286 but many sons, paid more in tax than a more prosperous peasant with only one son. In the same way, the soul tax was also imposed on the unproductive portion of the male population, that is, on minors and on the aged. The ukaz of 1718 which announced the introduction of the soul tax and the quartering of the army on the population promised the peasants that, aside from the new tax, “no other taxes or labor (were to be) taken from them, except in case of an unexpected enemy attack or a domestic disorder,”-^"* but this did not prove to be the case. The old taxes were not abolished, which meant that the burden of taxes increased drastically as the soul tax began to be collected. This led to increased displeasure among the peasants, which was expressed primarily by a steady increase in the number of runaway serfs.The Russian instruktsiia for the kamer-kollegiia had warned of such a development when it charged the college with the task of seeing to it: that between the high and the low (and between) the poor and the rich, according to proportion, there is an appropriate likeness, and that no one is burdened or freed more than anyone else from that which is appropriate. For if that happens, the hard-pressed poor will leave their farms and cultivation, and the state revenues will diminish greatly with time, and the lamentations of the poor will bring God’s wrath upon the whole realm. 253 256 In the long run, the Petrine regime’s eagerness to increase its tax revenues had a counterproductive effect. Conditions were somewhat better for the urban population, however. While the soul tax was, it is true, set at one ruble twenty kopecks per person per year, an ukaz issued in 1722 gave the towns the right to apportion that tax burden among the taxpayers according to their ability to pay.257 The reforms discussed above—the introduction of the soul tax and the quartering of the troops on the peasant population—finally produced a new administrative unit, as well. The so-called regimental district (polkovyi distrikt) served as the quartering area for the regiment and was larger in area than the districts introduced in 1719. The regiment was to be supported by the soul tax collected in this district, and at its center a regimental or staff farm {polkovyi, shtahnyi dvor) was set up from which Kliuchevskii (1904—1910), IV, 183. PS2, V, no. 3,245, p. 597. E. V. Anisimov, Vnutrenniaia politika verkhovnogo tainogo soveta {1726— 1730 gg.) (Leningrad, 1975, Avtoreferat kandidatskoi dissertatsii), 13—14. 258 ZA (no. 416), 562. 257 Kliuchevskii (1904—1910), IV, 183.
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