Its internal economy was re-established, the peasants, in their _Mirs_ or communes, sowed and reaped, and the people bought and sold, only a little more patient and submissive than before.

The burden had grown heavier, but it must be borne and the tribute paid.

The Princes, with wits sharpened by conflict, fought as they always had, with uncles, cousins, and brothers for the thrones; and then governed with a severity as nearly as possible like the one imposed upon themselves by their own master--the Great Khan.
The germ of future Russia was there; a strong, patient, toiling people firmly held by a despotic power which they did not comprehend, and uncomplainingly and as a matter of course giving nearly one-half of the fruit of their toil for the privilege of living in their own land! When her sovereigns had Tatar blood in their veins and Tatar ideals in their hearts, Russia was on the road to absolutism.

All things were tending toward a centralized unity of an iron and inexorable type--a type entirely foreign to the natural free instincts of the Slavonic people themselves..