Discuss how the formation of centralised states influenced the development of France ad England.

The Centralized Russian State

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By the end of the fifteenth century Russia had become one of the biggest states in Europe; its territory stretched from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the middle reaches of the River Seym in the south; and in the west from the Gulf of Finland, Lake Peipus and the upper reaches of the Western Dvina (Daugava) and the Dnieper to the Ural Mountains in the east and the River Ob in the north-east From the mid-fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century the area of Russia increased six fold.

The unification of the Russian people (the Great Russian} in the framework of a single state and the country's general economic progress led to a considerable increase in the population, especially in North-eastern Russia. At the end of the fifteenth century, the population of the Russian state was between five and six million, but by the mid-sixteenth century it had increased to about nine million.

The emergence of the new system of feudal land tenure was largely due to the need to develop an army at the time when the unification. of Russia into a single state was taking place.

The creation of a big army of landowning nobles and the emergence of the dvoryanstvo as a social estate began with the annexation of the Novgorod lands to Moscow. Prior to that the Novgorod lands had consisted of the huge hereditary estates of the boyars.

The government of the Grand Duke Ivan III distributed the free peasants' communal lands among the new nobility and confiscated much of the land belonging to the Novgorod boyars; 2, 000 Moscow nobles and dvoryanstwo were settled on these confiscated lands, The Novgorod boyars were moved closer to Moscow where they were granted new estates, but only in return for services rendered.

By the end of the fifteenth century the peasantry had been divided into three main groups - landowners, court and state peasants. The majority of the taxable population (the dvoryanstvo served the prince and were not taxed) consisted of landowners' peasants, i.e., those who lived on the estates of the feudal landowners and church lands. When the court lands and the state lands were granted to the serving nobility, the peasants living on those lands went to the new owner, which increased the number of bound peasants; further more the peasants were gradually made fully dependent on the landowners and were actually not allowed to leave the land they ware bound to.

This period was also one in which industry was developed on a bread scale. Prominent among the industries was the mining of iron ore; the development of new farming techniques, the revival of handicrafts and the introduction of fire-arms greatly increased the demand for iron. The pottery, wood-working, leather-working and other crafts also achieved a relatively extensive development. There was greater differentiation among the craftsmen, and, although most of the rural population continued to make their own implements, clothing and pottery, by the mid-sixteenth century industry began to separate from agriculture, giving rise to a category of draftsmen she worked for the market as well as to fulfil the orders of their customers.

The growth of social production and the divas ion of labour gave the towns a more important role as local, commercial and industrial centres. By the mid-sixteenth century there were about 160 towns in Russia. Their general aspect had undergone a change, special market quarters quarters had grown up; new branches of industry had sprung up and there was a considerable increase in the section of the urban population engaged in industry. The role of the towns as commercial centres may be seen from the examples of Pskov and Novgorod; in the mid-sixteenth century there were 1, 500 trading establishment in the former and still more in the latter.

Moscow acquired great importance as the country's economic centre. By the beginning of the sixteenth century Moscow was surrounded by artisans' quarters (slobodi) where craftsmen pursuing the same trade lived and had their shops - blacksmith, leather-workers, carpenters, potters, silversmiths, tailors, gunsmiths and others. There were also merchants' establishments in the same quarters. The main Moscow market had been established long before this in the largest quarter close to Red Square.

Moscow became the biggest centre for internal trade; almost all the trade routes in North-eastern Russia to a certain extent led to Moscow. Fish, furs and wit salt from the Dvina basin, Perm and Vyatka grain, meat, poultry, tallow and leather from Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan; flax and hemp from.Novgorod and Pskov.

Russia's foreign trade increased considerably in this period, especially with Lithuania, Livonia and the Hansa towns. By the mid-sixteenth century regular trade relations had been established with Poland. There was also an increase in trade with the Tatar khanates. Central Asia, Persia, the Caucasus and Turkey. Trade between Russia and Italy, especially Venice, developed with Turkey as the intermediary.

Russia's main exports to the West were still fare, leather, tallow, salt meat, wool, walrus tusks, wax, honey, flax and hemp. Various industrial goods - fine cloths, weapons, luxury goods -were imported from the West. Trade with the West was mainly through Novgorod, Pskov, Tver and, after 1514, Smolensk.

Trade with the East was of great importance to Russia, despite the difficulties placed in its way by the hostile Tatar khanates on the eastern and southern frontiers. Chief among these was the Kazan Khanate whiсh, although it сonduсted extensive trade with Moscow, deprived the Russians of the Volga as route to Central Asia, the Caucasus and, especially, Persia.

How far Russian merchants penetrated into Asia may be judged from the famous journey made betwteen 1466 and 1472 by Afanasy Nikitin, a Tver merchant, " across three seas" (the Caspian, the Indian Ocean and the Black Sea) to India. Journeys by Russian merchants, even if not so lengthy, were by no means rare.

Such oriental wares as silk, woolen and cotton goods, spices, dyestuffs, precious stones and luxury goods reached Russia from the East: through Kazan and Crimes.

Despite the volume of trade reached by the mid-sixteenth century, Russia foreign commerce, because of the country's international situation, was almost without further prospects of development. There were too many obstacles in the way of foreign trade. In the east there was, as we have said, Kazan, which held away over the Volga trade route. In the south the Khanate of Crimea closed the road to the Black Sea. In the west the Lithuania-Polish state, the Livonian Order, the Hansa League and Sweden persistently prevented direct commercial relations between Russia and Western Europe.

Under these circumstances the struggle for the Volga, and also for an outlet into the Baltic Sea – in other words, the problem of Kazan and Livonian Order – was the paramount question for the development, not only of foreign trade, but for the entire economic process of Russia in the sixteen century.

Thus the growth of agricultural production and industry, the increase in home and foreign trade, all speak of the important changes that took place in the fifteens and sixteens centuries in this self contained feudal state with its natural economy. Commodity and money relations had begun to perform a more important function and the conditions obtained favoured closer economic relations between the Russia lands within the centralized state, which had itself, in the final analysis, been created by these new economic conditions.

Key words and expressions

to stretch простираться

unification in объединение

the framework в рамках

single state единое государство

emergence зарождение, появление

hereditary наследственный

to settle поселять

owner владелец, хозяин

mining of iron ore добыча железной руды

division of labour разделение труда

internal trade внутренняя торговля

oriental wares товары Востока

Words for active use

Unification; single state; to increase; emergence; land tenure; landowning nobles; to grant estates; to be divided into 3 groups; revival of handicraft; rural population; foreign trade (commerce); Russian merchants.

Assignments

Find English equivalents in the text:

К концу XV века, простираться от…до…, значительный рост, середина XVI века, наследственные поместья, зависеть от землевладельца, в широком масштабе, огнестрельное оружие, гончарное дело, кожевенное ремесло, рынок, покупатели, появились новые отрасли, рыба, меха, жир, русские купцы, дальнейшее развитие.

2. Suggest Russian equivalents to the following:

Growth of agricultural production; natural economy; economic conditions; main exports; feudal land tenure; ruling class; landowning nobles; court and state peasants; demand for iron; local commercial centre; to undergo a change; wool; walrus tusks; honey еtrade route; to penetrate into Asia; oriental wares; silk, spices; outlet into the Baltic Sea.

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