Serfdom

• Reliance on serfs inhibited Russia’s economic development – it limited wage-earners markets and entrepreneurs. The serfs were poor.
• Serfs often suffered starvation in the winter especially in years of bad harvests
• Peasants lived on the Mir: a village commune/assembly of households. Farming was generally organised around a 3 field rotation system.
• Self-sufficiency meant that few goods were purchased. There was no internal market demand.
• At the other end of the scale was the small land-owning elite who obtained most of what they needed from their serfs in the form of service and feudal dues.
• There was no opportunity for capital accumulation since income was generally falling. This was thanks to rural population growth and the agricultural changes in Western Europe that had increased competitiveness and productivity of the European markets.
• Many landowners had been forced into debt.