Agricultural Population of Russia. 



505 



-are influenced only to a slight extent by the fluctuation of 

 market prices. His prosperit}^ is determined, under existing 

 •conditions, much more by the quantity of produce yielded by 

 his land than by the level of prices. 



Then with regard to the view that the weight of imperial 

 taxation is responsible for the situation, the Minister ot 

 Finance holds that while such taxation may be a sensible 

 burden in some locadities, it cannot be regarded as the cause 

 of the embarrassed condition of the rural population. The 

 majority of the Russian peasantry are subjected to only 

 two direct taxes, viz., the land tax and the mortgage 

 tax [anniiite de r achat), an annual premium payable for the 

 interest and extinction of the mortgages on the land allotted 

 to the serfs on their emancipation in 1861. The land tax was 

 never very heavy, and by the Imperial Decree of the 14th 

 May, 1896, it was reduced to an insignificant sum. The 

 total amount of the animites de r achat is a large sum in itself, 

 viz., ^10,347,000, but it is said not to exceed on the average 

 2S. 6M. per person, or 15s. 4d. per family. The whole of the 

 direct taxes, both imperial and local, do not constitute a 

 very large item in the expenditure of the peasantry. 



Nevertheless, these direct taxes, by their obligatory 

 character and by their collection at a fixed date, apparently 

 constitute a burden upon the mass of the population, since 

 there has been an increased accumulation of arrears in the 

 mortgage repayments payable to the State. On several 

 occasions it has been found necessary to accord a period of 

 delay for the settlement of these arrears, and by the ist of 

 December, 1898, the amount of arrears for which an extension 

 of time for repayment had been allowed was as much as 

 i^7, 360,000, apportioned among 25,858 villages. 



In concluding his review of the situation, the Minister of 

 Finance, w^hile admitting that influences of an economic 

 character and lack of education are to a certain extent 

 obstacles to the progress of the rural population of Russia, 

 expresses the opinion that the real difficulty lies in the in- 

 determina.te character of the social and proprietary rights of 

 the peasantry. In the domain of civil law the position of the 

 peasant is determined partly by the provisions of the statutes 



