The merchants are divided Into three classes or guilds. The first. guild which pays annual taxes of 1001., has a right to engage In any commercial or manufacturing enterprise without any limitation as to the amount of capital employed in it. The members of the second guild pay an annual tax of 401., and cannot enter into any contract for more than 20001., nor can they keep a banking or insurance office. Both the first and second classes enjoy an exemption from the capitation-tax, military conscription, and corporal punishment. They may possess estates with serfs employed in manufactories. The merchants of the third guild pay an annual tax of 101., and are retail dealers and small manufacturers. Nobles may enter one of them, three guilds.
Foreign merchants trading in Russia must pay the rime taxes as the Mumma merchants. They may acquire real property in places where they are settled.
The burghers by paying an annual licence of 11. to 31., may engage in actual kinds of retail trade, and have workshop,' with eight workmen, and by doubling the price of their licence 16 workmen. If they wish to increase that number they must pass into the third guild of merchants. The burghers are not exempted from the capitation-tax, military conscription, or corporal punishment.
The peasants constitute the lowest class of the inhabitants of Russia. They pay the capitation-tax and are subject to military conscription. Beside their agricultural pursuits, they are allowed to engage in handicrafts and aome minor trades. By purchasing licences they may engage in any kind of commerce, even that which is carried on by merchants of the first guild, but they do not enjoy the personal privileges of the merchants. They are divided into crown peasants, those of appanage estates, serfs of landowners, and free cultivators of land ; the number of these last is however very small.
The crown peasauta are those who live on the estates belonging to the crown. They pay, besides the capitation-tax, a rent for their grounds. Many villages are obliged to maintain post-horsea for the government couriers and private travellers. The crown peasants elect some of their authorities. Each commune (500 male individuals constitute a commune), elects every two years its chief, called bead. Each commune also sends a deputy for the election of assessors who judge in causes arising among themselves, or between them and other clasaes. These assessors may be chosen from among the peasants
themselves or other classes. Causes between crown peasants them selves are decided by the judge of the district with the above-mentioned assessors ; but when other parties are concerned, the causes are decided by the same judge with an assessor of the peasants and another of the nobles. The crown peasants may pass into the class of burghers and merchants.
Recent official statements, quoted in the ' Gothic Almanac' for 1855, give the area of the crown domains of Russia at the end of 1850 at 80,393,801 desajatinea or 340,000 square miles, or 140,000 square miles more than the area of France. The population of the crown domain in 1851 amounted to 18,975,416, of whom 18,005,294 (7,825,151 males, 8,180,140 females) were crown peasants. The capitation, excise, and administrative taxes, together with contributions of various kiwis, and rent and forest produce, raised the receipts from the imperial crown-lands throughout the empire to 45,300,097 silver rubles in 1852.
Many estates peopled with crown peasants have been coded to par ticular individuals on condition of establishing manufactories. These peasants work in manufactories on certain fixed terms. The owners of the manufactories pay all taxes due from these peasants, who are likewise exempted from military conscription.
The landowner*s peasants, or serfs, are complete slaves. Their master can inflict on them such punishment as he chooses, but he is not permitted to kill, to starve to death, or to maim his serf. A serf cannot contract marriage without the permission of the master. The predial serf cannot be sold without the grouud to which he is attached, but the domestic serf may be sold like any other chattel. A ukase of 1808 however prohibits the sale of serfs at fairs or by auction, or as substitutes for recruits. Au accusation of a serf against!' his master, except in cases of high treason, Is not admitted, and lie who proffers such a charge ie liable to punishment The free peaaants, a class whose existence began under the emperor Alexander, are subject to the capitation-tax and military conscription, but they are free In all other respects.
A great number of German colonists have settled in Russia at different times. They ere exempt from all taxes for ten years after their settling, and from military conscription entirely.