was done away with. The natives were then classified according to their economic position, and tributes were lowered and levied in kind on these different classes of natives according to their different mode of life and occupation. On those that settled and took to partial cultivation a tax of eleven roubles per family, equal to that of the Russian peasants, was levied. Each individual was now made responsible for his tax and the responsibility of the tribal chief was abolished. But although the tribal system was not recognized for purposes of taxation, it was retained, and was used and recognized by the Russian Government as an agent of local administration for all purely native affairs. As shown in a previous chapter, the native divisions are only the old tribal divisions, which are now incorporated into the volosts and administrative divisions of the Russian communal colonies in Siberia. These native communes indeed are placed on an equal footing along with their Russian neighbours. So the old tribal system in Siberia became modified to suit the new economic conditions of the country, the use of money and a rise in the standard of living being influential factors in the change.
But as time went on the Russians unwittingly exercised upon the natives another form of oppression.
During the nineteenth century there was much ruthless economic exploitation, as there is in every country (the British Empire not excepted) where the natives are the smaller and weaker fraction. Ignorant and unsophisticated, they were ruthlessly swindled; their furs were extracted from them for nothing, or were given in exchange for a brick of inferior tea. The spirit curse began to appear and
