Russia under the Old regime

62

largely conceived and measured in terms of property. They accumulated villages, towns and promysly with the single-minded determination of modern monopolists bent on cornering some commodity. They spurned no opportunity to turn a profit, trading in oriental rugs, precious stones, furs, wax or any other merchandise which had a ready market. They continued to do so even after having laid claim to the imperial title, a fact which never ceased to astonish foreign visitors to the Kremlin. As will be shown later (Chapter 8), during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the tsars of Muscovy enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the country's wholesale commerce as well as in its manufacturing and mining. The penury of some of them went to extraordinary lengths: Ivan in, for example, insisted on foreign ambassadors returning to him the skins of sheep which he had sent them for food.3 They grew rich, minded their fortunes and took every precaution to prevent their descendants from squandering what they had accumulated. Fortunately for them, the princes of Moscow tended to be long-lived; during nearly two hundred years separating the accession of Basil I (1389) from the death of Ivan iv (1584), Muscovy had only five rulers; a remarkable record of longevity for the age.

It must have been their business sense rather than any political design (for which evidence is lacking) that accounts for the skill with which the princes of Moscow succeeded in neutralizing the most pernicious feature of Russian inheritance law. They could not entirely ignore custom which demanded that each male descendant receive an equal portion of the patrimony, but they did manage quietly to circumvent it. Their testaments read like the dispositions made by a landlord, and even Moscow and the title of Great Prince are bequeathed as if they were ordinary commodities. But the wealth and power of Moscow depended so heavily on its relations with the Horde that both were certain to be dissipated in no time unless special provisions were made to maintain some kind of seniority in the Muscovite house. Hence, in dictating their last wills, the Moscow princes began early to discriminate in favour of the eldest son, increasing his share with each generation until by the early sixteenth century he emerged as the indisputable head of the house. Dmitry Donskoi, who died in 1389, divided his patrimony among five sons, leaving the eldest, Basil 1, whom he designated Great Prince, about a third and making him responsible for 34-2 per cent of the Mongol tribute. Basil 1 happened to have had only one son, Basil 11, survive him and to him he left everything. As if wishing to guarantee that his status as exclusive heir would not be assailed by his, Basil I'S, brothers, he arranged to have Basil 11 placed on the throne while he was still alive. When death approached, Basil 11 assigned his eldest, Ivan in, as many towns as the other four sons combined. Ivan in continued this tradition