Information from economic notes to general land survey about urban lands (Vladimir province case)

The history of cities is one of the trends in Russian historiography, which is actively developing now. Much attention is paid to the management of history, culture and everyday life of Russian cities in XVIII -XIX centuries. Much less research is devoted to the problem of economic development of the Russian cities of that era. Economic notes to the General Land Survey is one of the sources, which describes in detail this aspect of life of the Russian city. They contain the most important information about the population of the city, suburban land, trade and industry. The first results of the analysis of this source are shown in this article on the example of Vladimir province. Research has shown that a small city with a population of less than 2,000 people prevailed in the Vladimir province, with a population of the yard of 7 persons. Significant lands, including dozens of rural settlements could be attached to these cities, and the total area of suburban land could reach 2030 thousand acres. The structure of urban land would be various, arable land, meadows, forests could prevail. Area of these lands could be significant. For example, even in those cities that did not have attached populated villas, the average arable land per yard could reach 2-4 acres. In view of this significant agricultural component the economy of cities of Vladimir province had multiform character in the second half of the XVIII century.