The traditional taxation mechanism in states operates on the basis of binding the taxpayer to land allotment. Other types of taxes, including the so-called yasak, were applied to those peoples who were engaged in hunting and gathering. What is it and how was the yasaka filing formed? Can be found in this article.
The onset of fur tax
The times of Ermak and the expansion of Muscovy far to the east brought the state many specific problems that needed to be solved by non-traditional methods. The indigenous peoples of Siberia did not have land, which means they could not be enslaved. So the term "yasak" arose. The word came from the Bashkir "һһһҡ", which meant tax or tax. Usually, this tribute was taken by furs from hunters of small nationalities who populated each ulus (region) of the eastern outskirts of the Moscow principality.
Yasak picking
One of the most common taxes in the Russian Empire was yasak. What is it - the peoples of Siberia, the nomadic peoples of the Yenisei, Irkutsk, Tomsk provinces, as well as the inhabitants of Transbaikalia and Yakutia knew firsthand. The collection process had much in common with similar tax collection in Central Asia. Thus, yasak in history has remained as one of the most uncivilized methods of exploitation of the local population.
Each hunter between the ages of 18 and 50 was appointed a payer of yasak. In each region, the size of the tax was set differently. The surviving account books of the Yenisei Uyezd in 1621 speak of collecting 12 sables per person from the population of these regions of yasak. Of these, 11 skins were the yasak himself, and the twelfth was the sovereign’s wake. The Yenisei fur taxes were one of the highest in Siberia. For comparison, in Tulkino County in the same 1621 only 99 sables were collected, at the rate of 0.4 sables per person. One of the reasons for this gap was the forced position of the people who paid yasak. What is it for the forced small nations, which several times a year were subjected to raids by the Yenisei Kirghiz and the Angara Tungus, now we can only speculate. Perhaps the protection of small nations from raids by warlike neighbors was the main reason that the process of lodging proceeded quite peacefully, and no significant military clashes on this soil were recorded.
Replacing yasak with a tax
The annual shooting of fur animals for two centuries has significantly impoverished the animal kingdom of Eastern Siberia. Decrees of Catherine II in 1763 and in 1782 allowed part of the yasak to be given in money, but preference was still given to natural tribute. For a clear definition of the list of peoples who paid the fur tax, even the post of manager for collecting yasak was established. At the end of the 19th century, the register of peoples who had to pay yasak to the treasury was revised. What is it and what nations should have paid this type of tax, it was indicated in the law that replaced the natural quitrent with a cash tax. Finally, yasak ceased to be levied only after the 1917 revolution .