: The landowners get a tax break, and Chichikov plans to take his massive list of paper serfs to a bank, mortgage them as if they are living property, and buy himself a real estate empire. 🎭 A Gallery of Grotesques
: Because censuses were conducted years apart, landowners kept paying taxes on serfs who had died in the interim. Dead Souls
: Landowners had to pay taxes on their male serfs (referred to officially as "souls") based on the latest census. : The landowners get a tax break, and
