In the era of the reign of Peter I, Russia begins to use the division of labor and fits into the global economic environment. There is a tendency towards the European economic model - the desire to accumulate more than spend; export more than import. The development of trade is forcing the restructuring of industry and agriculture, which supplies raw materials for manufactories. All this ties the entrepreneurship and economy of Russia to the interests of the treasury.
The army is growing, the state’s income, and the bulk of the goods goes to its provision. The socio-economic development of Russia at a time when the state has occupied a major niche in the economy is determined by the state order having a defense (military) character. It was at this time that a new socioeconomic phenomenon appeared - a sessional manufactory.
The feudal nature of labor
In 1649, the Council Code finally consolidated serfdom, abolishing St. George's Day, during which the peasants were allowed to move from one landowner to another. The state continues the policy of enslavement and is looking for new categories of the population that can be made serfs.
Researchers pay attention to the feudal nature of the sessional manufactories under Peter 1 and, as a result, a sharp jump in labor productivity. The metallurgical and mining industry of Russia took the first place in Europe in the smelting of pig iron.
Budget revenue is growing six times, as are army spending. State revenue goes to the army. By the end of the century, these rates were reduced due to the feudal nature of labor. Serfs are not interested in the results of their labor. This explains the backlog of Russia from the West, which has long passed over to hired, capitalist labor.
Enslavement of the population
Before Peter I, there were several categories of the population. These were: landlord peasants, "walking" (free) people, odnodvorti of the South of Russia (they had one yard, no one obeyed), black-faced peasants of the North of Russia (nobody belonged to anybody), yasak people of the Volga region (who paid the tax with yasak skins). Peter has the dubious honor of creating a completely new category - “state peasants”.
This category includes all categories that are not covered by “tax” (conscription). In addition to the newly created category, the urban population was actively included in the “tax”. Peter transferred the peasants and the townspeople from the quitrent, corvee to the pillow tax, which was paid from every male soul. Some scholars call this the general system of serfdom, in which all categories of the population were involved.
Establishment of post-production factories
The state, having received in its hands a new category of “state” peasants, that is, belonging to the treasury, begins to dispose of them. Some of them are forcibly attributed to state-owned factories and sessional manufactories for working out factory corvée. The phenomenon, no different from serfdom, caused social unrest, especially powerful in the Urals.
Later, the state allowed the manufacture to buy peasants known as in-house peasants (1721). The sale of labor to merchants violated the privilege of the nobility, therefore, the manufactory and the serfs assigned to it were declared a “session”, that is, conditional leased. The state remained the legal owner.
The owner was not able to sell the peasants without the manufactory, and the manufactory without the peasants. In addition, the government abandoned the search for fugitive serfs and allowed the manufactories to keep them.
The phenomenon served as an impetus for the development of state and private manufactories, stimulated the growth of industry. Post-production manufactories prevailed in the old areas: metallurgy, cloth, linen and sailing. The state controlled their activities. The owners had certain privileges: they were exempted from compulsory military service, received tax and customs privileges.
After the death of Peter
Under Anna Ivanovna, the process went further. She secured the peasants for the sessional manufactories forever. And not only these peasants, but also members of their families. The result is a merger of landowners with industrialists. Owning a manufactory becomes prestigious, nobles join in industrial enterprise. Industrialists receive noble titles, for example the Demidovs and the Stroganovs.
The liberation of the possessive peasants became possible only in 1840, after the adoption of the relevant law. Finally, jurisdiction was abolished in 1861, along with the abolition of serfdom.