Why does Chichikov buy dead serfs in Dead Souls?

In the novel Dead Souls by Nikolay Gogol, the protagonist Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov engages in a fraudulent scheme to acquire wealth by purchasing deceased serfs, who were referred to as "souls" in Russia.12

Under the serfdom system of the time, landowners were required to pay taxes on their serfs based on the most recent census rolls, even if those individuals had since died. Chichikov approached various landowners and offered to buy these "dead souls," effectively relieving the owners of the tax burden associated with them.12

Chichikov’s ultimate goal was to use these fictitious assets as collateral to secure a mortgage from a bank. By obtaining these funds, he intended to establish himself as a respectable, wealthy gentleman in a distant region. The scheme highlights the bureaucratic iniquities and the dehumanizing nature of a society where human beings were treated as property that could be bought and sold like cattle.12