Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/73

 understood. The legal institution of serfdom was an envelope, and the actual relations which existed within that envelope were extremely varied. In particular, in so far as the serfs drew the greater or a considerable part of their income from industrial or commercial pursuits, serfdom meant for the peasant population chiefly dependence of a financial character, the obligation to pay sums of money or taxes to the landowners. A peasant in such cases paid the "obrók" as this money tax was called, but beyond that was free to do as he pleased. This is why there existed in Russia, long before the abolition of serfdom, a class of persons free to dispose of their labour although socially, and in the eyes of the law, slaves. The peasants, without ceasing to be serfs, not only built up the elements of a free working class but created from amongst their own ranks the elements of a commercial and industrial bourgeoisie. In Russia of course there had long existed a class of town merchants and manufacturers, but the building up of Russian industry—of the domestic as well as of the factory type—was not the work of this ancient town class. The real builders of Russian industry were the obrók peasants of Northern Russia, who, in spite of the fetters of serfdom, were yet full of the spirit of industrial enterprise. This fact accounts for the peculiar feature of Russian industrial development which is common also to the industrial evolution of England. In England as in Russia industry is a child, not of the town but of the country. As a matter of fact the parallel drawn between the two nations is after all not so surprising. For England, looked upon as an industrial country, is as compared with other