ИСТИНА

The paper is devoted to the dynamics of Moscow merchant population in the periods 1816-1834 and 1850-1858 caused by in- and out-migration as well as by changes in social status. Our main objective is to estimate the socio-demographic factors of social and spatial mobility, such as age, marital status, household size and structure, previous social status etc. Social mobility of Moscow merchants Division of society into social estates existed in Russia for centuries and was abolished by one of the first laws of the new government after the 1917 Revolution (Decree of 23/11/1917). For a long time, the estates were hereditary; however, women could change their social estate by marriage acquiring their husbands’ status; one could upgrade his social status for the achievements on military or civil state service etc. In the period covered by our study the estate of merchant was not hereditary anymore: everybody able to pay one-time enrolment fee and the annual “guild” tax which replaced, in 1775, per capita taxation for merchants could join this social group. If, one year, the merchant could not pay the guild tax he was excluded from the merchant society and downgraded automatically to the burgher estate. Some categories of merchants – those awarded the title of hereditary honorary citizens, joined state military or civil service, university students and graduates – also changed their social status moving up the social ladder. In merchant population of Moscow social mobility was quite important in both directions: thus, between 1850 and 1858 merchant male population increased by 1605, including the increase by 1021 (63%) caused by social mobility (1441 males joined Moscow merchantry while 420 were excluded). Spatial mobility of Moscow merchants The data on spatial mobility are incomplete: we cannot estimate migration routes and flows for all the people who moved to Moscow and joined the local merchant society between 1850 and 1858. Thus, one could rarely find the information on the locality of origin for peasants who joined Moscow merchantry. The same for the burghers and craftsmen; probably, most of them lived already in Moscow before joining the merchantry. Information concerning migration of merchants was best documented and allowed estimating the changes in place of residence without changing social estate. Thus, between 1850 and 1858, 208 male merchants arrived to Moscow from the other places and for 95% of them we could define the place of origin. The list of places the merchants come from includes almost 120 cities and small towns located in 29 Russian gubernias. Distance was an important factor of migration: over 20% of male merchants came to Moscow from the other districts of Moscow gubernia; around 40% were originate from 6 bordering gubernias, 33% from the other gubernias of Central and North-Western Russia, and only 6.5% from the Southern and Eastern gubernias. The number of emigrated merchants is much lower: 38 males leaved Moscow between 1850 and 1858, and half of them joined the merchantry of the other districts of Moscow gubernia. Sources and method Our study is based on the individual records of the 8th and 10th poll-tax registers (so-called revisions) of Moscow merchants. The poll tax registers conducting in Russia between 1719 and 1858 contained detailed information on household size and composition, age and sex distribution, kin relations, changes in social status, territorial mobility etc. The quality of poll-tax registers as a source of information on Russian population in the past had been confirmed by numerous studies of fertility, mortality and nuptiality of peasant population in the first half of the 19th century (A.Blum and I.Troitskaia, 1996; A.Avdeev, A.Blum and I.Troitskai, 2004). The above-mentioned sources allowed us building the individual migration and social trajectories of about 16 thousand of male merchants who lived in Moscow in the periods 1816-1834 and 1850-1858.