Taxation

Abstract

Abstract A discussion of taxation in eighteenth-century Russia must consider three essential questions: Who bore the burden of taxation? What was the relationship between direct and indirect taxes? What was the role of taxation in kind? We shall see that taxation was the means by which an infinitesimal ruling class extracted enormous sums from the dependent population; that the share of direct taxes declined between 1725 and 1825 while that of indirect taxes grew, largely as a result of a systematic policy of extending alcohol consumption; and that compulsory labor and services constituted a substantial second economy not affected by the growth of a money economy until the reign of Alexander I. Direct taxes are those paid by the taxable individual or communities directly to agents of the treasury, indirect taxes those, like sales taxes, paid to a third party in return for a service, then paid by that party to the treasury.