These apparently random laws probably had the princes’ immediate entourages in mind, and some may have reflected cases that their judges had decided. But there is no evidence that the princes distributed their laws widely or that any administrator applied them among the general population. Their officials collected tithes and raised taxes, but they exercised little administrative control over farming, herding, family relations, or artisanal activities in the towns and villages. The laws symbolized, rather than directly implemented, the authority of the Rurikid princes.
