Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/60

34 conveniently arranged by redistribution, for in the case of illiterates left to their own devices there were no court rolls or cadasters.

Centralised administration brought order and stability into all relationships. The earlier freedom was at an end. From the fourteenth century onward the volost', the amalgamation of several village communities, replaced the individual community as the administrative unit, for Moscow had not servants enough or means enough to deal directly with each village. The volosts in their turn were united in a larger unit called the circle, which was placed under the supervision, and properly speaking under the rule of the voevoda or waywode (literally "army leader"), who for practical purposes concentrated in his person the entire administration. In essence the administration was fiscal, but order had also to be maintained by force of arms.

It need hardly be said that the towns and their inhabitants remained exempt from serfdom, except that the sort might seek work in the town; but the town could be more readily supervised by the treasury and the executive in general, for it was often the seat of the circle authority. The definite segregation of the peasants as serfs involved as a corollary the segregation of the other estates. The realm of Muscovy was organised in separate estates with distinct rights and privileges. There were four principal estates, the nobility, the church, the burghers, and the peasants. Each of these became subdivided in course of time into classes or sub-estates. In especial did this subdivision take place in the case of the burghership, the mercantile class coming here to play a dominant role, above all in the capital. Owing to administrative centralisation, Moscow became the principal focus of commerce and industry, the latter being still extremely primitive; but there were certain lesser commercial centres, such as Jaroslav, Tula, Smolensk, etc.

In proportion as commerce prospered at home and abroad, and in proportion as the agricultural development of the country matured, the natural economy was replaced by a monetary economy, and the ancient feudalist state became transformed, the numerous lesser landowners and the mercantile class gaining power and prestige alongside the bureaucracy, the military offiicers, and the hierarchy. The old feudal subdivisions were transformed into a new gradation of classes.