ABSTRACT
The history of landownership as well as labor relations in Early Modern Russia influenced the holders and owners of land to behave differently from those in other parts of Europe. For this reason, outlines of the evolution of landownership/holding and labor relations are essential for comprehension of Russian estate management and economic development. One of the lingering problems for landowners was that the 1649 Ulozhenie 'settlement' had allocated the rights to trade and manufacturing to townsmen, typically merchants. This chapter discusses specific industries and illustrates what advantages landowners took of their new liberties. Perhaps Russia could have developed in the eighteenth century on the basis of private entrepreneurship employing free hired labor, but that was not to occur until the serfs were freed from landowner control in 1861 and until peasants were allowed to move freely in 1906.
