316 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



sequent future increase of his revenues, to consi- 

 derations of indolence and present convenience. 



It is certain, however, that of late years many 

 noblemen have attended more to the improvement 

 and population of their estates, instigated princi- 

 pally by the precepts and example of the empress 

 Catharine, who made the greatest exertions to 

 advance the cultivation of the country. Her im- 

 mense importations of German settlers not only 

 contributed to people her state with free citizens 

 instead of slaves, but, what was perhaps of still 

 more importance, to set an example of industry, 

 and of modes of directing that industry, totally 

 unknown to the Russian peasants. 



These exertions have been attended, upon the 

 whole, with great success ; and it is not to be 

 doubted that, during the reign of the late em- 

 press and since, a very considerable increase of 

 cultivation and of population has been going 

 forward in almost every part of the Russian em- 

 pire. 



In the year 1763, an enumeration of the people, 

 estimated by the poll-tax, gave a population of 

 14,726,696; and the same kind of enumeration in 

 1783 gave a population of 25,677,000, which, if 

 correct, shews a very extraordinary increase ; but 

 it is supposed that the enumeration in 1783 was 

 more correct and complete than the one in 1763. 

 Including the provinces not subject to the poll-tax, 

 the general calculation for 1763 was 20,000,000, 

 and for 1796, 36,000,000.* 



* Tooke's View of the Russian Empire, vol. ii. book iii. sect. i. 

 p. 126,, et seq. 



