Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18.-- Seal Fees. In It Are 71 Articles.

1. If someone is given the sovereign's compensation, a service landholding, for the first time: collect for the grant from those people seal fees of .0125 ruble per 1.3 acres of arable land.

2. If someone is given the sovereign's compensation of a service landholding of 2.6, 3.9, 13 acres, and more than 13 acres, but less than 26 acres; or if two, three, or four men are granted a service landholding of 6.5, 7.8, 13, or more acres: collect the fees on the petition [asking for the land] from all of them at the rate of .25 ruble per person, and not on the basis of the acreage.

3. If dvoriane, and deti boiarskie, and various people are issued the sovereign's charters granting the right of possession for their old service landholdings, and in the charters it is written that the old charters in their possession and the grants in the Service Land Chancellery have been lost; and there are no old record books in the Seal Chancellery because they were lost in the destruction [of Moscow in 1611]; and there is no document to corroborate those grants; and they are issued the documents granting the right of possession on the basis of the cadastral review books, some after investigation and [others] without investigation: collect the seal fees for such documents from the petition [requesting them] at the rate of .25 ruble per person. Do not collect the arable land fees.

4. If a dvorianin or a syn boiarskii is killed in the sovereign's service, and his service landholdings are granted to his wife and children: collect from those [people] the fees for the petition, but not from the [quantity of] arable land.

5. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie who petition the sovereign about service landholdings and about service land wastes, about fallow lands, and about the wild steppe of the frontier towns, [that those lands be granted to them] as service landholdings; and if they are granted the sovereign's investigation charters about those lands: having conducted an investigation about those lands, order the investigation records sent to Moscow. Order those lands registered for the sovereign. Order those lands not be granted to them prior [to the issuance of an official] decree. Collect the fees from those people at the rate of .25 ruble per person.

6. If dvoriane and deti boiarskie are given the sovereign's grant of an hereditary estate out of their service landholdings: seal the grant charters for them with red wax. Collect the seal fees for those charters from the petition [registering them] at the rate of .25 ruble per person, and not from the quantity of arable land.

7. If someone is given grant charters for hereditary estates on their old clan hereditary estates and purchased hereditary estates, and their former charters in their possession were lost during the destruction [of Moscow in 1611]: do not collect fees from those charters.

8. If the sovereign's grant charters with red seals are given to merchants of the first corporation or [ordinary] merchants [guaranteeing] that they do not have to billet troops, and they do not have to be on the tax rolls, allowing them to keep alcoholic beverages at their houses; or [if such charters are grants] in the name of a first merchant corporation [merchant] to ordinary merchants for service and for the customs house and tavern levies[1]: from such charters collect the seal fees at the rate of 2.50 rubles per charter.

9. If stone shops are granted to merchants of the first corporation or [ordinary] merchants, and for those shops money is collected from them for the sovereign's treasury in the Chancellery of the Great Revenue; and they are given grant charters and deeds on those shops on the basis of which they possess such shops: seal those shop grant charters with the sovereign's seal and collect the seal fees: to whomever is sold a whole shop, 1.25 rubles, and to whomever is sold a half, a third, or a fourth of a shop, collect from those [people] the seal fees in the same ratio.

10-11. Concerning the service landholdings of dvoriane and deti boiarskie which have passed to the Rzeczpospolita, [those] which were taken from others and distributed to cossacks, and [those] which were taken from others after an investigation and granted to old hereditary estate owners and service landholders; and instead they were granted service landholdings in other places; and the sovereign's charters on those service landholdings were issued to them; and those service landholders proceed to petition the sovereign that the fees be collected for the petition, and not for the quantity of arable land, because they [already] paid the fees from their former service landholdings: seal such charters without fee.

12. If the sovereign's charters are sent to Great Novgorod in response to the petition of Novgorodian service landholders, and it is decreed that they should be allotted a service landholding according to the Novgorod service list, and the seal fees from them are taken to Moscow: do not collect in Great Novgorod the seal fees from those service land grants on the quantity of arable land and from the petition, but collect in Novgorod the seal fees from the petition at the rate of .25 ruble per person at that time when they issue charters granting the right of possession for those grants as they are collected in Moscow, so that there will not be double [collection of fees].

13. If documents are written to Novgorod ordering that an investigation be conducted without a service landholding, and after investigation it becomes necessary to grant it [the service landholding], and the service landholding grant is [awarded] them in Novgorod, and seal fees are not collected from them in Moscow: collect the seal fees from those grants in Great Novgorod according to the sovereign's decree at the rate of .0125 ruble per 1.3 acres of arable land, but do not collect the .25 ruble for the petition. Collect the seal fees on those hereditary landholdings for the petition at the rate of .25 ruble at that time when someone is issued the documents granting the right of possession to those service landholdings.

If such fees are collected for such documents from someone in Moscow: make a note of that fact on the documents next to the seal so that it will be known in Great Novgorod.

14. If a father's service landholding is [requested by and] registered for someone and he is given a document granting him the right of possession, but hw fails to obtain an allocation document on that service landholding that belonged to his father: collect from those people for the document granting the right of possession .0125 ruble per 1.3 acres [of arable land] because he did not obtain an allocation document on that service landholding of his father's.

15. Concerning people who bring to the Seal Chancellery from the Service Land Chancellery purchase documents for hereditary estates which they are purchasing from fallow lands, and in the Service Land Chancellery they were charged fees of .03 ruble per ruble [of the price paid for the land] for those purchase documents: in the Seal Chancellery charge the purchaser a fee of 2.5 ruble, plus .0125 ruble per 1.3 acres of measured arable.

16. If the sovereign's grant charters for hereditary estates and service landholdings are given to boyars, and okol'nichie, and counselor dvoriane, and counselor state secretaries: do not collect the seal fees from those charters.

17. If hereditary estates were registered in the Service Land Chancellery according to the sovereign's decree by dvoriane and deti boiarskie on the basis of mortgage documents, or of wills, and of conveyances, and of any other documents, and the fees for those hereditary estates were collected from them in the Service Land Chancellery, and recorded in the books; and the sovereign's allocation charters were issued to them in the provincial towns on those hereditary estates [declaring] that they should own those hereditary estates on the basis of the sovereign's decree and the charters: collect the seal fees from those charters also, as from service landholding grants, at the rate of .0125 ruble per 1.3 acres, plus .25 ruble for the document which is revealed in the charter.

18. If dvoriane and deti boiarskie proceed to bring into the Seal Chancellery the sovereign's charters on service landholdings and hereditary estates which have been exchanged, and in the charters it is written that the exchange was acre for acre: collect the seal fees from those [people] for the petition at the rate of .25 ruble per person. Concerning acreage in excess of an even exchange revealed in my charters: from those [people] collect .25 ruble per person for the petition and .0125 ruble per 1.3 acres for the excess acreage.

19. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie father[s] who proceed to register [the transfer of] their own service landholdings and hereditary estates to [their] son[s], or a mother to [her] children, or a brother to [his] brother, or an uncle to [his] nephews, and other agnate relatives; and their petition is written down in the sovereign's charters: collect the seal fees from those charters of theirs from the petitioners, [he] who is giving away the service landholding, or the hereditary estates, at the rate of .25 ruble per person. Collect .0125 ruble per 1.3 acres from the person for whom the service landholdings and hereditary estates are registered.

20. If service landholdings and hereditary estates of dvoriane and deti boiarskie by the sovereign's decree are confiscated and handed out in a distribution [to others]; and subsequently in response to the petition of the former service landholders and hereditary estate owners those of their former service landholdings and hereditary estates are registered in their possession as previously; and the sovereign's charters are given to them on those service landholdings and hereditary estates: if large grants are given to someone, collect the seal fees from those charters from those [people] at the rate of .0125 ruble per 1.3 acres; but if the service landholdings are 26 acres or less, collect from those [people] .25 ruble because those service landholdings again have come into their possession on the basis of the registration.

21. Collect the sovereign's fees from charters given to tax farmers in instances when the tax farmers buy up provincial town taverns, and fees for branding horses collected when they are sold, and toll and ferry fees, and various revenues from their additional income. Collect them from .0375 ruble per ruble [of revenue] for the tax farms. From small rates, where the tax farm is only a ruble, or 2, 3, 5, or 6 rubles: collect from such tax farmers .25 ruble per person for the petition and not the ruble fees [based on revenues].

22. Concerning tax farmers for whom it is written in the sovereign's charters that no trial shall be granted against them and their associates in the provincial towns while they have tax farms in their possession: collect for those charters .25 ruble per person for the petition, as many of them as there are in the petition.

23. If a tavern or a customs house is given to a tax farmer as a tax farm for a specified number of years, two or three, and in the first year there are petitioners against him [asking] for a trial in any matter: do not grant those petitioners a trial against him in the first year. Grant them a trial against him when the first year expires.

If there are petitioners for a trial against that tax farmer in the second year: do not grant those petitioners a trial against him in the second year, but grant them a trial against him in the third year.

If there are other petitioners against that tax farmer in the third year: grant those last petitioners a trial against him in the fourth year, when the period of the tax farm expires.

Do not grant anyone a trial against tax farmers until a year has passed so that tax farmers will not suffer deliberate losses at the hands of anyone.

Grant customs houses, and taverns, and any other tax farms as a tax farm to the sovereign's townsmen and to provincial peasants living in court villages. Do not give any tax farms as a tax farm to any other peasants or anyone's slaves.

If customs houses and taverns are to be farmed out for more than three years in the possession of any tax farmers: for those tax farmers issue a decree about the trial like the one written in this article.

24. If tax farms are given to tax farmers in the provincial towns: collect the seal fees from those tax farms in the provincial towns just as they are collected in Moscow. Send those seal monies from the provincial towns to the Seal Chancellery.

25. Concerning tax farmers in the provincial towns who proceed to buy up various revenues for two, three, four, and five years at once; or tax farmers who proceed to buy up their own old tax farms anew for more money; or, concerning the tax farmer who buys [a farm] for one year, and then proceeds to keep that tax farm for himself for two or three, and another person four years: collect the seal fees from such tax farms from the old tax farms and from the new supplementary incomes for all the years, making the appropriate calculations, and not just for one year.

26. Concerning tax farmers of tax farms who do not vacate tax farms on the stipulated dates; and no one else takes [them]; and those incomes are assigned to those same tax farmers with an increase noted: collect the seal fees from those [people] from the entire tax farm, from the old [one] and from the noted increase at the rate of .0375 ruble per ruble.

27. Concerning [tax farmers] who vacate [their tax farms] prior to the [expiration] dates and do not desire to keep them in their possession as tax farms; and they are not relieved of those tax farms; and no one is appointed under oath to collect [the revenues of the tax farm]; and the [incomes of the tax farm] are assigned to them without supplementary income against their will: do not collect any seal fees from those people.

28. If tax farming charters and various [other] documents of the sovereign on tax farming incomes are sent to the towns from the Chancellery of the Great Court, tax farms which are given out as tax farms in the Great Court, and the charters and orders are also sent out from the Great Court, in response to the petition[s] of people of various ranks: affix the seal to those charters and orders, and collect the signature and seal fees from them in the Chancellery of the Great Court.

29. Concerning town baths or mills, businesses which are newly given to tax farmers as a tax farm for two, three, or more years; and those tax farmers proceed to petition the sovereign that they took those tax farms for a certain number of years [to engage in] the bath and mill business, and would [the sovereign] collect from them the seal fees from those tax farms, for the new businesses, for only one year: collect the seal fees from such tax farms for only one year.

30. Concerning ferries, or fish weirs, and other small income-producing properties whose scheduled incomes are 5, or 6, or 10 and more rubles, and less from others, which are given out as tax farms to tax farmers: if in the documents it is written that they shall pay that money annually in the towns, until that time when someone else takes those tax farms as a tax farm for more money; but it is not written explicitly in the documents for how many years they are to keep them in their possession as tax farms: collect the fees for such documents in Moscow for [only] the first year, and for the remaining years the governors and chancellery officials shall collect the seal fees from those tax farms annually together with the tax farm monies in the towns. [They] shall send those money fees to the Seal Chancellery in Moscow.

31. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie who proceed to sue for their own claims in the Judicial and any [other] chancelleries, and at the trial they proceed to name a mutual witness in the provincial towns, and the sovereign's charters on that matter are sent to the provincial towns: collect fees for those charters from the plaintiff and from the defendant at the rate of .25 ruble per person.

If [only] one [litigant], the plaintiff or the defendant, names [a witness in the provincial towns], and the other does not so name: collect the fees for such charters from the one who names, at the rate of .25 ruble per person.

32. If someone proceeds to bring a case in any matter whatsoever against someone and at the trial they name a mutual witness; and the defendant proceeds to make a counterclaim against him; or he simultaneously has three or four trials on various matters, and they call a witness, or cite books, and the sovereign's charters on the matter are sent to the towns: collect the fees for those charters. If there are different cases, collect from them as many different fees as there are cases.

33. Concerning plaintiffs and defendants who do not name witnesses at [their] trials, but the judges order an investigation conducted about those suits of theirs without their citing witnesses: do not collect fees for those documents because [the judges] are proceeding to investigate without their petition. But when a decree is [issued] in response to the investigations: collect the fees for the petition from the loser.

34. Concerning petitioners who proceed to petition the sovereign for justice on the basis of loan documents, and documents on that case are issued to them, but they do not write down in their petition how many loan documents there are: collect the fees from those [people] at the rate of .75 ruble per person. But if he writes down that [he is suing] on the basis of one loan document to collect loaned money: collect from those [people] fees of .25 ruble for the petition and .25 ruble for the loan document.

35. If it is written in a document that a debt should be collected on the basis of a note, a will, or a purchase document: collect fees for those documents of .25 ruble for the petition, and also .25 ruble for the document, just as for a loan document.

36. Concerning people who proceed to petition the sovereign about legal matters in suits for undocumented loans: collect from those petitioners the seal fees of .25 ruble per person.

37. If someone proceeds to petition the sovereign also about undocumented loans and other legal matters, and one petitioner is listed in the petition in the place of his associates, townsmen or rural peasants: collect fees of .75 ruble from each of those [associates].

38. If someone proceeds to petition the sovereign for himself, in the place of townsmen and rural peasants: collect for those documents fees of 1.25 ruble each.

39. If one petitioner is listed in a charter of the sovereign's or in a directive, and he petitions for justice against two or three people, and someone else [petitions] against five or six people, or more; and he has different cases against them, not the one case against all [of them]; and if he has a trial with each of them individually, but he writes down those various cases of his into a single document, or into [a single] directive, so that he will only have to pay a single batch of fees: collect the fees for those documents depending on the case. Only if the different cases [involve] assaults, robberies, disputes over storage with written documents, and subsidy loans: collect from them as many fees as there are cases.

40. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie who petition the sovereign about fugitive peasants, and subsidy loan notes and surety bonds are listed in the documents [showing] that those peasants of theirs should be living under them as peasants; and those peasants, having gotten subsidy loan notes and surety bonds on themselves, are not living under them; and on the basis of those notes they are petitioning against their [the peasants'] guarantors: collect the seal fees from those documents only for the one petition, but do not collect for the notes and bonds [listed in the petition].

41. If archimandrites and hegumens and the monks proceed to petition the sovereign about any matters whatsoever, and they are issued the sovereign's charters: collect the seal fees from such charters at the rate of .75 ruble per charter.

42. If an archimandrite, or hegumen, or steward alone, or a [monastery] servitor, signs a petition, and if they are petitioning about monastery business, and not about their own private matters: collect from them the seal fees at the same rate, .75 ruble apiece.

43. Concerning the sovereign's charters granted in the provincial towns to dvoriane and deti boiarskie in legal matters, and in response to those royal charters their defendants proceed to act contumaciously in the provincial towns, do not give surety bonds on themselves, and do not proceed to appear for trial on the appointed dates in Moscow; and the governors and chancellery officials proceed to write about that disobedience of theirs to the sovereign; and in response to those reports the sovereign's charters are sent to the provincial towns; and they order the plaintiffs to exact from the defendants for the disobedience their maintenance expenses and compensation for the delay for the first and the second charters: collect the fees for those charters from the petitioners at the rate of .25 ruble per person.

44. If the sovereign's summonses for someone are given to plaintiffs; and in response to those documents the governors and chancellery officials in the provincial towns, favoring the defendants, do not get bail documents on those defendants and do not proceed to write to the sovereign in Moscow concerning those documents; and the plaintiffs, living in Moscow before the court date and after the court dates, proceed to petition the sovereign for other documents in those same suits, and those other documents are given them: collect the seal fees from those documents from the plaintiffs at the rate of .25 ruble per documents, and they shall collect their expenditures from those against whom they proceed to petition.

45. If taxpaying Tatars and Cheremis of the Kazan' State and of all the Lower Volga towns petition the sovereign, and the princes and mirzas, and service Tatars who pay taxes, and those freed from paying taxes, and centurions, and elders, and ordinary Chuvash, and Cheremis, and Votiaks sign the petition about the same case; and the same people [sign] with different names; and documents are issued to them: collect the fees for those documents by ranks, .75 ruble from each rank.

46. If it becomes necessary in response to someone's petition to send a bailiff from any chancellery whatsoever after someone in a plaintiff's suit with a memorandum containing a directive: seal those directive-memoranda with the sovereign's seal. Collect the seal fees from those directive-memoranda according to the sovereign's decree. Do not dispatch directives in any cases of petitioners without the sovereign's seal.

47. When servicemen, and townsmen, and agriculturists of Siberian towns bring to the Seal Chancellery the sovereign's documents against various people of the same Siberian towns requesting justice and on various other cases; or against townsmen and rural residents not of the Siberian towns, against various people of Perm', Viatka, Ustiug, and other towns for stored goods and subsidy loans, on the basis of loan documents, for assault and robbery and in any other such cases: do not collect fees for those documents because the locale is distant and Siberian servicemen come to Moscow only occasionally.

48. If travel documents are given to any dvoriane, and deti boiarskie, and Tatar chiefs, and musketeer commanders, and various people who are in the sovereign's service in Siberia and in the Lower Volga towns; and they order them, in response to their petitions, to carry food supplies, spirits, honey, and hops for service in those distant parts; and others are ordered to transport to Astrakhan' and other towns lumber for building construction for residents of those places, do not collect seal fees from those travel documents for service.

49. Concerning the sovereign's documents issued to commanders and centurions of the Moscow musketeers, and to Moscow musketeers of all regiments in response to their petitions about various legal matters and about loans registered in documents; and documents granting the right of possession, allotment and grant documents which are granted to the same commanders and centurions for hereditary estates and service landholdings: do not collect fees from them for such documents.

50. Concerning the sovereign's documents granted for legal cases to [cossack] atamans, captains, and [rank and file] cossacks who are in Moscow and in the provincial towns, and are being compensated by cash and by newly granted, tax-exempt service landholdings: collect the seal fees from such documents for legal cases, according to statute. But concerning documents granted them for their lands: do not collect fees for those documents.

51. If musketeer and cossack commanders and centurions and [rank and file] musketeers and cossacks of the provincial towns proceed to petition the sovereign about various legal cases against people outside their ranks, or for an investigation of musketeer and cossack lands; and the sovereign's documents are issued to them in response to their petition: collect the seal fees from the legal proceedings according to statute when someone is petitioning against people outside their ranks.

But if they proceed to petition the sovereign against each other, and not against outsiders, or about lands: do not collect fees from those [people] because they are servicemen and the lands in their possession belong to the sovereign.

52. If the sovereign's charters about cash and grain subsidies are given to archimandrites, and hegumens, and archpriests together with rank and file clergymen of town monasteries and churches supported by the treasury, and also [documents] concerning annual salaries [are given] to provincial musketeers, and cossacks, and gunners, and artillerymen, and various servicemen who get treasury salaries [in response to their requests that] they be given the sovereign's salary according to the law: do not collect seal fees from those documents.

53. If the sovereign's decree charters are issued to musketeers, and cossacks, and gunners, and artillerymen, and gatekeepers, and stone masons, and bricklayers in the provincial towns, in response to their petition on the matter of how many rubles worth of trade they may engage in duty-free and how much alcohol they may distill for themselves: do not collect the seal fees from such charters because of their service and poverty.

54. If extracts showing ownership of land and other property from the cadastral books and cadastral review books are issued to peasants of the sovereign's court villages, in the countryside, in districts where the sovereign's taxes are paid, by the Chancellery of the Great Court and any other chancelleries: collect the seal fees from those charters from the elder, instead of all the peasants, at the rate of 75 ruble per charter, depending on the extracts. Seal those extracts which are issued by the Court with the Court's seal, and collect the fees from those extracts in the Court also. Seal extracts from the cadastral books from other chancelleries in the Seal Chancellery and collect the fees [there as well].

55. If the sovereign's travel documents are issued by the Foreign Affairs Chancellery to foreigners, the English, the Dutch, and those of the [North German] free towns, and to elite merchants and ordinary traders of various other states; and if the foreigners proceed to petition the sovereign against Russians for justice in commercial transactions and in the matter of loans on the basis of loan documents and notes: do not collect seal fees [from the English and Dutch elite merchants] who have been issued the sovereign's grant charter; but collect the seal fees from all other foreigners in the same way as they are collected from Russians.

56. If the sovereign's documents are sent to the provincial towns in response to the petition of boyars, and okol'nichie, and dvoriane, and counselor state secretaries about various cases of theirs; or if bailiffs are sent to the provincial towns in response to their petitions with memoranda containing directives: do not collect fees from those documents and from the directives.

57. If documents and directives are sent to the provincial towns in response to a petition of a kraichii, and a chamberlain, and a striapchii with the key: collect the seal fees from those documents according to statute.

58. If judgment documents are issued to various people about hereditary estates, and about various [other] cases, and from the Slavery Chancellery in slavery cases; and if the entire judicial case is written down authentically in the document: seal those documents with the sovereign's seal, and collect the seal fees according to statute.

59. If the sovereign's charters are issued to the archimandrite, and the cellarer and the treasurer together with the monks of the life-giving Trinity Sergei Monastery in their monastery affairs: do not collect the signature and the seal fees from those charters.

60. If the sovereign's charters are issued to the archimandrite, and cellarer together with the monks of the New Savior Monastery about their monastery affairs: do not collect the seal fees from those charters for [the memory of] the sovereign's parents.

61. Concerning the monastery servitors and peasants of the Trinity Sergei Monastery and the New Savior Monastery who obtain the sovereign's documents in their own suits: collect the fees from them according to statute.

62. Also collect the fees according to statute for documents for various cases from all monasteries, except the Trinity Sergei and the New Savior Monastery, from [their] archimandrites, and hegumens, and elders, and servitors, and peasants.

63. If the sovereign's documents, or directives issued through a bailiff, are issued in response to a petition for an old and new service assignment by mercenary foreigners who are salaried in cash or in kind but do not have service landholdings: do not collect the seal fees from those royal documents and directives for their cases because of their poverty and the fact that they are foreigners.

Collect seal fees from foreigners with service landholdings in the same way they are collected from Russians according to statute.

64. If the sovereign's documents are sent to the Seal Chancellery from various chancelleries, and if those royal documents are written about petitioners' cases, in response to reports from governors and chancellery officials of the provincial towns, or in response to petitions, petitions which are sent from the provincial towns attached to reports of governors and chancellery officials: after review, collect the seal fees from such documents.

If a petitioner comes to the Seal Chancellery [to get] any document: collect the seal fees from him according to statute. But if there are no petitioners: seal those documents without payment of fee.

65. If the sovereign's documents are issued by the Military Chancellery to dvoriane and deti boiarskie, and it is ordered that they be [promoted] from the provincial town service lists [and] registered on the court service list, or [promoted from] the court service list [and] registered on the roster chosen to serve in Moscow: collect the seal fees from those documents at the rate of .25 ruble per person.

66. If the sovereign's documents are issued to senior officials of the felony control administration and the fortifications officials by which they are to serve in the provincial towns as senior officials of the felony control administration, or anyone who is ordered to work in the chancelleries: collect the seal fees from those documents at the rate of a ruble per person.

67. If the sovereign's documents are issued to contractors for the sovereign's grain business, contractors who are retained in Moscow and in the provincial towns to transport the sovereign's grain to Arkhangel'sk, the Lower Volga towns, and to Siberia, in their own boats and with their own employees: collect the seal fees from those contractors.

68. If servicemen who are ordered to serve in the Siberian towns as commanders, or centurions, or atamans of the cossacks bring the sovereign's documents to the Seal Chancellery from the Siberian Chancellery: collect the sovereign's fees from those people for those documents as legislated for senior officials of the felony control administration and fortifications officials because they are sending them [to Siberia] in response to their petitions, and not by compulsion.

69. If the sovereign's documents are carried from the Military Chancellery to the Seal Chancellery, and those royal documents are written in response to a petition of deti boiarskie for initiation into service, about compensation, or [concerning] the town in which one is supposed to serve: collect the seal fees for those royal sealed documents at the rate of .25 ruble per person.

70. If the sovereign's grant charters are issued to stewards[2] and striapchie of the tsar's domains [in which] they are ordered to administer court rural districts and settlements with villages, and small villages, and hamlets in Moscow province and in the provincial towns for an annual cash salary: collect the seal fees of 2.50 rubles each in the Seal Chancellery from those charters. Seal those charters with the sovereign's great seal in red wax.

71. If the sovereign's grant charters for the protection of lands and people are issued in the provincial towns to townsmen, and rural district peasants, and postal drivers: seal those charters in the Seal Chancellery with the sovereign's great seal in red wax. Collect the seal fees from those charters at the rate of 2.50 rubles each per charter.

[1] See such a charter granted on December 4, 1679, to Mikhail Gur'ev, member of the first merchant corporation, [Polnoe sobranie zakonov rossiiskoi imperii (Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire), II, No. 782, pp. 221-24 [Translator.]

[2] See such a charter granted on May 8, 1654, to Boiarin Buturlin for the honorary position of court major domo on the road. [Polnoe sobranie zakonov rossiiskoi imperii (Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire), I, No. 125, pp. 338-40. Translator.]