Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/305

 it disappeared. In early times, moreover, before they had money, they made use of the snouts and ears of squirrels and other animals, whose skins are brought to us in lieu of coin, and bought the necessaries of life with them as with money.

They use such a kind of reckoning that they count or divide things by sorogh or devenost, that is, either by the number forty or ninety, in the same manner as we do by a hundred. So that in counting they repeat and multiply by two sorogh, three sorogh, four sorogh, that is, forty; or two, three, or four dewenost, that is, ninety. A thousand in the vulgar tongue is tissutzæ; ten thousand is expressed in one word, tma; twenty thousand by dwetma; and thirty thousand by tritma.

When any one brings any articles of merchandize to Moscow, he is compelled to declare them, and show them immediately to the gate-keepers or officers of the customs; and these latter examine them at a stated hour and put a value on them; and when they have been valued, no one dares either to sell or buy until they have been reported to the prince. Moreover, if the prince should wish to buy anything, the merchant is not allowed to show his goods, nor propose a price for them, to any one; and hence it sometimes happens that merchants are detained a considerable time.

Nor is it allowed to every merchant to come to Moscow, but only to Lithuanians, Poles, or persons subject to those governments. For Swedes and Livonians and Germans from the maritime states may only go to Novogorod; and Turks and Tartars are permitted to traffic and carry on business in the town of Chlopigrod, whither at the time of the markets men congregate from the most distant places. But when legates and ambassadors go to Moscow, then all merchants from all places who have been taken under their countenance and protection are accustomed to enter freely into Moscow, and can pass without paying custom.