Despite all the difficulties, the development of agriculture and industry contributed to the growth of trade.
In the second half of the 17th century. In Russia, separate agricultural and fishing areas are becoming more and more clearly distinguished. Thus, the central and northern regions supplied rye and oats, the southern regions supplied wheat. Some areas specialized in vegetable and horticultural crops. Cattle breeding actively developed in the lush meadows of Pomerania, in the flooded meadows of the Middle Volga and Oka.
Pomors, like fishermen in the Lower Volga and Caspian Sea, supplied a significant part of Russia with fish. Especially expensive and tasty fish and caviar were brought from the south. And bread and agricultural products were supplied to the northern and arid southern regions of the country.
- Show Russian Pomorie on the map.
Industrial centers also appeared. Thus, the products of Tula metallurgists were distributed throughout the country. Salt was transported from the salt pans of the Urals to all corners of Russia.
Russia was gradually drawn into trade exchanges; individual regions began to depend on each other to obtain the necessary goods. And in large cities, and in suburban settlements, and in rural areas there were numerous trades that were interconnected. This indicated the beginning of folding all-Russian market. All-Russian market- these are close economic ties between individual regions of Russia.
- Show salt mining areas on the map.
Artist A. M. Vasnetsov
- Indicate what has changed now in the appearance of Red Square and the Kremlin wall compared to the 17th century.
The place where major trade transactions involving large quantities of goods were carried out was trade fairs.
Moscow was the center of the country's trade relations. Moscow auctions were bursting with local and imported goods: bread from the south, salt from the north, fish from the lower reaches of the Volga, furs from Siberia. Dozens of Moscow streets, alleys, and squares still bear names associated with crafts and trade.
- Assume that they were transported on carts and sleighs.
Along with Moscow, other trading cities also grew. Such centers were Tula, Yaroslavl, Ustyug Veliky, Vologda. All higher value acquired Nizhny Novgorod, where the flow of goods was distributed between the south and north, east and center of the country. Trade with southern countries went through Astrakhan, and with Western Europe through Arkhangelsk.
But Arkhangelsk port was freezing and located very far from the central regions of the country. As trade relations with the West developed, the problem of Russia’s lack of access to the Baltic and Black Seas became increasingly acute.
In the second half of the 17th century, Russia made a significant step forward in its economic development. It was at this time that new phenomena emerged in the country’s economy, primarily associated with the emergence of manufacturing production and the formation of the all-Russian market.
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. Some 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 villages, 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 and hamlets, 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 large cities and suburban settlements, in rural areas, numerous auctions 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 it 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 artisan 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, a credit system, and 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 serviceman landed nobility gradually brought fiefs closer to 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. Corvée (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, 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 quit taxes, the merciless search for runaway peasants, and endless requests to the government about 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.
By the middle of the 17th century. Most of the negative consequences of the Troubles were overcome. Due to the further development of the lands of Siberia, the Urals, and the Wild Field, the borders of the state expanded significantly, and the population reached 10.5 million. Economic situation The Russian state has stabilized. The tsarist government, interested in reviving trade, granted a number of privileges to the merchants, in particular, preferential taxation. This contributed to the fact that the nobility, boyars, and monasteries began to increasingly participate in trade relations, thereby stimulating the creation of a common market.
Among the new phenomena in the economy, one should note the development of crafts into market-oriented small-scale production. Mining developed. The Tula-Serpukhov-Moscow and Ustyuzhno-Zheleznopolsky districts became centers of metallurgy. Wooden products were produced in Moscow, Tver, Kaluga. Veliky Ustyug, Tikhvin, Nizhny Novgorod, and Moscow were famous for jewelry production; salt mining was carried out in the Kama region and on the salt lakes of the Caspian region.
The specialization of individual regions contributed to the formation of an all-Russian market that operated within the framework of a single economic system. Fairs were held. The largest were considered Makaryevskaya (Nizhny Novgorod), Svenskaya (Bryansk), Irbitskaya (Siberia), Arkhangelskaya. In foreign trade, important centers were Arkhangelsk, through which trade operations were carried out with Western and Northern Europe, and Astrakhan, which became a trade gateway to the East.
Despite the fact that agriculture remained the leading sector of the economy, the development of commodity production led to the emergence of the first manufactories - enterprises using manual labor of hired workers, built on the principle of division of labor. In the 17th century, about 30 manufactories were already operating in Russia. The first of them were formed at the end of the previous century - the Mint, the Pushkarsky Dvor. During the 17th century. Metallurgical plants came into operation in the Urals and near Tula, leather factories operated in Kazan and Yaroslavl, and a textile (Khamovny) yard existed in Moscow. The first private manufactory was the Nitsin copper smelting plant, built in the Urals in 1631. The manufactories employed assigned peasants. Those manufactories that enjoyed state support were called “possession.”
To stimulate the economy under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, protectionism was widely used - a policy that encourages the development of national production and provides for the protection of the domestic market from foreign competition by introducing import and export duties, subsidies and other measures. For example, in 1667 a new Trade Charter was issued, increasing duties on foreign-made goods. In the 50s. XVII century monetary reform was carried out.
Changes in the economic structure of the country led to the decline of the former power of the boyars, who, in their own way, social status became closer to the nobility, which became after the Time of Troubles main support royal power. The lowest stratum of service people consisted of recruited service people: government foremen, coachmen, gunners, archers, etc.
Among the urban population, merchants who controlled trade occupied a privileged position. Most of the city residents, united in the tax community, were called townspeople. Craftsmen created settlements and hundreds according to their professional occupations. Special position in social structure society continued to be occupied by the clergy. The peasantry remained the largest group of the population.
Legal registration of serfdom. The policy of enslaving the peasants continued. Since 1581, there were “reserved summers”, when the crossing of peasants was prohibited on St. George’s Day. At the same time, scribe books began to be compiled, the appearance of which simplified the control of the feudal lords over the peasants. From the end of the 16th century. Decrees on “fixed years” became widespread, defining the time frame for the search and return of fugitive serfs (from 5 to 15 years).
From 1597, even after all debts were paid, the right to release was deprived of indentured slaves, who were assigned to their creditors for life. As for voluntary slaves, six months of their work for the owner was enough for them to move into the category of full slaves. Both free and enslaved slaves could count on freedom only after the death of their feudal lord.
The Code of 1607, adopted under Vasily Shuisky, established a period of 15 years for the search of runaway peasants. This document also provided for serious fines for those who hid fugitives. During the first half XVII V. Decrees were repeatedly issued that provided for different periods of searching for fugitive peasants (in 1619, 1637, 1642).
The final act of the process of attaching peasants to the land was the Council Code of 1649, which abolished the “lesson summers”, prohibited the transfer of peasants from one owner to another and established the indefiniteness of the investigation. Black-footed and palace peasants were also prohibited from leaving their communities. It was the Council Code of 1649 that legally formalized serfdom. This led to a noticeable worsening social relations in the Russian state.
In the second half of the 17th century. There were two categories of peasants - serfs and black-sowers. Serf peasants ran their farms on patrimonial, local and church lands, for which they served whole line feudal duties in favor of landowners. The black-nosed peasants belonged to the category of “heavy people.” They paid taxes and taxes to the state treasury. Control over this category was carried out by the authorities state power. The number of black-sowing peasants was constantly decreasing, while by the end of the 17th century. Noble land ownership increased significantly, penetrating the Volga region and many areas of the Wild Field.
An intermediate position between these two categories was occupied by palace peasants who served the economic needs of the royal court.
Church schism
Reforms of Patriarch Nikon
In the mid-1650s, on the initiative of Patriarch Nikon, a set of liturgical and canonical measures were implemented in the Russian Church aimed at changing the ritual tradition that then existed in Moscow and transforming the Russian Church into the center of world Orthodoxy. Their essence was to eliminate discrepancies with Greek rites and return the church to Greek canons, as well as improve the order and moral principles of the clergy.
The main reforms of Patriarch Nikon (1653-1656):
- correction of liturgical books according to Greek models;
- change in Russian rituals Orthodox Church;
- introduction of three fingers during the sign of the cross.
Supporters of the patriarch's reforms were called "Nikonians."
Church split. The rejection of the reforms by a number of high-ranking clergy and secular officials, based on the opinion of the “superiority” of Russian piety over Greek, together with the harshness of the reformers themselves, led the Russian Church to a schism. As a result, many different movements of Old Believers arose in the official tradition, called “schismatics,” whose spiritual leader was Archpriest Avvakum (1620-1682), an opponent of church reform and a spiritual writer. Author of 43 works, including the famous “Life”. He stood at the origins of new Russian literature, free figurative speech, and confessional prose. He spent a long time in exile, after which he was burned.
Old Believers- a set of religious movements within the Russian Orthodox Church that did not accept church reforms Patriarch Nikon, supported by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, whose goal was to unify the rituals of the Russian and Greek (Constantinople) churches. The Old Believers sought to return to the pre-reform order. The schismatics initiated several major popular uprisings, among which it is worth highlighting the Solovetsky Uprising of 1668-1676. The Solovetsky Monastery for a long time remained the main symbol of the Old Believers in Rus'.
Social movements of the 17th century
Popular riots
XVII century turned out to be full of various popular performances - the “rebellious age”. Constant wars, internal turmoil, church schism, the establishment of serfdom - all this worsened the situation of the masses. A wave of uprisings took place in many large cities of the country: Pskov, Vladimir, Novgorod, Kursk, Voronezh. The largest unrest occurred during the Salt and Copper riots in Moscow.
Salt Riot (1648)- one of the largest uprisings of the urban population of the mid-17th century. Increased taxes on salt led to pogroms of merchants' and boyars' houses by townspeople. The most active participants were the lower and middle strata of the townsfolk population, artisans, archers and courtyard people. The Tsar had to expel the head of his government, boyar B. Morozov, from Moscow. Only with the help of bribing the archers was the rebellion managed to be suppressed.
Copper Riot (1662)- an uprising of the urban lower classes, which became a reaction to tax increases during the Russian-Polish War of 1654-1667, and coinage since 1654. copper coins, depreciated in comparison with silver. At the same time, the government continued to collect basic taxes in silver coins. The rebels moved to the Tsar's residence in Kolomenskoye, demanding that he hand over the most odious boyars, whom they considered responsible for their plight. During the negotiations, detachments of archers loyal to the king approached and dispersed the rebels. During the suppression of the Copper Riot, up to 7 thousand Muscovites were killed. Nevertheless, the authorities had to make some concessions and return to minting silver coins.
The uprising of Stepan Razin
The apotheosis of popular unrest in the 17th century. became a Cossack-peasant uprising led by the Don Cossack Stepan Razin (1630-1671) in 1667-1671. The center of the rebels was the Yaitsky town (Uralsk). In 1668-1669 S. Razin's Cossacks carried out a raid on the coast of the Caspian Sea, simultaneously defeating the fleet of the Persian Shah. On the way back, rebels who opposed serfdom took possession of a number of major cities(Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan). This has already become a serious challenge to the central government.
The campaign of 1670 on the Volga had an overt anti-government orientation. S. Razin managed to unite the Cossacks, serfs, barge haulers, and townspeople. His army had an international character and, in addition to the Russians, included Ukrainians, Chuvash, Tatars, Mordvins and others. Opposing serfdom, many rebels still believed in the “good and just” tsar, directing their rage at representatives of the boyar and noble classes. After the capture of Saratov and Samara, the uprising spread to vast territories: from the lower reaches of the Volga to Slobozhanshchina.
The apogee of the uprising was the siege of Simbirsk. Only with the help of a 30,000-strong army did Alexei Mikhailovich manage to lift the siege and defeat the main forces of the rebels. Stepan Razin himself, after the betrayal of wealthy Cossacks, was taken to Moscow, where in the summer of 1671 he was executed on Red Square.
Appolinary Vasnetsov. Red Square in the second half of the 17th century (1918)
The territory of Russia by the end of the 17th century. increased significantly due to the annexation of Left Bank Ukraine and Eastern Siberia. However, the huge country was sparsely populated, especially Siberia, where on the verge of the 17th-18th centuries. Only 61 thousand Russian people lived there.
The total population of Russia in 1678 was 11.2 million people, of which city residents accounted for 180 thousand. This indicated a low level of division of labor, and, consequently, economic development. The bulk of the population were peasants, among whom landowners predominated (52%), followed by peasants who belonged to the clergy (16%) and the royal family (9.2%). There were 900 thousand unenslaved peasants. This entire population was feudally dependent on the landowners, the clergy, the royal family and the state. The privileged classes included nobles (70 thousand) and clergy (140 thousand). The most populated areas were considered to be the non-chernozem center, as well as the western and northwestern regions, that is, territories with the least fertile lands.
Cathedral Code of 1649 and legal registration of serfdom
Due to extremely primitive economic development tools and the state’s regular need for cash(mainly for the maintenance of the state apparatus itself and the conduct of wars) by the middle of the 17th century. the state chose the path of further enslavement of the peasants, and the Council Code of 1649 became its legal framework.
According to the Code of 1649, an indefinite search for fugitive peasants was established, which indicates their transformation into the hereditary property of the landowner, the palace department and spiritual owners. Article XI of Chapter “Court on Peasants” provided for the amount of the fine (10 rubles per year) for the reception and detention of runaways, the procedure for transferring them to their rightful owners, the fate of children living on the run, as well as property, and instructed how to act in cases where a runaway peasant, to cover his tracks, he changed his name, etc.
The status of the townspeople, hitherto considered free, also changed. Thus, Chapter XIX extended serfdom to the townsfolk population - it forever attached the townsman to the township, and determined the criteria for enrolling the population in it. One of the main norms of the chapter is the liquidation of white settlements, which, as a rule, belonged to large secular and spiritual feudal lords. The class privilege of the townspeople is a monopoly on trades and trades. The head determined the procedure for staffing the settlement with the trading and fishing population. There were three signs by which those who left the posad were forcibly returned to it: “in the old days,” that is, persons who were previously registered in it; by kinship, that is, all relatives of the townsman were enrolled in the posad; finally, by occupation. The main duty of the townspeople was the obligatory engagement in trades and trades - both were a source of financial income to the treasury.
Serfdom
Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century. was accompanied by the destruction of productive forces and a decrease in population. Both caused desolation: over a vast territory, especially in the center, sources in many cases noted the presence of arable land, “overgrown with forest” as thick as an arm. But the Troubles, in addition, undermined the centuries-old living conditions: instead of a plow and a sickle, a flail ended up in the hands of the peasant - detachments roamed the country, robbing the local population. The protracted nature of the restoration of the economy, which took three decades - 20-50s. XVII century, was also explained by the low fertility of the soil of the Non-Black Earth Region and the weak resistance of the peasant economy natural conditions: early frosts, as well as heavy rains, which caused crops to become wet, led to crop failure. The scourge of livestock farming was contagious animal diseases, which deprived the peasant family of both draft animals and milk and meat. The arable land was cultivated with traditional tools that remained unchanged for centuries: a plow, a harrow, a sickle, and less often a scythe and a plow. The predominant farming system was three-field , that is, alternating winter and spring crops with fallow. In the northern regions it has been preserved cutting - the most labor-intensive farming system, when the tiller had to cut down the forest, burn it, loosen the ground and then sow. True, the peasant’s exhausting labor was rewarded with higher yields in those few years when the ash fertilized the soil. The abundance of land made it possible to use fallow - depleted soil was abandoned for several years, during which it restored fertility, and then was put back into economic use.
The low level of agricultural culture was explained not only by unfavorable soil and climatic conditions, but also by the peasant’s lack of interest in increasing the results of labor generated by serfdom - landowners, monasteries and the administration of the royal estates often confiscated not only surpluses, but also necessary products for their own benefit. This largely resulted from the use of routine technology and routine farming systems, which gave invariably low yields - one or two or three, that is, for every grain sown the farmer received two or three new ones. Major shift in agriculture consisted in some elimination of his natural isolation and gradual drawing into market relations. This long process proceeded extremely slowly in the 17th century. affected only a small layer of landowners, primarily those who had large farms. The bulk of both peasant and landowner farms retained a natural character: the peasants were content with what they themselves produced, and the landowners with what the same peasants delivered to them in the form of rent in kind: poultry, meat, lard, eggs, hams, coarse cloth , linen, wooden and earthenware, etc.
Sources of the 17th century preserved for us descriptions of two types of farms ( small-scale And large-scale ) and two trends in their development. An example of one of the types was the farm of the largest landowner in the country, Morozov. Boyarin Boris Ivanovich Morozov , the “uncle” (educator) of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who was also married to the sister of the Tsar’s wife, was considered to be distinguished by excessive greed and money-grubbing. Contemporaries said about the boyar that he “had the same thirst for gold as an ordinary thirst for drink.” Hoarding in this childless family absorbed a lot of the energy of its head, and he significantly increased his holdings: in the 20s. behind him there were 151 households, inhabited by 233 male souls, and after his death there remained 9,100 households with 27,400 serfs. The uniqueness of Morozov’s economy was given by the presence of various crafts in it. Along with farming, in his estates located in 19 counties of the country, they were engaged in the production of potash - a fertilizer from ash, not only used on their farm, but also exported abroad. The everyday mills located in the Volga region estates, where potash was produced, brought the boyar a huge profit for those times - 180 thousand rubles. Morozov's economy was diversified - he maintained distilleries and an ironworks in Zvenigorod district.
The economy of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich belonged to a similar type, with the difference, however, that it, being also diversified, was not market-oriented: in the royal estates there were metallurgical, glass and brick factories, but the products produced at them were intended for the needs of a vast farms of the king. Alexey Mikhailovich was known as a zealous owner and personally delved into all the little details of the life of the estates. For example, he purchased purebred cows abroad, including Dutch ones, introduced a five-field crop rotation, and required mandatory fertilization of fields with manure. But the tsar’s economic plans also included a lot of ephemeral things: for example, he tried to grow melons, watermelons, grapes and citrus fruits in Izmailovo, and to boil salt from weakly concentrated brines in Khamovniki, on Devichye Pole, near Kolomenskoye. Some monasteries also organized crafts in their estates (they arose in the 16th century). Solovetsky, Pyskorsky, Kirillo-Belozersky and other monasteries, whose possessions were located in Pomerania, rich in brines containing a lot of salt, started salt production in their estates. Salt went on sale. Other large feudal lords also maintained connections with the market: Miloslavsky, Odoevsky.
A different type of economy was formed by a middle-class landowner Bezobrazova. It does not reveal traces of intensification in the form of crafts and connections with the market. Bezobrazov did not like service, resorted to tricks to evade it, and preferred to spend time in the village doing household chores or in Moscow, from where he vigilantly monitored the activities of 15 clerks. If Morozov’s entire complex economy was managed by the patrimonial administration located in Moscow, which sent orders to the clerks on behalf of the boyar, then Bezobrazov personally supervised the clerks. The economy of small landowners and monasteries was even more primitive. The peasants who belonged to them barely provided the master and the monastery brethren with vital resources. Such feudal lords, both secular and spiritual, and there were an overwhelming majority of them, conducted simple subsistence farming.
The emergence of manufactories
The main innovation in the economic development of the country was the emergence of manufactories. In countries Western Europe, in most of which serfdom had long disappeared, the emergence of manufactories led to the advent of the era of capitalism in them. In Russia, serfdom dominated in all spheres of life. Hence the insufficiently high level of small crafts from which manufactory could grow, the lack of a wage labor market, the necessary capital for the creation of manufactories, the construction and operation of which required significant costs. It is no coincidence that the owners of the first ironworks in Russia were not domestic, but foreign merchants, who attracted foreign craftsmen to work for them. But the emergence of manufacture in Russia was marked by the activities of a Dutch merchant Andrey Vinnius , who brought the outlandish method of production to Russia. The history goes back to the 1630s, when iron ore deposits were discovered near Tula. Since Andrei Vinnius often visited those places, he quickly realized the profitability of his idea. Andrei Vinnius not only donated money for iron mining, but also received the favor of Sovereign Mikhail Fedorovich in 1632 founded the first iron-making manufactory. So we stopped importing iron from Europeans, and the benefits of manufacturing already appeared during the Smolensk War.
At the first stage of the development of manufacturing production in Russia, two features should be noted: transferred to serfdom, it acquired the features of a patrimonial economy associated with the market; the second feature is active guardianship by the state large production. Since the metallurgical plants cast cannons and cannonballs, the availability of which the state was interested in, it provided the manufacturer with benefits: already at the first metallurgical plants the state assigned peasants, obliging them to perform the most labor-intensive work that did not require high professional skills - mining ore and manufacturing charcoal. There is debate among scientists about the number of manufactories in Russia in the 17th century. Some of them included in the list of manufactories enterprises that lacked one of the main features of manufactories - the division of labor. Distilleries, salt pans, and tanneries used the labor of masters and apprentices. Such enterprises are usually called cooperation. They are distinguished from manufactories by the absence of division of labor. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that in Russia at the end of the 17th century. only 10-12 manufactories, all of which operated in metallurgy. For the emergence of metallurgical manufactories, three conditions were required: the presence of ore deposits, forests for the production of charcoal and a small river, blocked by a dam, for year-round use of water energy, which drove bellows in blast furnaces and hammers in forging iron. Thus, simple mechanisms were used in the most labor-intensive processes. The first blast furnace and hammer plants arose in the Tula-Kashira region, then in the Lipetsk region, as well as in Karelia, where the first copper smelter in Russia appeared. All factories in European Russia used bog ores, which produced brittle cast iron and low-grade iron. Therefore iron High Quality Russia continued to purchase from Sweden. The famous ore from the Ural deposits began to be used only from the beginning of the next century.
The formation of a single all-Russian market and the emergence of fairs in Russia
Despite the low purchasing power of the population, due to the subsistence nature of the economy, certain successes can be traced in the development of domestic trade. They were caused by the beginning of specialization of some areas in the production of some type of product:
- Yaroslavl and Kazan were famous for leather dressing;
- Tula - production of iron and products from it,
- Novgorod and Pskov - canvases.
Wholesale trade was concentrated in the hands of the richest merchants, enrolled by the state in the privileged corporations of guests and merchants of the living room and cloth hundreds. The main privilege of the guests was the right to travel abroad for trade transactions. Petty trade was carried out by both goods producers and resellers, as well as agents of wealthy merchants. Everyday trade was carried out only in large cities. Fairs acquired enormous importance in internal exchange. The largest of them, such as Makaryevskaya under Nizhny Novgorod, Irbitskaya in the Urals, Svenskaya near Bryansk and Arkhangelskaya in the North, had all-Russian significance and attracted merchants, mainly wholesalers, from all over the country. In addition to them, there were fairs of regional and city significance. They were distinguished by both their modest size and a less diverse range of goods.
More noticeable shifts can be seen in foreign trade, as can be judged by the number of ships arriving in Arkhangelsk - the only seaport connecting Russia with the countries of Western Europe: in 1600, 21 of them arrived, and at the end of the century about 70 ships arrived per year. The main article of Russian export was “soft junk” mined in Siberia, as fur was then called. Following it came raw materials and semi-finished products: flax, hemp, resin, timber, tar, potash. Mast timber, flax and hemp were in great demand among maritime powers, who used them to equip ships. Semi-finished products made by artisans included leather, especially yuft, which represented its highest grade, as well as linen. Large landowners (Morozov, Odoevsky, Romodanovsky, etc.), as well as rich monasteries, participated in the export. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich did not consider it shameful to participate in foreign trade. The imported items were mainly products of Western European manufactories (cloth, mirrors, iron, copper, etc.), as well as luxury goods used by the court and aristocracy: wines, expensive fabrics, spices, jewelry. If in the north Arkhangelsk was the window to Europe, then in the south the same role fell to Astrakhan, which became a transshipment point in trade with Iran, India and Central Asia. Astrakhan, in addition, served as a transit point for Western European merchants trading with eastern countries. Throughout the 17th century. Russia's economic development was influenced by two interrelated factors: backwardness caused serfdom, which, in turn, aggravated the lag. Nevertheless, progress is noticeable, reflected in the emergence of manufactories, the revival of internal trade, and the establishment of closer economic ties with the countries of Western Europe and the East.
Russia lagged behind the most developed countries Western Europe. Due to the lack of access to ice-free seas, expanding ties with these countries was difficult. The development of trade was hampered by internal customs barriers that remained from the time of fragmentation . IN 1653 was accepted Customs regulations, which eliminated small customs duties, and New Trade Charter of 1667 further limited the rights of foreign merchants: now they could sell their goods wholesale only in border cities. Further across Russia, Russian merchants were supposed to sell them. Higher taxes were imposed on imported goods. However, Russian merchants did not possess the skills and energy that were inherent in their foreign competitors. As a result, we protected the economic space, but by the end of the 17th century it was It turned out to be practically empty due to routinized production and backwardness of technology in agriculture and manufacturing. Russia still had to make its economic breakthrough, which was due to the serious needs of Peter I in spending on the great war.
A new phenomenon, exceptional in its significance, was the formation of an all-Russian market, the center of which became Moscow.
By the movement of goods to Moscow one can judge the degree of social and territorial division of labor on the basis of which the all-Russian market was formed: the Moscow region supplied meat and vegetables; cow butter was brought from the Middle Volga region; fish were brought from Pomorie, Rostov district, Lower Volga region and the Okie region; vegetables also came from Vereya, Borovsk and Rostov district.
Moscow was supplied with iron by Tula, Galich, Ustyuzhna Zhelezopolskaya and Tikhvin; leather was brought mainly from the Yaroslavl-Kostroma and Suzdal regions; wooden utensils were supplied by the Volga region; salt-cities of Pomerania; Moscow was the largest market for Siberian furs.
Based on the production specialization of individual regions, markets were formed with the predominant importance of certain goods.
Thus, Yaroslavl was famous for the sale of leather, soap, lard, meat and textiles; Veliky Ustyug and especially Sol Vychegda were the largest fur markets - furs coming from Siberia were delivered from here either to Arkhangelsk for export, or to Moscow for sale within the country. Flax and hemp were brought to Smolensk and Pskov from nearby areas, which were then supplied to the foreign market.
Some local markets establish intensive trade links with distant cities. Tikhvin Posad with its annual fair supported trade with 45 cities of Russia. Purchasing iron craft products from local blacksmiths, buyers resold them to larger traders, and the latter transported significant quantities of goods to Ustyuzhna Zhedezopolskaya, as well as to Moscow, Yaroslavl, Pskov and other cities.
A huge role in the trade turnover of the country was played by fairs of all-Russian significance, such as Makaryevskaya (near Nizhny Novgorod), Svenskaya (near Bryansk), Arkhangelsk and others, which lasted for several weeks.
In connection with the formation of the all-Russian market, the role of the merchants in the economic and political life countries. In the 17th century, the top of the merchant world stood out even more noticeably from the general mass of trading people, whose representatives received the title of guests from the government.
These largest merchants also served as financial agents of the government - on its instructions they carried out foreign trade in furs, potash, rhubarb, etc., carried out contracts for construction work, purchased food for the needs of the army, collected taxes, customs duties, tavern money, etc. The guests attracted smaller merchants to carry out contracting and farming operations, sharing with them huge profits from the sale of wine and salt. Farming and contracts were an important source of capital accumulation.
Large capitals sometimes accumulated in the hands of individual merchant families. N. Sveteshnikov owned rich salt mines. The Stoyanovs in Novgorod and F. Emelyanov in Pskov were the first people in their cities; Not only the governors, but also the tsarist government took their opinion into account. The guests, as well as the trading people close to them in position from the living room and the cloth hundreds (associations), were joined by the top of the townspeople, called the “best”, “big” townspeople.
Traders begin to speak out to the government in defense of their interests. In petitions they asked to prohibit English merchants from trading in Moscow and other cities, with the exception of Arkhangelsk. The petition was satisfied by the royal government in 1649. This measure was motivated by political considerations - the fact that the British executed their king Charles I.
Major changes in the country's economy were reflected in Customs regulations 1653 and in the New Trade Charter of 1667. The head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, A.L. Ordin-Nashchokin, took part in the creation of the latter.
According to the mercantilistic views of that time, the New Trade Charter noted the special importance of trade for Russia, since “in all neighboring states, in the first state affairs, free and profitable trading for the collection of duties and for the people’s worldly belongings is guarded with all care.”
The Customs Charter of 1653 abolished many small trade fees that had persisted from time to time feudal fragmentation, and in return he introduced one so-called ruble duty - 10 kopecks each. from a ruble for the sale of salt, 5 kopecks. from the ruble from all other goods.
In addition, increased duties were introduced for foreign merchants selling goods within Russia.
In the interests of the Russian merchants, the New Trade Charter of 1667 further increased customs duties on foreign traders.