The opening to the West promoted by Peter the Great, including the plan to attract foreigners to Russia, has inevitably created pressure from indigenous landowners to limit their land rights. Under these conditions, during the 18th century, the Russian legislator substantially restricted the right of foreigners, who did not accept to become Russian subjects, to enter into possession or ownership of the lands outside the cities. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, in the context of an expansive foreign policy, the development of newly acquired territories becomes an important argument for revising of these limitations. Thus, on the proposal of the Minister of the Interior, on March 1, 1804 foreign subjects were allowed to buy land in gubernias of New Russia, stating that when they were to leave the boundaries of the Russian Empire, they and their descendants were to sell their land properties to Russian subjects, otherwise the lands were passed free of charge to state ownership. Logically, after the annexation of the territory of the Prut and the Dniester to the Russian Empire in 1812, these privileges were to be extended to the newly established province, inappropriately called Bessarabia. In this article we analyze this question. Based on the research of the original sources and of the monographic literature, we can conclude that during the period between the annexation of Bessarabia to the Russian Empire in 1812 and until 1860, when the Russian legislator completely changed the approach to the problem in question, the province and the gubernias of New Russia, benefited from a special status with respect to the properties and land affairs of foreign subjects. This special status represented a concession given to the indigenous people, who were unintentionally affected by the assignation of the new border, but from which, however, also benefited persons outside of the historical Moldavia. It is true that their involvement in the lease of various land properties contributed to the development of capitalist relations in the provincial agrarian sector. However, the benefit to the process of local capital accumulation is at least ques-tionable, most of the obtained revenues being taken out of Bessarabia.