The number of chancelleries themselves grew in the seventeenth century as well. In the ten years following the accession of Michael, the number rose from around 35 to around 50; thereafter, the number varied between 45 and 59.48 These figures are, however, misleading on a number of counts. First, most chancelleries were quite short-lived, reflecting the fact that they were often created on an ad hoc basis to fulfil a specific mission (for example, the collection of a tax, or the investigation of a particular affair). Only the largest chancelleries administering the most central functions - the Military Service, Service Land, the Ambassadorial and so on - operated continuously throughout the century.
Though the chancelleries were not officially arranged in any 'organisational chart', we can gauge their administrative scope by placing them in functional categories (see Figure 19.5: Numbers and type of chancelleries per decade, i6i0s-i690s).49 What is most apparent in Figure 19.5 is the concentration on military and foreign affairs - the prikazy were primarily instruments of war- making. Most of them were either directly engaged in provisioning the army (the military chancelleries, and we should include the Service Land Chancellery here as well) or funding the army (the financial chancelleries). Though
44 Kotosixin, O Rossii, fo. 37v.
45 Demidova, Sluzhilaia biurokratiia, p. 23.
46 Kotosixin, O Rossii, fos. 33ff.
47 See Poe, The Russian Elite in the Seventeenth Century, vol. 11, p. 35.
48 On all that follows concerning the prikazy, see Brown, 'Early Modern Russian Bureaucracy' and his 'Muscovite Government Bureaus'.
49 Peter B. Brown, 'Bureaucratic Administration in Seventeenth-Century Russia', inJ. Koti- laine and M. Poe (eds.), Modernizing Muscovy: Reform and Social Change in Seventeenth- Century Russia (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), p. 66. Sub-headings such as 'Manpower mobilisation' indicate areas of competence, and the numbers do not add up to the sub-totals above them.
| i6i0s i620s i630s i640s i650s i660s i670s i680s i690s | |||||||||
| CHANCELLERIES OF THE REALM | 44 | 50 | 48 | 47 | 50 | 54 | 51 | 40 | 46 |
| MILITARY AFFAIRS | i2 | 9 | i7 | i5 | i5 | i7 | i5 | ii | i5 |
| • Manpower | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| mobilisation | |||||||||
| • Weapons production | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| • Fortification | i | i | 2 | 2 | i | i | i | i | i |
| • Finance and supply | 4 | i | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| • Prisoner of war | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | i | 0 | 0 |
| redemption | |||||||||
| • Military administration | 2 | i | i | i | i | 2 | i | i | 2 |
| FINANCE | i2 | i2 | i0 | ii | ii | i2 | i2 | 9 | ii |
| • Taxation | ii | ii | ii | ii | ii | ii | ii | 9 | i0 |
| • Treasuries | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| • Minting | i | i | 0 | 0 | i | 2 | i | 0 | 0 |
| • Mining | 0 | 0 | 0 | i | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | i |
| SERVICE LAND | i | i | i | i | i | i | i | i | i |
| FELONY PROSECUTION | i | i | i | i | i | i | i | 2 | i |
| FOREIGN AND | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| COLONIAL AFFAIRS | |||||||||