The Criticism and Utilization of Statistical Materials: Focused on Russian Trade Statistics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The aim of this study is to show the process for giving the criticism on statistical materials and the methods of making the time series data for Russian foreign trade in the eighteenth and the early nineteenth century. For the second half of the eighteenth century, statistical materials are kept in many archives of Russia, Latvia, Great Britain, Denmark and Sweden. The archival and some other data are sufficient to provide the reasonable estimates for most of the period under discussion. Especially, the customs data of Russia and Great Britain allow us to examine the validity of the statistical materials for the Russian foreign trade. The examination shows that the statistical materials of Russian foreign trade are relatively reliable data, because the differentials between those two sorts of figures are fixed in size, although they don’t quite coincide. Therefore, if an historian used the statistical sources critically, he could understand the changing patterns in foreign trade of Russia. In addition, it is essential to indicate the various weights and measures of the figures in a unit. If not, it is difficult to compare these figuers with the others.