1892. 1891. Sec. 4. From liquors 242,570,981 259,550,981 ” 7. ” naphtha 10,026,800 9,528,500 ” 8. ” matches 4,720,000 4,524,000 ” 5. ” tobacco 27,741,102 28,213,102 ” 6. ” sugar 21,174,000 20,161,000 ” 9. Customs duties 110,900,000 110,929,000 ----------- ----------- 417,182,883 432,906,583 (_Cf._ _The Government Messenger_, No. 1, 1892.) The taxes in Secs. 4, 7 and 8 are naturally paid chiefly by the peasants, who are the majority, and these items alone amount to from 62 to 63 per cent. of all indirect taxes. [11] _Essay of a Statistical Investigation on the Peasants’ Landed Property and Taxation._ [12] In the _gubernia_ of Novgorod the former State peasants paid in taxes the entire net income of their land, and the former serfs from 61 to 465 per cent. above their net income. In the _gubernia_ of St. Petersburg they paid 34, and in that of Moscow, upon an average, 105 per cent. in excess of their net income. EXCESS OF TAXATION ABOVE THE NET INCOME. _In the _Per cent. former _Per cent. gubernias._ State peasants._ former serfs._ Tver 144 152 Smolensk 66 120 Kostroma 46 140 Pskoff 30 113 Vladimir 68 176 Vyatka 3 100 In the “black soil” region the difference amounted to from 24 to 200 per cent. for the former serfs, while the former State peasants, more favorably situated, had to pay in taxes from 30 to 148 per cent. of their net income, etc. (_Loc. cit._, pp. 35-36, 86.) [13] Corporal punishment for debts (_pravyozh_) is an institution of Russian law bearing the stamp of antiquity. It might perhaps flatter the Russian “national pride” to class this institution as one of the emanations of the “self-existent Russian spirit.” Unfortunately for the latter, this is a method of procedure common to many other nations at a certain stage of historical development. [14] The rent is here no fictitious quantity, it being an every-day occurrence for peasants to lease their lots. [15] Picture the condition of a New Jersey farmer who would have to await the permission of the Governor of New Jersey, the Secretary of State, and the Treasury Department, before moving to Minnesota. This is exactly the condition of the Russian peasant. According to the recent law, more liberal than the original law of 1861, emigration is allowed by a special permission, in every single case, of the Ministers of the Interior and of Public Domains, which permission is issued upon the presentation of the local governor. [16]