How did the fur tax in kind come about? There were times when our great ancestors conquered the vast expanses of Siberia. Like the English colonizers and the Spanish conquistadors, they rushed towards adventure, discovering new territories and fighting hordes of savages. Siberia was a kind of "Russian Wild West" - a land of opportunity for which brave pilgrims fought. However, the first colonialists had nothing to offer the Russian crown, which sponsored their research.
So they hunted wild animals (sables, foxes, beavers, etc.) and gave their skins to service people as a tax. Then it turned out that the skins can also be of great value.
Yasak
The fur tax was actually called yasak. He gathered from the Siberian prisons - peculiar settlements that were bypassed by "service people", as Russian officials were called at that time. The peak of yasak collection is the 18th century. The word itself is of Turkic origin.
Economic importance
The fur tax eventually played a huge economic role in trade and the development of the Russian state. At one time, furs were even the main Russian we alth, thanks to which our country conquered European markets. Yasak was collected not only from Russian settlers, but also from the conquered Turkic and Mongolian peoples.
Russian furs were in great demand in the West, especially among the Dutch, French, Spaniards, Italians and Germans, who did not have their own sources of this extremely valuable and important resource. Thus, before oil was discovered, the Russian land was already a great source of natural we alth.
The increasing fur tax has led to the spread of sable hunting. This led to the fact that these animals were endangered. Fortunately for them, after the discovery of significant sources of this resource in North America in the 19th century, Russian furs ceased to be so relevant, the price for it fell, and mass hunting for sables came to naught.
