Conditions of Loyalty of the Military-Service, Commercial and Industrial Administration to Central Power

Abstract

The article deals with investigation into the conditions of loyalty of commercial as well as industrial and military-service administration to the central power. The analysis is based on comparing cases which demonstrate different levels of loyalty. A relatively high level of loyalty was shown by the “power” of the Stroganovs (merchants), including both the merchants and the population of their fiefdoms in the 16th–17th centuries, whereas the Volga, Don and Yaik Cossacks (16th–18th centuries) demonstrated a relatively low level of loyalty. It was revealed that the level of loyalty of military and commercial administration in Russia in the 16th–18th centuries was affected by processes of different social scale. The defeat of Novgorod by Moscow and the termination of the eхpeditions of Novgorod pirates named Ushkuyniks both in the North-East (Northern Urals) and in the South-East led to taking this niche in the Volga basin by the Cossacks that continued extracting revenues through the use of violence. The Cossacks’ growing dependence on the Tsar’s pay, combined with their skills and means of violence, caused revolts and rebellions in the 17th and 18th centuries that can be considered as a form of bargaining with the authorities for symbolic recognition and material supplementation. In the northern Ural, geopolitical changes resulted in introducing a new strategy in exploring the region – industrial (salt production) and agricultural colonization with tax exemptions and socio-economic patronage for the Stroganovs’ kholops (serfs) under conditions of underdeveloped state institutions, which resulted in relatively low levels of ethno-social conflicts in the region without the need to maintain a strong enforcement apparatus, which could become a resource for disloyalty to central power. Favorable conditions for the salt trade in the domestic Russian market (high price, limited competition) further strengthened the loyalty of salt producers.