Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/43

17 influence, of soil and climate upon the character of the inhabitants was considerable, and remains considerable to-day. Much of interest from this outlook can be gleaned from descriptions in Russian literature and from the accounts of Russia given by such nonrussian writers as Leroy-Beaulieu.

. As early as the ninth century, commerce was active with the Teutonic north, with Byzantium, and with certain other neighbour nations. Kiev and Novgorod, situate between the developed commercial peoples on the Baltic and the Black Sea, likewise became important centres of transit trade.

In Kiev, therefore, there was a conspicuous growth of a monetary economy, though subsequently in Moscow this economy was greatly restricted.

Oldtime commerce, that of Russia at any rate, must not be thought of as sharply contrasted with militarism. Trade, or to be concrete, the traders, proceeding by land in caravans and by water in fleets of river-going or seaworthy vessels, travelled on a warlike footing, and were organised for war. The trader was also a conqueror, and on occasions a robber or a pirate. Kiev was certainly occupied by such warlike "traders" from Novgorod, and thus became the capital of the realm.

The first development of the state and of civilisation in general took place in fortified towns.

. We may say, in conclusion, that political, social, and economic conditions in Kiev were somewhat unstable, and that correspondingly the evolution of Russian law, both of public law and of civil law, displayed a certain indefiniteness.

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