In the 16-17th centuries. the ministries and departments familiar to us today did not exist. Orders served as analogues. Their peculiarity was that they duplicated each other, the functions of a particular order were not fully understood. The problem was sometimes impossible to solve. However, the Local Order stood out among them.
It is its functions and features that will be discussed in this article.
Local order: functions
So, what was this agency? The local order in the 16th-17th centuries, or the local hut at a later time, occupied a central place in the administration of the Muscovite state. It was the second most important department after the Discharge Department. If the latter distributed key positions and posts, then the Local Order managed the local and patrimonial land tenure. To truly understand its significance, let's move on to the key concepts of land use types.
What is a fiefdom
In the 16-17th centuries. Muscovy was a single centralized state. However, this process was very long. Beforein Russia there was only one type of land use - patrimony. Literally "from the father". Let's compare the modern "stepfather" - the words have a common root.
Fiefdom is a property that was passed from father to son. The tradition was so strong that this right was considered sacred. Even when capturing enemy lands, no one could think of taking the land from the owner. The state, in our understanding of the word, did not claim this. The boyar was called the owner of such land. It was the highest title in our country from the formation of the state to the reforms of Peter the Great, that is, a thousand-year tradition. The peculiarity of such a holding was that the boyar could join any state with his land, creating a kind of enclave. Imagine a situation where, say, the owner of a land plot in the Novosibirsk region decided to join the United States or France. According to the laws of the 15th-16th centuries. it was quite possible. So, Moscow won over almost all the boyars of Ryazan to its side, making a kind of donut out of this land. The Ryazan princes had no choice but to merge into the Moscow principality.
What is an estate
The estate is a fundamentally different property. The landowner is not a boyar, but a nobleman.
He performs the functions of the state military service. For this he receives land. If the prince did not like this or that landowner, he could calmly take the land from him. This is the fundamental difference from the patrimony.
Role of Local Order
Based on the concepts of land use,we can conclude what role the Local Order played:
- Distribution of estates.
- Proof of ownership.
Distribution of estates
Even the uninitiated in our country can understand what power the official who appointed the land used. The Moscow prince, and with the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the tsar, as a rule, did not distribute pieces of land to his future soldiers.
The right to possession was issued by the Razryadny, however, the Local Order is an order that could determine both the best lands and marshy ones. A lot depended on this department for the future fate of a person. Oddly enough, bribes and payoffs played a small role in distribution. Extra money is simply not needed in a feudal society that feeds on agricultural products. Of fundamental importance was the origin, genus. If a nobleman came from noble boyar families, then he got the best estates. For the "serfs", i.e., people from the peasantry, the "worst" allotments were intended.
Proof of ownership
Until the 16th-17th centuries. The Muscovite state has gone through a difficult path of centralization. Fragmentation, constant wars, the transition of one principality to another gave rise to a lot of problems among the boyars. Their fiefdoms were sometimes impossible to document. The local order had at its disposal books in which dynasties with land use were kept. However, the transition to a unified administration gave rise to problems of a bureaucratic nature. Not all data from all landscame to a single office. Such boyars had to beat the thresholds of the Local Order for a long time. Some passed into the status of "children of the boyars", that is, landless boyars, whose ancestors once owned vast lands. Many of them joined the ranks of the nobles.
The land, of course, they received, but it was no longer property, but payment for the service.
Of course, the Order of the Order was more important. It was he who appointed estates and patrimonies, but it was the Local Man who was engaged in land surveying.
Subsequently, the role of the department increased. In addition to the traditional functions of the archive and office under the Discharge Order, its task began to include the collection of all taxes and taxes from the lands, the census and land surveying, as well as recruiting for the army.
Numbers
The local order is the second most important department, as mentioned above. People "from the street" were not taken into it. At the head of the order was the boyar, who, as a rule, was a member of the Duma. Sometimes he was replaced by a duma clerk, which, in principle, was equivalent. He had two clerks in his assistants and about 200 employees - clerks. With the growth of functions, the staff reached 500 people.
First surveying school
Local order is considered the first department in Russia, where they began to train land surveyors. The students were divided between departments (tables). Their number reached 100 people. The training lasted about 2-3 years. Schoolchildren studied mathematics, grammar, land surveying, drawing, land quality assessment techniques.
Working order
If anyone complains aboutmodern bureaucracy, tell him about the procedure for considering a request in the Local Order in the 16-17th centuries:
- On the petitions, the clerks wrote down what preparatory steps the clerks needed to carry out.
- The clerks found books, wrote out the necessary excerpts from them, attached all the certificates to the petition.
- A petition was heard at the Collegium of the Order, a decision was made.
- Local governors on the ground implemented the decision.
The procedure is similar to a modern lawsuit. Those who have had experience know how many months, and sometimes years, this can drag on.
