GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCES 251ness. But as they were open to bribery and corruption (which Treskin
himself apparently was not), the administration's ordinances became a
source of further oppression and exploitation of the population without
the benefit of the policy ever manifesting itself. Those who could not
buy themselves off, had to face persecution, expulsion, banishment, etc.
Paternalistic police control was the order of the day; only the accidents
of personalities determined the extent of its tyranny and hard-
ship.
While the smaller people, the peasants and natives, often welcomed
the new regime as it meant relief from the pressure of the merchants, the
latter protested. They correctly saw in Treskin's policy a threat to their
economic position and a challenge to their growing social and civic im-
portance. But they were not, as yet, in a position to oppose Pestel
and Treskin effectively. The governors were able to prevent their form-
ing a united front by playing off one monopoly interest against the
other, enlisting the help of the less prosperous against the big tycoons.
The latter we~e isolated as a group. Some individuals tried to raise
their voices in protest. But Treskin's counter-attack was swift and ruth-
lessly effective. Some of the most prominent merchants were arbitrarily
exiled to remote parts of Siberia where they ended their days. Others
were ruined by long and costly law suits, numerous fines, and onerous
services which the administration imposed on them. The ruthless ar-
bitrariness of these persecutions was in the "old" Siberian tradition.
This time, however, it was not taken with the same fatalistic submission
as in the past. Eventually, some merchants worked up enough courage
and delegated someone to present their grievances to Alexander I. The
envoy reached St. Petersburg (by a circuitous route to elude Treskin's
agents) and through him the central government learned something of
the extent of the abuses, exactions, and terror visited by Pestel and
Treskin on Siberia.
Alexander I and his ministers were ready to act favorably on the
complaints of the merchants and "crack down" on Treskin and Pes tel,
because by this time opposition to the Siberian administration had
found powerful support in the Ministry of Finance. Indeed, while they
welcomed Pesters and Treskin's aim of fostering free trade and free
competition, the agents of the Ministry of Finance could not approve
of the administration's purchases of grain and supplies at prices higher
than it had paid in the past or that prevailed in the open market. Fur-
thermore, the fiscal authorities, who followed Adam Smith rather than
the physiocrats, felt that the government should abstain as much as
possible from directing the economy. The Ministry of Finance was