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These last two classes were not free, but the others were,in the sense that they owed dues, directly or indirectly,to the state, though the jurisdictional and fiscal immunitiesgranted by the grand-princes to big landowners,especially the monasteries, to a large extent removedthose on their lands from direct contact with the state(cf. p. 95). In addition, there was an unsettled classof ' men of diverse callings' and a class of casual labourersand artisans, usually landless, and not subject to statetaxation.Between about 1500 and 1700 there took placethe great change—in part comparable to developmentsin much of western Europe between 1100 and 1300—whereby, roughly, one half of this variegated fluid peasantmedley became transformed into a single class of landowners'serfs, 'the bonded peasants,' and the other halfdeveloped into various categories of state peasants, mostof them more or less akin to serfs. The binding down ofthe landowners' serfs was first effected in the relativelysmall area of the central core of Muscovy, mainly betweenthe Oka and the Volga and Novgorod. It seems tohave been due primarily to economic pressure, especiallyindebtedness, combined with the effect of custom andthe needs of the landowners and of the state backed byforce.From the time of Ivan the Great (1462-1505) boththe power and the needs, above all the military requirements,of the state grew rapidly, and, as has been pointedout already (p. 94), there occurred a second great change,parallel with that in serfdom, the new conception of thestate headed by the tsar as the regulator of obligatoryservice and the disposer of all land. For the new typeof middling and lesser 'men of service' (cf. p. 98) landgrants were of little use without hands to work them.'Black lands' were made over to them. They also mustbe kept peopled. Those who owe taxation or serviceof any kind must be inscribed and somehow kept pinneddown. To this end cadastral surveys had been developedsince the late fifteenth century and a fair amountof evidence becomes available as to peasant attachment,either through privileges granted or confirmed to this150

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