Russia said it needed some money to complete its railway from Petersburgh to Moscow, but people were suspicious that the Bear was building up funds in case of war.
“Russia is in the English Money Market, to negotiate a loan of five millions and a half, at the rate of four and a half per cent., to be liquidated by annual instalments in the course of fifty years! The Czar has sagaciously chosen his time for asking the aid of British capitalists. Money, just now, is ‘dirt cheap,’ and able to command scarcely half the interest which Russia offers. The security, too, for a foreign one, is generally looked upon as good. The temptation, therefore, is unusually strong to comply with the desire of the northern despot. On his part, there is a seeming deference to the commercial and pacific principles which have taken so tenacious a hold upon the British public. He is silent on the subject of war: he wishes to ‘complete a railroad between Petersburgh and Moscow.’ He thus appears to be engaged in developing the resources of his vast empire, and in forwarding the civilization of his semi-barbarous subjects. What philanthropist, what advocate of peace, can come between his and the capitalists of this country, to denounce the transaction, as favoring the objects of despotism? The bear has cunning as well as strength; and, we trust, public opinion, at the call of Mr. Cobden, will utter as loud a protest against the hypocrisy of Russia, as it did last autumn against the impudence of beggared Austria. The assertions of the member for the West Riding of Yorkshire, respecting the very limited pecuniary resources of the Russian empire, notwithstanding the exaggerated statements of its vast wealth which had found general credence, are now proved to have been well founded. Russia cannot complete her railroad to Moscow without obtaining a loan from foreigners for that purpose. Her treasury-chest, then, could never have been very abundantly supplied. And such cash as it contained had already been expended in the efforts made last year, and made successfully, to crush Hungarian independence. The overflowings of British industry and enterprise are now called for, to replenish the coffers which have been exhausted by a policy as odious to our sympathies as it was detrimental to our commercial interests. Russia squanders all her available wealth in trampling upon what we most revere, and in destroying what would have been highly beneficial to our trade, and then asks us to ward off from her the embarrassing consequences of her own wilful and wayward imperiousness.”
The Stamford Mercury, 18th January, 1850.