Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/50

24 developed foreign regions was already of great moment. In Muscovy the importance of trade increased in proportion as forests were cleared, and in proportion as all departments of agriculture experienced a comparatively equable development. The existence of the minor principalities was favourable to the general spread of agriculture, for in their individual territories the princes zealously promoted the cultivation of the soil and the settlement of peasants. The import of manufactured articles became more and more essential, and alike for the importing country and for the exporting countries trade was more lucrative in a large area with a centralised and unified administration, freed from tariff hindrances imposed by petty states. Just as in Germany the customs union was established before the political unification of the country, so also under primitive conditions in Russia was a "customs union" aimed at and secured. Trade strengthened centralisation and centralisation fostered trade. The capital and the other fortified towns promoted commerce, while commerce in its turn required security and unity in matters of administration and legislation. In particular, military and strategical needs were satisfied by trade, and the development of manufacture began. Commerce had likewise to satisfy the numerous courts, with their demand for luxuries.

A notable contributory economic cause and a prerequisite to centralisation was the diffusion and perfectionment of agriculture, which in Russia more than in other countries signified settlement. Herberstein, writing as late as the beginning of the sixteenth century, observed that in the realm of Muscovy cereals were less grown than elsewhere in Europe.

It would be an error to assume at the outset that the growth of the realm of Muscovy was promoted by the co-operation of all the factors that have been named. To prove such a contention it would be necessary to undertake a more comprehensive analysis of individual factors, to study the varieties of agriculture, and to take into account the nature of the soil, its fertility, its water supply, etc.

In my view, the decisive centralising force of Moscow was to be found in the dependence of the grand princes upon the church. Grand princely absolutism received a religious