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COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 817
“ This clafs of men, worthy to be mentioned by us, and from whom the country
may promife itfelf great advantages,when it fhall have received a ftable form, and which
has for its end the encouragement of good morals, and the love of induftry, is the mid-
dle ftate. This ftate, compofed of freemen, belongs neither to the clafs of nobles nor
to that of peafants. All thofe who, being neither gentlemen nor peafants, follow the
arts and fciences, navigation, commerce, or exercife trades, are to be ranked in this
clafs, In this clafs fhould be placed all thofe who, born of plebeian parents, fhall have
been brought up in fchools or places of education, reglious or others, founded by us
or by our predeceflors. Alfo the children of officers, and of the fecretaries to the
chancery. But as this third eftate is fufceptible of different degrees of privileges, which
we do not mean to detail in this place, we fhall only here open the way for a more
ample examination.”
Although, before the reign of Peter the Great, certain bodies of merchants enjoyed
peculiar privileges, which raifed them above the condition of peafants, yet thefe were
few, and their advantages, confidering the immenfe monopolies in the hands of the
crown, and the oppreflion under which they laboured from the power of the great, ex-
tremely precarious. Peter, who during his travels perceived the utility of a third
eftate for the purpofes of commerce, made many regulations with this view, which,
though excellent in themfelves, yet being not adapted to the {tate of property in Ruf
fia, did not anfwer the end propofed. Among thefe regulations, he endowed fome
free towns with certain privileges, which were afterwards augmented by Elizabeth.
But thefe privileges were confined to Peterfburgh, Mofcow, Aftracan, Tver, and a few
other great provincial towns; and all the inhabitants, even merchants not excepted,
were not diftinguifhed from the peafants in two inftances, which are confidered in this
country as indelible marks of fervitude; they were fubjeét to the poll-tax, and to be
draughted for the army and navy. Catharine’ has exempted the body of merchants
from thefe two in{tances of fervitude, has encreafed the number and immunities of the
free towns, and permitted many of the crown peafants, and all free men, to enrol them-
felves, under ftipulated conditions, in the clafs of merchants or burghers.
The merchants are diftributed into three clafles. The firft comprehends thofe who
have a capital of 10,000 roubles; the fecond thofe who poffefs 5000; and the third
thofe who are worth 500. By the forty-feventh article of the celebrated manifefto of
Graces, which the Emprefs conferred upon her fubjeéts at the conclufion of the Turk- _
ifh war in 1775, all perfons who choofe to enter themfelves in any of thefe claffes are
exempted from the poll-tax, on condition of paying annually one per cent. of their ca-
pital employed in trade to the crown. ‘The extent of their capitals, however, is not
rigoroufly examined, for the merchants may fix their capital at any amount; as a per-
fon poffeffing above 10,000 roubles may enrol himfelf in any of the inferior claffes, or
even in that of the burghers.
_ This alteration in the mode of affeffing merchants is advantageous both to the crown
and to the fubjeéts; the former receives, and the latter cheerfully pay, one per cent. of
their capital, becaufe they are exempted from the poll-tax, and are entitled to addi-
tional immunities. It is alfo a juft impoft, as each merchant pays according to his for-
tune: if his profits encreafe, his afleflment encreafes; if they diminifh, his contribution
proportionably diminifhes. With refpect to the general interefts of the nation, it is a
matter-piece of policy; it excites induftry, by holding up to the people a principle of
honour, as well as of intereft, to be derived from the augmentation of their capital; and
affords an additional fecurity from arbitrary impofitions, by pledging the good faith of
government in the protection of their property, It is likewife productive of another
VOL. VI. 5™M effential
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