ABSTRACT
An artisan dynasty had established itself as the last Muscovite century neared its close and the confident new tsar led his troops to another momentous battle. The dramatis personae of this story are fictional, albeit representative, examples of successful artisans in a larger Russian town. Artisans belong to a legally defined social stratum of townsmen who lived in a special settlement, often referred to as the commercial district, typically right next to the frequently fortified town center. They enjoyed a de jure monopoly of most kinds of commercial activities, whether handicrafts or trade. There was a considerable amount of social mobility among townsmen, especially ones that were able to trade with foreign merchants and thus enjoyed improved access to capital. Russia did not have a domestic capital market to speak of in the seventeenth century. All Russian towns had customs offices that recorded the trade flows passing through.
