Russia : its history and condition to 1877 . landed proprietors, and the free Communes allappeared as buyers in the labour market; and asthe demand was far in excess of the supply, therewas naturally a brisk competition. Nowadays whenyoung colonies or landed proprietors in an outlyingcorner of the world are similarly in need of labour,they seek to supply the want by organising a reg-ular system of emigration — using illegal violentmeans, such as kidnapping expeditions, merely asan exceptional expedient. In old Russia regularlyorganised emigration was of course impossible, andconsequently illeg
Russia : its history and condition to 1877 . landed proprietors, and the free Communes allappeared as buyers in the labour market; and asthe demand was far in excess of the supply, therewas naturally a brisk competition. Nowadays whenyoung colonies or landed proprietors in an outlyingcorner of the world are similarly in need of labour,they seek to supply the want by organising a reg-ular system of emigration — using illegal violentmeans, such as kidnapping expeditions, merely asan exceptional expedient. In old Russia regularlyorganised emigration was of course impossible, andconsequently illegal or violent measures were notthe exception but the rule. The chief practicaladvantage of the frequent military expeditions forthose who took part in them was the acquisition ofprisoners of war, who were commonly transformedinto slaves by their captors. If it be true, as someassert, that only unbaptised prisoners were legallyconsidered lawful booty, it is certain that in practicebefore the unification of the principalities under the 192. STATUE OF THE CZAR NICHOLAS THE SERFS Tsars of Moscow little distinction was made in thisrespect between unbaptised foreigners and OrthodoxRussians. A similar method was sometimes em-ployed for the acquisition of free peasants: the morepowerful proprietors organised kidnapping expedi-tions, and carried off by force the peasants settledon the land of their weaker neighbours. Under these circumstances it was only naturalthat those who possessed this valuable commodityshould do all in their power to keep it. Many, ifnot all, of the free Communes adopted the simplemeasure of refusing to allow a member to departuntil he had found some one to take his place. Theproprietors never, so far as we know, laid down for-mally such a principle, but in practice they did allin their power to retain the peasants actually settledon their estates. For this purpose some simplyemployed force, whilst others acted under cover oflegal formalities. The peasant who ac
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Keywords: ., bookauthorvillaril, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1910
