TO THE QUESTION OF THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE POPULATION OF THE TSAR’S DOMAIN IN RUSSIA IN THE 17TH CENTURY (THE RIGHT TO USE THE SOVEREIGN’S RENT LANDS)

Abstract

By the end of the 17th century, Palace fiefdoms were located in about 60 counties of the Russian state. County and city people who lived on the territory of the Tsar’s domain, had a special legal status. In the historical science no special complex research on the study of the system of rights and duties of the Palace population in Russia in the 17th century has been carried out. This article to a certain extent eliminates this gap in the Russian historiography. The author analyzes peculiarities of legal status of the population of the tsar’s lands in Russia in the 17thcentury, in particular, she deals with the right of the Palace district and the townspeople to use tsar’s quitrent land. The main types of rent possessions in the tsar’s fiefdoms, the conditions under which the population could rent the tsar’s lands were studied. The process of increasing payments for the use of Palace natural lands during the 17th century is shown. The methodology was based on the work of famous Russian pre-revolutionary historians I. E. Zabelin, S. B. Veselovsky, A. I. Zaozersky, researchers of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods V. I. Buganov, A. G. Mankov, Y. E. Vodarsky, S. V. Vidyaikin among others. The research applied the methods of historicism and scientific objectivity. The novelty of this article is determined by the introduction into the scientific circulation of a number of unpublished clerical historical sources from five archives of the country, as well as the published clerical documents of various orders of the Russian state, including scribe, census, boundary, income books, etc. The source base also included legislative acts: “the Cathedral Code of 1649”, tsar’s personal decrees, and letters of the second half of the 17th century. The basic types of rent articles on the territory of the Royal domain have been examined. The conditions of the lease maintenance of the sovereign’s rent lands for the Palace population are defined. The methods of determining the amount of rent for the right to use certain types of sovereign’s natural lands are revealed. Based on the results of the study, the following conclusions are made. A characteristic feature of the legal status of the Palace district and city people was the right to take in the maintenance of the sovereign’s forests, rivers, lakes, meadows, arable land, crafts. Rent for their use significantly replenished the sovereign’s Treasury in Russia in the 17th century.