The Sobornoe Ulozhenie () was a legal code promulgated in 1649 by the Zemsky Sobor under Alexis of Russia as a replacement for the Sudebnik of 1550 introduced by Ivan IV of Russia. The code survived well into the 19th century (up to 1832), when its articles were revised under the direction of Mikhail Speransky. The code consolidated Russia's slaves and free peasants into a new serf class and pronounced class hereditary as unchangeable (see Russian serfdom). The new code prohibited travel between towns without an internal passport. Russian nobility agreed to serve in the army, but were granted the exclusive privilege of owning serfs. The law code conceded many demands that were raised in the preceding decades, it satisfied the nobility's demand to retrieve runaway serfs without a time-limit, and which allowed the 'serf bondage to the soil' to later evolve into a far more comprehensive serfdom system in the 18th century. Further, the code also forbade boyars in accepting taxpayers as bondsmen. It attacked the influence of the clergy by refusing them to accept landed estates and reduced the competence of the ecclesiastical courts. The causes of promulgation As the Time of Troubles ended, a new dynastic government, the Romanovs, commenced active law-making. An intensive growth in the number of edicts ("ukases") since the Sudebnik of 1550 can be seen from the following data: In the period of 1550-1610 only 100 edicts were issued, but in the years 1611-1648 the number of edicts was 348. In total there were 448 edicts. This led to the situation in the Russian state that many edicts were not only obsolete, but sometimes contradicted each other. This chaos was contributed to by the scattering of normative acts throughout different state institutes (traditionally new edicts were made on demand of some prikaz, and after their promulgation were attached to an edict book of this prikaz). There was also an absence of coordination in law application: a new article in this book was often known only to the statesmen of the given prikaz. Also, the casual character of legal rules was becoming inefficient. The legislators now sought to regulate legal rules, that is, to pass on to a normative interpretation of legal rules. The Salt Riot, which broke out in Moscow in 1648, also contributed to the promulgation of the Sobornoe Ulozhenie, one of the demands of the rioters being to call the Zemsky