ach individual had to pay. To use the language of political
economy, the Princes, the landed proprietors, and the free Communes
all appeared as buyers in the labour market; and the demand was far in
excess of the supply. Nowadays when young colonies or landed proprietors
in an outlying corner of the world are similarly in need of labour,
they seek to supply the want by organising a regular system of importing
labourers--using illegal violent means, such as kidnapping expeditions,
merely as an exceptional expedient. In old Russia any such regularly
organised system was impossible, and consequently illegal or violent
measures were not the exception, but the rule. The chief practical
advantage of the frequent military expeditions for those who took part
in them was the acquisition of prisoners of war, who were commonly
transformed into slaves by their captors. If it be true, as some assert,
that only unbaptised prisoners were legally considered lawful booty,
it is certain that in practice, before the unification of the
principalities under the Tsars of Moscow, little distinction was made
in this respect between unbaptised foreigners and Orthodox Russians.*
A similar method was sometimes employed for the acquisition of
free peasants: the more powerful proprietors organised kidnapping
expeditions, and carried off by force the peasants settled on the land
of their weaker neighbours.

* On this subject see Tchitcherin, "Opyty po istorii
Russkago prava," Moscow, 1858, p. 162 et seq.; and
Lokhvitski, "O plennykh po drevnemu Russkomu pravu," Moscow,
1855.

Under these circumstances it was only natural that those who possessed
this valuable commodity should do all in their power to keep it. Many,
if not all, of the free Communes adopted the simple measure of refusing
to allow a member to depart until he had found some one to take his
place. The proprietors never, so far as we know, laid down formally such
a principle, but in practice they did all in their power to retain the
peasants actually settled on their estates. For this purpose some simply
employed force, whilst others acted under cover of legal formalities.
The peasant who accepted land from a proprietor rarely brought with
him the necessary implements, cattle, and capital to begin at once
his occupations, and to feed himself and his family till the ensuing
harvest. He was obliged, therefore, to borrow from his landlord, and the
debt thus contracted w