Russia in the 17th century Economic development

Trade has acquired greater proportions than in the past. Several large shopping centers (“regional markets”) were formed, among which Moscow stood out with its huge trade in 120 specialized rows, which became the main shopping center countries.
In the north of the country, the centers of grain trade were Vologda and Ustyug Veliky. Flax and hemp were sold mainly in Novgorod, Pskov, Tikhvin, Smolensk; leather, meat, lard - in Kazan, Vologda, Yaroslavl; the salt came from Solikamsk. Large fur trades took place in Solvychegodsk, at the Makaryevskaya and Irbitskaya fairs. The latter, along with the Arkhangelsk and Svensk fairs (near Bryansk), were acquired in the 17th century. All-Russian significance. Iron items were sold in Tula, Ustyuzhna Zhelezopolskaya, Tikhvin. The customs statute of 1653, which replaced small fees with a single duty of 5% of the money received by the seller and 2.5% of the money paid by the buyer, facilitated the development of domestic trade.

The beginning of a new period of Russian history

V.I. Lenin contrasted the “Middle Ages”, the “era of the Muscovite kingdom” with its characteristic “living traces of the former autonomy” to a new period of Russian history (from about the 17th century), which was characterized by “a truly actual merger of all ... areas, lands and principalities into one whole. This merger was caused by... increasing exchange between regions, gradually growing commodity circulation, and the concentration of small local markets into one all-Russian market. Since the leaders and masters of this process were capitalist merchants, the creation of these national ties was nothing more than the creation of bourgeois ties” 1 .
Thus, a new period of Russian history only begins around the 17th century, and it ends in post-reform times, after the abolition of serfdom. V.I. Lenin emphasized: “The degree of development of the domestic market is the degree of development of capitalism in the country. It is wrong to raise the question of the limits of the internal market separately from the question of the degree of development of capitalism (as populist economists do)” 2 . Therefore, if in the 17th century. there was a national market, this would mean that capitalism existed in Russia at that time. In fact, in the 17th century. In Russia, serfdom triumphed and developed, and the process of formation of bourgeois relations was just beginning.
Merchants and the formation of bourgeois ties The position of V.I. Lenin that “the leaders and masters of this process were capitalist merchants” is very important. It was in the development of trade and merchants that Lenin saw the germ of new bourgeois ties. But the development of the merchant class was greatly hampered by the lack of access to the seas and the dominance of foreign commercial capital in the country. English, French, and Dutch trading capital sought to capture the domestic markets of Russia. The government, in need of money, sold for large amounts monopoly trade right foreign companies in the domestic markets of Russia. On the English side, this trade was carried out by the same East India Company that enslaved India. The export of goods from Russia and the import into it was concentrated in the hands of first English and then Dutch merchants. Up to 100 ships a year came to Arkhangelsk. They brought cloth, silk, paper, metals, glass, wine, jewelry, and exported timber, leather, meat, caviar, hemp, flax, wax, bristles, canvas, resin, tar, lard and other products Agriculture and crafts. Bread was almost never exported abroad.
Along the Volga there were goods from the countries of the East, from where silks, jewelry, carpets, and wool were brought; products of Russian handicraft were exported there, as well as Western European goods arriving in Russia.
The Russian merchants persistently demanded that the government protect them from arbitrariness on the part of foreign merchants. In 1667, a new trade charter drawn up by A.L. Ordin-Nashchokin was adopted, according to which foreign merchants were prohibited from conducting retail trade within the Russian state. But in addition to foreign merchants, Russian trading people were no less hampered by the sovereign's treasury, which unceremoniously took away their capital and forced rich trading people to answer with their own funds for fulfilling duties forcibly assigned by the state to supply various products and materials. The government took many goods profitable for trade into the treasury and made trade in them its monopoly. To provide public services The government united merchants into corporations of “guests”, into the “living hundred” and “cloth hundred”. “Guests” had special privileges - the right to travel abroad and have fiefs, to sue in the order of the Great Treasury, and not with local rulers. Members of other corporations did not have the right to travel abroad, but they could purchase land. In the 17th century The large merchants, as before, became close to the feudal lords, although they owned large capitals - 100 thousand rubles or more. Nevertheless, merchants willingly acquired lands and fishing grounds, seeing in them the most reliable basis for their well-being - such was the impact of the dominant and strengthening serfdom on the emerging elements that were early bourgeois in nature.

Cities

In the 17th century Based on the growth of trade and commodity production, Russian cities are becoming more developed than before. There were already 226 cities in Russia, excluding Ukraine and Siberia, but a sharp distinction remained between the few large cities and the majority of small cities. The concentration of the mass of people in the capital, Moscow, which far exceeded all other cities, even large ones at that time, was generated not only by the growth of trade and craft, but also by the growth of the government apparatus and the population serving it, as well as by the growth of the possessions of secular and spiritual feudal lords. This separation of the capital city from the mass of other cities is characteristic of the entire feudal era, and it especially intensified during the period of late feudalism.
About 200 thousand people lived in Moscow. A small group of cities had a population of several tens of thousands of people (Yaroslavl, Novgorod, Kostroma, Vologda,
Pskov and others). The northern cities of Totma became significant centers. Ustyug Veliky and others. In most cities, the townspeople population was relatively small. The cities on the outskirts were mainly fortresses inhabited by military and service people. In Tomsk, 74% of the population were service people. In Voronezh in 1646 there were 1200 people. service people and 513 townspeople. A significant part of urban residents still did not break away from agricultural and fishing activities.
From many cities the population escaped from the burden of duties and taxes. In Shuya in 1631 there were only 40 townspeople left.
The level of urban development in the country as a whole was low. In a few developed cities, significant specific gravity represented the craft and trading population. The posad community was subject to internal stratification and was officially divided into “best”, “average” and “young” people, in accordance with the size of their property and ability to pay.
In Moscow, according to data from 1634, 45% of the population of black settlement settlements owned property valued at up to 5 rubles, 45% - from 5 to 50 rubles, 4% - from 50 to 100 rubles, 2% - up to 250 rubles . and about 2% - over 250 rubles.
A significant part of the city territory was still occupied by “white settlements”, belonging to various owners, mainly church-monasteries, the patriarch and some secular ones. “White settlements” were freed from bearing the townsman's tax and therefore attracted townspeople exhausted by heavy duties. The flight of the townsfolk population to the “white settlements” weakened the townsfolk communities and further worsened their situation. Posad people during the first half of the 16th century. demanded the liquidation of the “white settlements”. These aspirations coincided with the interests of the government, for which it was important to undermine the economic power of the feudal nobility, which relied heavily on the urban population.

Posad reform of 1649

By the cathedral code of 1649, adopted after the city uprisings, the “white settlements” were liquidated, and the mass of the city’s craft and trade population was concentrated in the sovereign’s settlement. The state sought to put the growth of crafts, the development of trade, and the accumulation of capital at the service of its interests. Posad people received the right to monopoly trade in cities. Peasants were forbidden to keep trading shops in cities; they could only trade from carts. Streltsy and Cossacks engaged in trade had to pay customs duties and rent from shops. The Code ordered that all townsmen who went to the whitewashed lands should be returned to the towns as taxers “without flight and irrevocably.” The elimination of white land ownership in the cities meant not only a concession to the demands of the townspeople, but also dealt a serious blow to the privileges of the feudal aristocracy and abolished another of the essential remnants of feudal fragmentation. Finding themselves on the sovereign's tax land, the population of the former white settlements began to be subjected to the same heavy oppression from the state as the black tax townspeople. Considering the posad primarily as a source of income for the state treasury, the government established harsh measures against the exit of the posad people from taxation. Only the third son of a townsman could get out of taxation by becoming a streltsy. With the whip and Siberia, the government frightened the fleeing townspeople who preferred serfdom to their hard “freedom.”
Having united all the townspeople's lands under the authority of the feudal state, the government received great opportunities to put pressure on the townspeople and keep them in obedience. The decree of February 8, 1658 provided for the death penalty for unauthorized movement from one posad to another and even for marriage outside the posad. General serfdom tendency Cathedral Code fully extended to the XIX chapter about cities, which were one of the main sources of replenishment of the state treasury.

1 V. I. Lenin. Full collection cit., vol. 1, pp. 153-154.
2 V. I. Lenin. Full collection soch., vol. 3, p. 60.

B.A. Rybakov - “History of the USSR from ancient times to the end of the 18th century.” - M., “ graduate School", 1975.

B. Industry and manufacture. New phenomena in the country's economy

1. In the 17th century. new processes begin in the economic development of the country:

> firstly, large patrimonial farms, monasteries, artisans are increasingly drawn into market relations, and prerequisites arise for the creation all-Russian market;

> secondly, manufactories arise;

> thirdly, everything most of artisans produce products for the market;

> fourthly, a hired labor market is being formed.

2. Home crafts are becoming widespread. Peasants produce cloth, ropes, ropes, clothes, bast shoes, etc. These goods go to the market through buyers. Peasants completely or partially break with agriculture. Commercial and industrial villages appear. There is a tendency to transform crafts into small-scale production.

3. Commodity specialization of individual regions is outlined. Metal production took place south of Moscow - Serpukhov, Kashira, Tula. Iron was distributed throughout the country, the treasury placed large orders of cannons, cannonballs, and barrels. In the regions of Ustyug and Tikhvin, plows, shovels, hoes, nails, and frying pans were produced for the buyer.

4. Rope factories were founded in Nizhny Novgorod and Vologda, salt pans were founded in the North and Volga region, and a shipyard was built in Dedinovo.

5. In the middle of the 17th century. Manufactories appeared in Russia - large enterprises based on the division of labor, mostly manual, with the participation of hired workers. 30 manufactories emerged. Manufactories were divided into:

> state-owned - belonged to the state, carried out its orders, state peasants worked for them, as well as peasants assigned to factories (assigned). Famous manufactories are the Cannon Yard, the Armory, the Gold and Silver Chambers, the Velvet Yard;

> merchant - belonged to rich merchants; peasants and foreign craftsmen bought for the factories worked for them; the products went to market. These are rope yards in Vologda, Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk, metallurgical plants in the Urals, fisheries in Astrakhan;

> patrimonial - belonged to large boyars, serfs worked for them, produced flax, hemp, canvas, etc.

Russian manufactories were based primarily on serf labor, but hired labor already played a noticeable role.

1. In the 17th century. There have been changes in the area of trade. The government abolished small levies and introduced a single duty. Small artisans and poor merchants gave their goods to large merchants, who transported them in batches over considerable distances. Merchant convoys connected remote areas of the country with each other. The economic life of one region begins to depend on the presence of trade relations with another region of Russia.

2. Certain areas specialize in the production of certain goods. For example, Astrakhan exported caviar, fish, and salt; Novgorod, Kostroma and Yaroslavl - linen, canvas and leather; Kazan - leather and lard; Siberia - furs. Moscow became the center of market relations; trade in 120 types of goods was carried out here.

3. Large fairs arise, which attract merchants from different places. Fairs played a major role in the development of trade: Makaryevskaya (Nizhny Novgorod), Svenskaya (Bryansk), Irbitskaya ( Western Siberia), Solvychegodskaya.

Thus, at the end of the 17th century. the prerequisites are emerging for the creation of a nationwide market.

4. Russia’s foreign trade relations are also developing. Trade with England, Holland, Persia, Bukhara, and China is growing. The main point in trading with Western Europe there was Arkhangelsk, it accounted for 75% of foreign trade turnover; in trade with the East - Astrakhan. Russia did not have its own merchant fleet, so many goods were bought by foreign merchants at cheap prices. Timber, honey, resin, tar, lard, caviar, meat, and bread were exported from Russia. Spices, wines, fine cloth, jewelry, and weapons were imported into Russia. Foreigners traded freely in our domestic market, competing with Russian merchants, speculating in Russian goods. It was necessary to protect the Russian market from the dominance of foreigners. In 1667, under pressure from Russian merchants, the New Trade Charter was adopted (author - A. A. Ordin-Nashchokin), according to which foreign merchants were prohibited retail on the territory of Russia, the import of certain types of goods into Russia was also prohibited.

The beginning of the formation of the all-Russian market. In the second half of the 17th century. The country's agricultural and fishing areas were clearly defined. The Center and North supplied rye and oats, the South - wheat. Certain areas specialized in vegetable and horticultural crops. Cattle breeding developed more actively in the meadows of Pomerania, the Middle Volga and Oka. Pomors, fishermen of the Lower Volga and Caspian Sea, supplied a significant part of Russia with fish. Red fish, sterlet, and caviar were brought from the south. Salt was brought from salt pans in the Lower Volga and Urals regions. Agricultural products were supplied to the northern and arid southern regions of the country. This contributed to the development of market relations in the country. It was in the market sphere that the bonds of serfdom were weakened and anti-serfdom tendencies appeared.

New phenomena also occurred in the industrial sphere.

The country needed industrial goods - tools, household items. The main figure in industrial production remained the rural and urban artisan. In villages and hamlets, peasants mostly produced basic necessities themselves: they wove cloth for clothing, sewed shoes, made dishes from wood and clay, made simple furniture, carts, and sleighs.

In connection with the development of new lands, the emergence of new villages, the growth of cities, and the increase in population, people's needs for these goods increased. Richer people looked for better quality goods.

Rural artisans sold their products - canvases, felted shoes, cloth - in cities hundreds of miles away from their place of residence. Entrepreneurs sometimes supplied peasants with raw materials and took finished products for sale throughout Russia.

Enterprises were born that resembled Western manufactories. To the south of Moscow, especially in the Tula region, metallurgical production was taking shape. A similar center appeared in the northeast - in Ustyuzhna Zheleznopolskaya, in Zaonezhye.

If in the first half of the 17th century. There were only a few manufacturing enterprises, but in the second half of the century they numbered in the dozens. These were state-owned manufactories that served the royal court and army, merchant enterprises in Moscow, Vologda, Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk, Tula and other cities in the Urals. Enterprising foreigners also organized manufactories in Russia with the support of the government. And yet the real dawn of Russian industry had not yet even begun.

In large-scale industry, mostly serf labor was used, in which the worker was not interested in the results of his work. The thoughts of quit-rent peasants-otkhodniks rushed to their native places. Free-wage labor was introduced slowly. There was no production experience, and ties with advanced industrial countries were weak. The population as a whole was at a low level of well-being. Manufactory products were in demand only from the state. The market for it in the country was narrow, and abroad it could not withstand the competition of Western goods.

Trade. Cities. Merchants

The general revival of the country's economy, the development of agriculture, handicraft production and manufacturing industry, the specialization of certain regions of the country in the production of various goods led to the formation of an all-Russian market. IN major cities and suburban settlements, in rural areas Numerous trades appeared, which were gradually connected with each other. In wholesale markets, it was possible to purchase large quantities of goods at low prices, and then sell them at retail. Specialized markets arose - grain, metal, salt, furs and leather.

With their energy and resourcefulness in promoting goods to the market, traders reflected the general upsurge in the country. A large boyar, who was organizing his house in a Western style, needed Venetian mirrors, a modest craftsman needed a plank to repair the roof. The market offered everything, the merchant was at the service of one and all. Trade showed the population the possibilities of a new life.

Moscow was the center of the country's trade relations. Dozens of Moscow streets and alleys had names associated with the production of handicrafts and trade.

Vasily Shorin, the Stroganov and Demidov brothers concentrated in their hands not only the sale of goods, but also their production - salt mining, fur fishing, iron ore development, and fishing. They owned large ships on the Volga, Oka and Kama. Hundreds of people - fishermen, loaders, barge haulers - worked for them. Well-armed troops guarded their property.

The liquidation in the mid-1650s was important for the development of trade. small customs duties. Instead, a single trade tax was introduced - 5% of the price of the goods. This greatly facilitated and streamlined trading operations.

In the mid-1660s. The Russian merchants obtained from the government an increase in trade duties on foreign traders. This protectionist (defensive) measure helped improve the position of Russian merchants in the markets.

And yet, Russia’s domestic and foreign trade developed slowly compared to European countries. Capital was limited and profits were small. The development of trade was slowed down by the lack of good roads, credit system, banks.

There were few manufacturing entrepreneurs from among the merchants. Basically, the trading network consisted of medium and small markets. This trade was unable to boost the Russian economy by more high level and become the basis for the development of its industry.

Estates

In the second half of the 17th century. little has changed in the class structure of Russian society. As before, the feudal lords remained the dominant class. From their midst, the highest administration of the country was formed - the Boyar Duma, leadership of orders, and governors were appointed. They played a leading role in the army and in the Zemsky Sobors.

But this class was not monolithic. Independence, tax and judicial benefits of large feudal property owners - boyars and princes - as they strengthened.

Silver XVII century. autocracies were declining. State power, on the one hand, generously allocated new lands to the feudal lords, strengthened their rights to own peasants, and on the other hand, at the request of the serving local nobility, gradually brought the estates closer to the estates. This led to the unification of the feudal class.

A special position was occupied by church feudal lords and feudal corporations - monasteries. It was a powerful economic and spiritual force that cemented Russian society and the royal power that overshadowed the cross and prayer. The strengthened state did not want to put up with the existence of the enormous land wealth of the Church, which also had judicial and tax benefits. These lands left the state fund, did not go to service people, and the benefits caused damage to the treasury. The Church, as before, laid claim to leading political roles, which conflicted with autocratic tendencies.

Due to the growth of cities, the number of townspeople - merchants, artisans and traders - increased significantly. Power in township communities belonged to wealthy people, who often used their position to shift duties and taxes onto the bulk of ordinary people. The Posad was thus disunited. After the adoption of the Code of 1649, serfdom swept through the noose of the tax-paying townspeople.

The peasant class was the most numerous and lacking in rights in Russia. Attached to the land were state, or black-sown, peasants, responsible for taxes and duties to the state, palace peasants who worked on the lands of the royal court, patriarchal, other church, as well as monastic peasants and, of course, privately owned peasants - patrimonial and landowner.

State peasants had the right to send their representatives to Zemsky Sobors, were personally free, paid taxes and performed duties only in favor of the state. Privately owned peasants were completely dependent on their masters, paid taxes and performed duties not only for the state, but also for the owner. Corvee (work on the land of the feudal lord) reached four days a week. The dues were paid in kind (products of one's own farming and crafts) and in money.

The serfs were supported by the owner. They did not pay taxes, but were completely subordinate to their owners. In pursuit of profits, many owners, especially nobles, transferred their slaves to the land, provided equipment and loans, and helped in establishing a personal household. These newly converted peasants worked in the master's fields and paid taxes, but at first they did not pay state taxes, because they were not included in the previous scribe books. In the 1670s. the state included them in the general peasant tax.

Estates and the development of market relations

Each class reacted to innovations in its own way. Money increasingly came to the fore. They made it possible to improve well-being and make life more comfortable, increased a person’s prestige in his class, and contributed to his self-affirmation.

The feudal class responded to the development of market relations with the desire to increase the profitability of their farms and support peasant farms, in order to have efficient workers and payers, improve the quality of soil cultivation, introduce more productive breeds of livestock, as well as strengthening the corvee system and increasing quitrents, the merciless search for runaway peasants, and endless requests to the government for new land grants.

The market also promised a lot to the peasants. Those who could, rented land and increased the scale of their farming, expanded rural industries, and went to the cities to earn money.

However, the aspirations of the peasantry, in the conditions of developing market relations, to improve their situation and show initiative rested, on the one hand, on serfdom, and on the other, on the lack of land.

More or less wealthy peasants, thanks to the presence of several male workers in the family, experience and hard work, developed their own farm. Feudal relations greatly hampered them, and the poor were brought to complete ruin.

The peasants evaded paying dues to owners and taxes to the state. The receipts and expenditure books of the managing feudal lords were full of notes about arrears - the debts of the peasants. Arrears became widespread, as did peasant petitions asking for benefits and help. Cases of peasants seizing proprietary and monastic lands became more frequent. Often it came to clashes with managers and authorities.

Peasants left their homes for the Don or Siberia, where they became free settlers. After the publication of the Code of 1649 and the announcement of an indefinite search for fugitives, the situation of this part of the population worsened sharply. Punitive detachments followed the fugitives, especially to the Don. The situation in these parts was heating up.

In the 17th century The role and importance of the merchants in the life of the country increased.

Great importance acquired the constantly gathering fairs: Ma-

Karsvskaya near Nizhny Novgorod, Svenskaya in the Bryansk region,

Irbitskaya in Siberia, a fair in Arkhangelsk, etc., where merchants

They conducted a large wholesale and retail trade at that time.

Along with the development of domestic trade, foreign trade also grew. Before

mid-century huge benefits from foreign trade extracted

foreign merchants who exported timber, furs, hemp, and potash from Russia

etc. Suffice it to say that the English fleet was built from

Russian forest, and the ropes for his ships were made from Russian

hemp. The center of Russian trade with Western Europe was Ar-

Khangelsk There were English and Dutch trading posts here.

ry. Close ties were established with the countries of the East through Astra-

Han, where the Indian and Persian trading courts were located.

The Russian government supported the growing merchant class.

In 1667, the New Trade Charter was issued, developing the provisions

of the Trade Charter of 1653. The new Trade Charter increased the

duties on foreign goods. Foreign merchants had the right

lead wholesale trade only in border shopping centers.

In the 17th century the exchange of goods between

distinct regions of the country, which indicated the beginning of the formation

all-Russian market. The merging of individual lands into a single one began

economic system. Growing economic ties strengthened

political unity of the country.

Social structure Russian society. The upper class

The main thing in the country was the boyars, whose environment included many

Chapter 102 11

Yumkov of former great and appanage princes. Near the boyar sops

families owned military ranks, served the king and held leadership positions

duei and in jusudarsmvs. By the end of the 17th century. boyars in increasingly yipa-

gained its power and became closer to the nobility.

The nobles constituted the upper layer of the government's service people

according to i count. They owned estates by inheritance law

in case of continuation of service by children after their birth. Nobles-

CIBO significantly strengthened its position at the end of Smukha and became

support of royal power. 3ioi layer of feudal lords included persons serving

those at the royal court (Smolniks, attorneys, Moscow nobles

and residents), as well as policemen, i. With. provincial nobles and de-

those boyars.

The lowest stratum of service people included service people

by device or set. It included archers, gunners, coachmen

kovs, serving Cossacks, government craftsmen, etc.

The rural Christian population consisted of two main

tsyuri. The peasants who lived on the lands of the i rank and estates were called

were proprietary or privately owned. They bore the burden

(set of duties) in favor of the government and its feudal lord. By-

the landowner received the right to speak in court for his peasants, he had

also the right of patrimonial court over the population of his estate. Gosu-

The Darsmvo reserved the right to trial only for the most serious

crimes. A place close to privately owned peasants

The peasants of the monastery were indifferent.

filthy peasantry. They lived on the outskirts of the country (Pomor-

North, Ural, Siberia, South), united into communities. Chernososh-

peasants had no right to leave their lands unless they found

Should I give myself a change? They contributed to the benefit of the state. Their position

it was easier than privately owned ones. "Black Lands" could be

sell, mortgage, inherit.

The middle position between black-mown and privately owned

the palace peasants who served the

economic privileges of the royal court. They had self-government

tion and obeyed the palace clerks.

The top of the Yurod population were merchants. The most god-

1 thousand of them (in Moscow in the 17th century there were approximately 30 people)

by royal command they were declared “guests”. Many wealthy

merchants united in two Moscow hundreds - “gost innoy”

and "cloth".

The bulk of the Yurod population were called townspeople

people. They united into one Yaglov community. The bourgeoisie in the city

dakh has not yet developed In many yurods of Russia among the residents

dominated by military officials and their families, and the decisive role in

osprey ZH1MNI shredded by large landowners.

Chapter 11 Socio-economic development in XVII in Russia after the Time of Troubles__________103

City artisans united professionally

zu of the state, they elected their elders and sogskys (black settlements).

In addition to them, in the cities there were white settlements that belonged to the boyars,

monasteries, bishops. These settlements were “whitewashed” (liberated)

from bearing city taxes in favor of the state.

Before Peter’s times, both in cities and in rural areas

There lived a significant number of slaves - serfs. Complete slaves were

the hereditary property of their masters. Layer of bonded holo-

pov was formed from among those who fell into a state of slavery (kaba-

la- receipt or promissory note) of previously free people.

Bonded slaves served until the death of the creditor, if voluntarily

did not take on a new bondage in favor of the heir of the deceased.

A special class was the clergy. It included archbishops

reys and monks - black clergy and priests - white clergy

new fiefdoms.

Free and walking people (free Cossacks, children of priests,

servicemen and townspeople, hired workers, wandering musicians

you and the buffoons, the beggars, the tramps) did not end up in the estates

or urban communities and did not bear state taxes. Of them

numbers were dialed by service people using a device. However, the state

tried in every possible way to bring them under his control.

Summing up the consideration of socio-economic development

Russia in the 17th century, it should be said that in Russia feudal-fortress-

the social system dominated in all spheres of economic, social

cultural and cultural life of the country.

New phenomena in the economy (the beginning of the formation of an all-Russian

go market, growth of small-scale production, creation of manufactories,

the emergence of large capital in the field of trade and usury

etc.) were under strong influence and control from

sides of the serf system. And this was at a time when

in the most developed countries of the West (Holland, England)

Whether bourgeois revolutions, in others a capitalist

sky way of economy, based on personal freedom and private

property.

Even V. O. Klyuchevsky believed that the 17th century. opens a “new

period of Russian history,” linking this with the establishment after the Smu-

you are a new dynasty, new borders, the triumph of the nobility and fortress

agriculture, on the basis of which both agriculture and

and industry.

One part of Soviet historians unjustifiably connected the beginning

“new period” with the formation of capitalism in Russia and the emergence

nium of bourgeois relations in the country's economy. Another part of them

believed that the 17th century. was a time of "progressive feudal lords due to

104 Chapter 11 Socio-economic development in XVII Russia after the Time of Troubles

ma" and until the second half of the 18th century. there were no supportive people in Russia

bourgeois relations and the capitalist structure in the economy.

IN last years It has become fashionable to say to IB that Russian civili-

nation seems to be drifting between East and West and modernization

is achieved by borrowing Western European experience. Is-

I think that it is more correct to look for an answer in ways of explaining what

features were inherent in the Russian historical process within the

on the global patterns of development of human civilization

Let us pay attention to the role of the natural-geographical factor

in our history. Sharply continental climate, short agricultural

farming season in conditions of extensive farming

predetermined a relatively small social aggregate

supplementary product.

The huge, but sparsely populated and poorly developed territory of Russia

sia with a multinational ethnic composition, adhering to

different religious denominations, in conditions of continuous struggle

with external danger, the last of which was foreign

intervention during the Time of Troubles developed at a slower pace,

than Western countries. The development of the country was also affected by the lack of

progress to ice-free seas, which became one of the tasks

foreign policy.

In the 17th century, the most profitable and prestigious industry was foreign trade. Thanks to her, the most scarce goods were supplied from the Middle East: jewelry, incense, spices, silk, etc. The desire to have it all at home stimulated the formation and further strengthening own production. This served as the first impetus for the development of internal trade in Europe.

Introduction

Throughout the Middle Ages, there was a gradual increase in the volume of foreign trade. Towards the end of the 15th century, the result of the series was a noticeable leap. European trade became global, and smoothly transitioned into the period of initial capital accumulation. During the 16th-18th centuries there was a strengthening of economic interaction between a number of regions and the formation of national trading platforms. At the same time, the formation of national states of absolute centralized monarchies is noted. All economic policy of these countries was aimed at the formation of a national market, the establishment of foreign and domestic trade. Great importance was also attached to strengthening industry, agriculture, and communications.

The beginning of the formation of the all-Russian market

By the 18th century, new regions gradually began to join the sphere of universal trade relations of Rus'. For example, food and some industrial goods (saltpeter, gunpowder, glass) began to arrive in the center of the country. At the same time, Russia was a platform for selling products of local artisans and factories. Fish, meat, and bread began to arrive from the Don regions. Dishes, shoes, and fabrics came back from the central and Volga districts. Livestock came from Kazakhstan, in exchange for which neighboring territories supplied grain and certain industrial goods.

Trade fairs

Fairs had a great influence on the development of the all-Russian market. Makaryevskaya became the largest and had national significance. Goods were brought here from various regions of the country: Vologda, the west and north-west of Smolensk, St. Petersburg, Riga, Yaroslavl and Moscow, Astrakhan and Kazan. Among the most popular are precious metals, iron, furs, bread, leather, various fabrics and animal products (meat, lard), salt, fish.

What was purchased at the fair was then distributed throughout the country: fish and furs to Moscow, bread and soap to St. Petersburg, metal products to Astrakhan. Over the course of the century, the fair's turnover increased significantly. So, in 1720 it was 280 thousand rubles, and 21 years later - already 489 thousand.

Along with Makaryevskaya, other fairs also acquired national significance: Trinity, Orenburg, Blagoveshchensk and Arkhangelsk. Irbitskaya, for example, had connections with sixty Russian cities in 17 provinces, interaction was established with Persia and Central Asia. was connected with 37 cities and 21 provinces. Together with Moscow, all these fairs were of great importance in uniting both regional and district, as well as local trading platforms into the all-Russian market.

Economic situation in a developing country

Russian peasant after his complete legal enslavement first of all, he was still obliged to pay the state, like the master, quitrent (in kind or cash). But if, for example, we compare economic situation Russia and Poland, then for Polish peasants, conscription in the form of corvée became increasingly stronger. So, for them it ended up being 5-6 days a week. For the Russian peasant it was equal to 3 days.

Payment of duties in cash presupposed the existence of a market. The peasant had to have access to this trading platform. The formation of an all-Russian market stimulated landowners to run their own farms and sell products, as well as (and to no less an extent) the state to receive fiscal revenues.

Economic development in Rus' from the 2nd half of the 16th century

During this period, large regional trading platforms began to form. By the 17th century, the strengthening of business ties was carried out on a national scale. As a result of expanding interactions between individual regions, a new concept is emerging - the “all-Russian market”. Although its strengthening was to a large extent hampered by the Russian chronic impassability.

By the middle of the 17th century, there were some prerequisites due to which the all-Russian market arose. Its formation, in particular, was facilitated by the deepening social division of labor, production territorial specialization, as well as the necessary political situation that emerged thanks to the transformations that were aimed at creating a unified state.

The main trading platforms of the country

From the 2nd half of the 16th century, such main regional markets as the Volga region (Vologda, Kazan, Yaroslavl - livestock products), the North (Vologda - the main grain market, Irbit, Solvychegodsk - furs), North-West ( Novgorod - sales of hemp and linen products), Center (Tikhvin, Tula - purchase and sale of metal products). The main universal trading platform Moscow became that time. There were about one hundred and twenty specialized rows where you could buy wool and cloth, silk and fur, lard and metal products of both domestic and foreign production.

Influence of state power

The All-Russian market, which emerged as a consequence of the reforms, contributed to an increase in entrepreneurial initiative. As for social consciousness itself, ideas of individual rights and freedoms arose at its level. Gradually, the economic situation in the era of initial accumulation of capital led to freedom of enterprise both in trade and in other industries.

In the agricultural field, the activities of the feudal lords are gradually replacing state regulations on changing the rules of land use and farming. The government promotes the formation of national industry, which, in turn, influenced the development of the all-Russian market. In addition, the state patronized the introduction of agriculture, more advanced than before.

In the sphere of foreign trade, the government seeks to acquire colonies and conduct Thus, everything that was previously characteristic of individual trading cities now becomes the political and economic direction of the entire state as a whole.

Conclusion

Basic distinctive feature The era of initial accumulation of capital is considered to be the emergence of commodity-money relations and a market economy. All this has left a special imprint on all areas social life that period. At the same time, it was a somewhat contradictory era, in fact, like other transitional periods, when there was a struggle between feudal control of the economy, social life, politics, spiritual human needs and new trends in bourgeois freedoms, due to the expansion of trade scales, which contributed to the elimination of territorial isolation and limitations of feudal estates.