Economic notes of general land surveying as the source on the serf-ownership in Russia of the second half of the 18th century (on the example of Tula province)

Works on a land surveying of the Tula lands were started in spring of 1776 and finished in 1780. In the course of a land surveying, unique statistical material on the amount of land tenure, number of the population, development of the industry, agriculture and crafts was collected. These data were generalized in the Economic notes (EN). Information opportunities of the Economic notes of the General land surveying as a source on social and economic history are demonstrated in article. The Economic notes have been actively used by Russian historians. However, its information opportunities are not exhausted yet. They are a valuable source, which is difficult to work with due to its voluminosity and the diversity of the included data. On the material of the Economic notes of the General land surveying, features of noble serf-ownership in the second half of the 18th century were analyzed in six counties of the Tula province (Yepifan, Tula, Efremovsky, Aleksinsky, Venevsky, and Novosilsky). The author concludes that there is unequal information value of the historical source. The most total characteristics of the sizes of noble serf-ownership were received from the EN of the Tula, Venyovsky and Yepifan counties. The sources used by the author suggest that the Tula province was characterized by the predominance of gentry, as well as by high concentration of serfs in the hands of middle and big landowners.