Tribute or Else
The Mongols coveted wealth, and lands that submitted to them had to pay tribute, including supplying people for slavery. At first, the Mongols sent officials, called Baskaki by the Russians, from a Turkic word (Darugachi in Mongol), to gather tribute. Later, they allowed the lands' local rulers to collect the tribute from them. In either period, failure or refusal to pay tribute resulted in punishing raids, where Mongol or Tatar armies would attack, loot the country, burn cities, and take people to sell as slaves. Eventually, the Russians freed themselves from tribute, but Tatar raids continued for a long time afterwards.