Besides the _loods_, there are in Wallachia about one hundred thousand individuals, and a proportionable number in Moldavia, who do not belong to the class of peasants, but who pay taxes at an equal rate. These are the tradesmen, Ottoman Jews, and other Rayahs. The privileged class called _Sokotelniki_ is composed of fifteen thousand individuals taken from among the peasantry, and who were, till lately, perfectly exempted from every kind of contribution levied by government; but within a few years the greater number of them have been made liable to an annual capitation tax of twenty piasters each. Their institution dates its origin from a remarkable reform made by Constantine Mavrocordato, in 1736, when he had the government of both principalities at the same time. Until that period, most of the peasants were slaves of the Boyars: Mavrocordato abolished the system, and no attempt was ever made since to renew it. In order, however, to indemnify in some measure the Boyars for the loss of their slaves, he regulated that each should be allowed to exact from a limited number of his peasants an annual tribute, in any shape whatever; and that this class of peasants, to whom he gave the name of Sokotelniki, should be entirely exempted from the burthen of public imposts. Every Boyar of the first rank is now entitled to eighty Sokotelniki, each of whom pays him the annual sum of eighty piasters; some few, instead of receiving money, employ their Sokotelniki in the cultivation of their lands, and thus derive a much greater advantage from them.