Russia under the Old regime

146

The inducement grew stronger yet with the opening of foreign markets. After Russia had decisively beaten the Ottoman Empire and established mastery over the northern shores of the Black Sea, Odessa and other warm-water ports were built from which grain could be shipped to western Europe. Once Britain repealed her Corn Laws (1846), the exports of wheat grown in the south of Russia rose sharply. The net result of these developments was a regional division of labour; in the 1850s, the black earth belt became Russia's granary, which produced 70 per cent of the country's cereals, while the northern provinces accounted for three-quarters of the country's manufactured goods.6 Landlords in the south began now to rationalize their estates on the English and German model, introducing clover and turnip crops, and experimenting with scientific cattle-breeding. Such proprietors were less interested in rents than in human labour. In i860, only 23 to 30 per cent of the serfs in the south were on rent: the rest, representing approximately two-thirds of the serf population, were on corvee (barshchina). Ideally, the land worked under corvde was divided in two halves, one of which the peasant tilled on behalf of the landlord, the other for himself. But the norm was not legally fixed. A great variety of alternatives was possible, including various combinations of rent and labour services. The most onerous form of corvee was mesiachina (p. 19 above).* What was the condition of Russian serfs? This is one of those subjects about which it is better to know nothing than little. The idea of men owning men is so repugnant to modern man that he can hardly judge the matter dispassionately. The best guidance in such problems is that provided by John Clapham, a great economic historian, who stressed the importance of cultivating 'what might be called the statistical sense, the habit of asking in relation to any institution, policy, group or movement the questions: how large? how long? how often? how representative?'6 The application of this standard to the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution has revealed that notwithstanding well-entrenched mythology, the Industrial Revolution from the beginning had improved the living standards of English workers. No such studies have as yet been carried out concerning living standards of Russian peasants. Enough is known, however, even now to cast doubts on the prevailing view of the serf and his condition.

To begin with, it must be stressed that a serf was not a slave and a pomestie was not a plantation. The mistake of confusing Russian serf-

* Because of the relative profitability of farming in the south it should come as no surprise that this area had a greater proportion of large farms than the north. In 1859, m f ur typical northern provinces (Vladimir, Tver, Iaroslavl and Kostroma) only 2a per cent of the serfs lived on properties of landlords who owned over a thousand serfs. In the black earth region (Voronezh, Kursk, Saratov and Kharkov) the corresponding figure was 37 per cent.