Serfs

Serfs.

***

Having compiled the register, Chichikov decided that the number of serfs was not enough to be listed as a nobleman and become an approximate of the imperial court.

- Isn't Petrushka your uncle from Little Russia?

- Yes, sir, from Poltava.

- Is it possible to purchase serf souls in Little Russian towns and farms?

- There is no Little Russian who would not try to sell something, they will sell each other, and even more so serfs.

- Then punish Selifan to set up a troika and we will go to acquire serfs from Ukrainians.

When we got to Kharkov, we stopped at the estate of the nobleman Petrov. Petrov and the serfs were in the arable land in the morning, and by evening they met Chichikov.

- Who are you? And what they came with, if you buy wheat, then only in autumn.

- Purchase another one.

- What else, a serf or a serf?

- Serfs.

- They are not for sale, these serfs are arable, for arable land.

- No, my dear, the budget will not allow you to keep these serfs, other serfs are necessary to replenish the register in order to increase the noble status in St. Petersburg.

- And which serfs did you decide to purchase then?

- Who were wounded in this manor.

- They've been around for a couple of centuries, which ones exactly?

- Yes, all of them, from and to.

- There were thirty thousand of them. And why would you buy a gentleman to record these names in the registry?

- I bought a soul from other nobles for five or seven kopecks, but since I went broke, I can buy it for a third of a kopeck.

- A little, a little, but a ruble is never superfluous.

Chichikov acquired another thirty thousand serfs.

- Do not tell me so to find a couple more places where you can also buy at least half a hundred thousand more serfs of the same.

- In Kharkov, the scammers are alone and they are unlikely to give away a penny for a third. But I will advise Frolyuk's twin brother in Poltava, he has even more serfs in the register, but you cannot bribe him with a penny, he does not accept your St. Petersburg coins, buy a couple of dozen cows from his twin Sidorenko, half a hundred geese and the register will give.

Chichikov went to Poltava with Petrushka and Selifan. We bought cows and geese from Sidorenko. The landowner Frolyuk was found at the mill.

- What did the lads with centurion Sidorenko come with?

- Petrenko advised to buy cows and geese from centurion Sidorenko in order to exchange them for the register of serfs.

- The current serfs?

- No, they were once listed here.

- There are just names and surnames, without any dates.

- But under the signatures of their ownership, and rewrite what Chichikov owns them?

- Of course. Let's rewrite it.

The bill of sale took place. Chichikov acquired almost one hundred thousand serfs. Chichikov is no longer a minor nobleman.

- Yes, Petrushka, and you're right, these Ukrainians, not like the Muscovite nobles, are as simple as two felt boots, you give them cows and geese, they give you a registry, you give them a third of a penny, they are a registry.

- Yes, nobleman, these are simpler, here they will give a serf for half a penny, and for a couple of geese.

- Little Russia is the outskirts of Russia, and the people of Little Russia are not the same as in St. Petersburg.