+---------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | | Percentage of the area. | | +-----------------+-----------------+ | | Estates under | Estates over | | Status of owners. | 50 dessiatines. | 50 dessiatines. | | +-------+---------+-------+---------+ | |Ryazañ.|Voronezh.|Ryazañ.|Voronezh.| | | 1881. | 1884. | 1881. | 1884. | +---------------------------------+-------+---------+-------+---------+ |Nobility | 13.9 | 32.0 | 74.5 | 80.1 | |Peasants | 77.7 | 44.2 | 2.4 | 3.6 | |Merchants & “hon. citizens.”[168]| 1.2 | 8.2 | 20.4 | 14.5 | |Burghers, clergy, etc. | 7.2 | 15.6 | 2.6 | 1.8 | | +-------+---------+-------+---------+ | Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | +---------------------------------+-------+---------+-------+---------+ The growth of capitalistic tenure furthers the progress of capitalistic agriculture. The small tenant is being superseded by the large business man (or merchant, to use the Russian expression), exploiting the land by means of wage labor. This is proved by the following figures: -----------+------------------------------+------------------------------ | Property of the | Property of the | nobility. | capitalist class. Systems of +--------+------------+--------+--------+------------+-------- management.| | Total | | | Total | | | extent. | | | extent. | | +------+-----+ | +------+-----+ | Number |Dessiatines.|Average | Number |Dessiatines.|Average | of | |Per |(dessia-| of | |Per |(dessia- |estates.| |cent.| tines).|estates.| |cent.| tines). -----------+--------+------+-----+--------+--------+------+-----+-------- Estates | 51 | 13942| 13.4| 273 | 13 | 1664 | 6.3| 128 exclusively| | | | | | | | in small | | | | | | | | tenure | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Estates | 5 | 794| 0.7| .. | 9 | 4323 | 16.3| .. without | | | | | | | | tillage | | | | | | | | land | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |