Система збору данини до правління Святослава Ігоровича

This article deals with the origin and development of the system of collecting tribute in Kievan Rus’ before the reign of Sviatoslav Igorevich. We analyzed some Arab sources in which we obtained data on the tax system of Rus’ and Slavs before the arrival of Rurik.We found that the Rus’ and the Slavs had essential¬ly different systems of tribute collection. If the Russ tax system was based on interest deductions in favor of the hakan and depended directly on profits, robbery and trade, the Slavs revenues to the king’s treasury depended on the amount of food produced, which, in turn, affected the number of families.The next stage of our study was the period of creation of tax collection global system, which the Byzantine em¬peror Constantine the Bagrianorodnyi called “polyudya”. An analysis of chronicle sources indicated that the system began to take shape after Oleg had taken over Kyiv. We came to the conclusion that the Khazar model was mostly based on the system of paying tribute.We’ve found that individual and family taxation is replaced by a unit tax. The chronicles indicate that from the very beginning of the formation of the tribute system,payments were fixed and could change only after attempts at uprisings by the tributaries. It should be noted that the people prompted the princely power to look for profitable and large centers for the sale of raw materials. According to these criteria, Byzantium became such a center.We found out that the dependence of the human sys¬tem on the Byzantine markets led to a financial catastro¬phe during the reign of Igor Rurikovich. It is just the catastrophe, in our opinion, that caused the crisis in the tax system. We believe that it was the lack of funds in the treasury of the Rus Prince due to the economic blockade of Byzantium and led to the fact that the tribute relations with the Drevlians were broken.In our study, we came to the conclusion that the ac¬tions of Princess Olga were not aimed at establishing a new system of tax collection, but to launch the old one, which was destroyed by Igor Rurikovich.