In the larger context of Russia's geopolitical ambitions and the desire to exploit Siberia's wealth, construction of the Trans-Siberian required collateral projects to fulfill its complete role. Navigational aids were built on rivers so that they could serve as feeders to the railway. Arctic ports were developed to service the export trade, fed by Siberia's great north-flowing rivers. To stimulate settlement peasant scouts were given low rail fares. Lastly, in anticipation of settlement, schools, churches and prisons were built; agronomists were sent to instruct the new settlers; and farming cooperatives were encouraged. The new lands specialized in high-value products: meat (by 1914, half the meat consumed in Moscow and St Petersburg came from Siberia) and butter (exported to Britain and Germany by refrigerated cars).
Siberia was an attractive destination for peasants from European Russia and the Trans-Siberian facilitated their migration. There were too many people in Europe farming too little land under repressive conditions. In the new regions to the east there was plenty of land to cultivate, [G 17 / serfdom] had never developed there, and government officials tended to be less severe. Several years in the first decade of the 20th century, annual migration exceeded 250,000. By 1910 the Trans-Siberian served 10 million inhabitants.
