The chief sources of revenue are taxes on realty, personalty and corporations, a poll-tax, and licences.
Of the elected members 3 are returned by the " black " clergy (the monks), 3 by the " white " clergy (seculars), 5 18 by the corporations of nobles, 6 by the academy of sciences and the universities, 6 by the chambers of commerce, 6 by the industrial councils, 34 by the governments having zemstvos, 16 by those having no zemstvos, and 6 by Poland.
As a rule, the making of rates was left to the corporations.
The efforts (1712-1721) to foster colonization and commerce through trading corporations established by Antoine Crozat and John Law failed, and the colony soon came again under the direct control of the king.
The danger of loss from forest fires, such as that of 1894, emphasized the necessity of forest preservation, and resulted (1895) in the creation of a special state department with a forest commissioner and five wardens with power to enforce upon corporations and individuals a strict observance of the forestry laws, the good effects of the law being evidenced by the fact that the fire losses in forest lands for the first twelve years of its operation averaged only $31,000 a year.
