It is always interesting to read about how things were perceived in the past :-)
https://www.facebook.com/apazhe/posts/10151517808663102
So far, only one oil industry stands firmly established in the Caucasus — in Baku, along with the Siemens brothers’ copper plant. This plant has access to generous credit from investors at an annual interest rate of 5%. If we Russians had access to the same credit here, there is no doubt that mining would develop extraordinarily quickly.
As early as 380 years before the birth of Christ, Armenians were already renowned for their iron, while 2,270 years later we are still only planning to build a blast furnace here.
It is painful to watch shipments of Belgian sheet iron being imported in enormous quantities into Batum for the Baku oil fields, despite the immense local wealth of iron ore.
Everything is here except enterprise. Some kind of fate weighs upon the Caucasus; destiny itself erects barriers and condemns it to inertia.
It is long past time for the Caucasus to begin repaying its alma mater, Mother Russia, the billions she has spent on it over the past 90 years. How soon will this long-awaited moment arrive, both for Russia and for the Caucasus region?"…
The magazine "Science and Life," sometime in the late 19th century.