292 commission was to be appointed to investigate whether it should, in future, continue to be collected: from the souls, as now, or according to the example of other realms only from those capable of working, aside from the old and the children, and especially as is the practice in Sweden, from ten to sixty years of age, from which and to which ages a person can work, and even determine a length of time for how long it will be necessary to pay for a peasant after he has run away, so that this payment for the escaped person shall not become a burden for estate owners, or to determine that payment (shall be) according to the number of homesteads or the number of beasts of burden, or the land. In other words, the commission was to find a way of assessing taxes that would provide for a more even distribution of the tax burden among the peasants, thus diminishing their discontent.-'® It was hoped that the peasants would then remain in their villages and maintain the level of production, and it is significant that even the interests of the noblemen who owned land and serfs were explicitly mentioned. In addition, the manifesto confirmed a number of changes in the local administration. The military tax collection organs and the regimental districts were to be dismantled, and the troops quartered among the peasants were to be brought together in encampments in the towns. Collection of the soul tax and all other imposts was to be supervised by the voevoda and some staff officers. Even the task of recruiting soldiers was transferred to the voevoda. The Senate was given the task of investigating which reductions could be made in the staffs of the local administration, since “the increase in the number of officials and chancelleries in the entire realm serves not only as a great handicap for the state, but is also a heavy burden on the people.” As a guideline for the Senate, the manifesto stated that “both courts of appeals and all superfluous officials and the chancelleries and offices of the zemskie komissary and other such things are to be abolished entirely.” From the arguments put forth, it is clear that the measures implemented here were expected to have a twofold effect. In the long run, the state incomes were to be increased by means of a decrease in the provincial budgets, since “there will come of this a great relief to the poor people, who instead of many and different chancelleries and judges will only have one chancellery,” and, in the short run, “there will be a great reduction in the budget, and the monies that go to the maintenance of the At the beginning of 1727, a commission {komissiia o podati) was set up with Prince D. M. Golitsyn at its head. For the w’ork of the commission, see Anisimov (1973), 338—352.
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