabitants who constructed the burial mounds in the 10th to 12th centuries seem to have been of Finnish origin, and were poorer, as a rule, than their contemporaries on the Volga. ”

“ The importance of the Moscow government as a manufacturing centre is steadily increasing, and it now stands first in Russia. The chief factories are for cottons, woollens, silks, clothing, chemicals, sugar refineries, distilleries, iron-works. ”

“ The soil is somewhat unproductive; agriculture is carried on everywhere, but only two districts export corn, all the others being more or less dependent on extraneous supplies. The principal crops are rye, oats, barley, potatoes, with some flax, hemp and hops. ”