The Moscow uprising of 1648 (Russian: Соляной бунт, Московское восстание 1648), sometimes known as the salt riot, started because of the government's replacement of different taxes with a universal salt tax for the purpose of replenishing the state treasury after the Time of Troubles. This drove up the price of salt, leading to violent riots in the streets of Moscow. The riot was an early challenge to the reign of Alexei I, eventually resulting in the exile of Alexei's advisor Boris Morozov. Background The taxes fell mostly onto artisans and serfs who were unable to pay the increased price. Furthermore, many townsmen and boyars developed ways to evade taxation, thus placing an even higher burden on those less able to cheat the system. This created resentment among the townspeople, expediting their desire for tax reform. The addition of the salt tax, which increased the price of salt, hit hardest of all because salted fish was an important part of the Russian diet at the time. A second major complaint came from the poorer landed boyars who wanted to reclaim escaped serfs. Serfs fled their estates due to cruelty from their masters, but more frequently because of bad soil. In the Northern reaches of the kingdom, the ground stayed frozen for most of the year leading to weaker yields when compared to fields on Southern estates. Richer boyars enticed agriculturally minded peasants off of the small estates with the promise of better soil and stronger crops. Boyar livelihood and land holding status depended almost entirely on the productivity of their land. When laborers left, productivity invariably dropped, threatening the landed status of the boyar and leading to discontent among the elite. Before the uprising, a statute of limitations constricted the amount of time boyars had to reclaim "lost souls." The lesser boyars wanted this policy rescinded so that they could reclaim serfs at any point, thus securing their landed status. The riot solidified serfdom in Russia by lifting the repatriation time limit, binding serfs to an estate with more permanence. Besides taxation, Muscovites were fed up with widespread corruption at the local scale. The worst offender was Levontii Stephanovich Pleshcheyev, the governor of Moscow. In their petition, the people claimed, "...that from him the taxpaying community suffered heavy taxes and they were groundlessly charged with all sorts of robberies and thefts of his, Levontii's, instruction." Among the Tsar's advisors, Boris Morozov,