The principal object of the proposed enactment was to slam the doors to the Russian interior, which had been slightly opened by the laws of 1859 and 1865, by withdrawing the privilege of residing outside the Pale which these laws had conferred upon Jewish first guild merchants and artisans, subject to a number of onerous conditions.
The first object of the reactionary conspirators was to get rid of those "privileged" Jews who lived in the two Russian capitals.

In St.
Petersburg this object was to be attained by the edicts of Gresser, referred to previously, which were followed by other similarly harassing regulations.

In February, 1891, the governor of St.Petersburg ordered the police "to examine the kind of trade" pursued by the Jewish artisans of St.Petersburg, with the end in view of expelling from the city and confiscating the goods of all those who should be caught with articles not manufactured by themselves [1].

A large number of expulsion followed upon this order.

The principal blow, however, was to fall in Moscow.
[Footnote 1: See above, p.