Under Peter the Great, entrepreneurship was introduced from the West, trade, and industry were born. This is not the case.
Since the times of Kievan Rus, our merchants were well known in European and Asian markets. And the large enterprises began to appear at us in the XVI century, simultaneously with their occurrence in the West. These are, for example, the Cannon Yard, the Print Yard, the Armory, rope yards in Kholmogory and Vologda. The Stroganoffs turned around powerfully in the Urals.
By the way, in Spain and France in this epoch trade and crafts were considered "mean" occupations, and for noblemen, they were forbidden. In Holland and England entrepreneurship was crushed by big merchants and financiers. In Russia, everyone was engaged in it: peasants, planters (townspeople), nobles, archers, Cossacks, boyars, clergy. Swede Kilburger wrote: "The Russians from the most noble to the simplest love commerce.
The government encouraged trade, and the duties were low. As a result, by the end of the XVI century, there was already a single All-Russian market with commodity specialization in various fields. Moscow supplied products of furriers, cloth makers, gunsmiths, goldsmiths; Moscow region - vegetables and meat; oil came from the Middle Volga region; fish - from the North, from Astrakhan; blacksmiths - from Serpukhov, Tula, Tikhvin, Galich, Ustyuzhny; leather - from Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Suzdal, Kazan, Murom. Upper Volga region specialized in wooden products, and Pskov and Novgorod artels specialized in stone construction. Weaving production was developed in Moscow and Yaroslavl, Pskov supplied products made of linen and hemp, Vyazma - sleds, Reshma - horns. Furs came from Siberia, wine growing, winemaking, horticulture and melon growing products came from Astrakhan.
The capital was the largest center of trade. Kilburger wrote: "In Moscow, there are more shops than in Amsterdam or at least in the whole principality. Markets were noisy in all other cities, and there were 923 of them in Russia. The biggest fair was going to be held in the Hope town on the Volga River, and since the 1620s it has been moved to Makarov. Its turnover reached 80 thousand rubles (for comparison, the cow cost 1 - 2 rubles, the sheep - 10 kopecks). The Arkhangelsk, Tikhvin, Svenskaya (near Bryansk) fairs were very significant. In Verkhoturye the winter Irbitskaya fair connected with Makaryevskaya was organized, up to a thousand merchants gathered there.
Foreigners noted the highest honesty of Russians. Olearius mentions how a fisherman on the Volga River was mistakenly overpaid for a catch of 5 kopecks. He counted and returned the extra money. Stunned by such behavior, the Germans offered him to make a change for himself, but he refused to earn any money.
The most solid merchants and industrialists, who had a turnover of at least 20 thousand rubles a year, were called "guests". But it was not a class, but a rank, which personally complained to the king.
The man who became a "guest" was introduced to the top of the state. It was believed that if he managed to make a great fortune, he is a valuable specialist, his experience should be used. The "guests" were brought closer to the king, had the right of direct access to him and were exempted from taxes.
They became economic advisers and financial agents of the government. Through them, the treasury conducted foreign trade instructed them to supervise the collection of duties, transferred contracts for construction, supplies for the army, the state monopoly trade - fur, wine, salt.
The Stroganoffs stood out from the "guests". They had more than 200 salt pans, and the annual extraction of salt was 7 million poods, meeting half of the country's needs. They also produced iron, traded furs, and developed construction and art crafts. "Sveteshnikov's guest owned large leather enterprises in Nizhny Novgorod, while Yemelyanov owned linen fabric dressing workshops in Pskov. Vasily Shorin conducted significant trade within Russia, with Persia, Central Asia, was the customs head in Arkhangelsk.
Shustov's "guests" got rich in salt mines, while Patokins and Filatyevs got rich in domestic and foreign trade. The Siberian trade was ruled by Barefoot, Revyakins, Balezins, Pankratievs, and Users. In Novgorod, the Stoyanovs' affairs were turned around.
In the commercial and industrial hierarchy, the "guests" were followed by a living room and hundreds of cloths. There were about 400 people in them. The living room was trading with the East and the cloth room with the West.
Entrepreneurs who were part of them also enjoyed significant privileges and tax breaks, occupied a prominent place in the financial and economic affairs of the state, and had their own self-governance. And the lower class of entrepreneurs included residents of black Slobodan and hundreds (small shopkeepers and craftsmen who paid taxes, and therefore "black").
Peasants, boyars' fiefdoms, monasteries also traded. For example, in 1641 in the cloisters of the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery 2 thousand tons of grain were stored, 401 horses were on the stables, 51 barrels of beer from own breweries, tens of tons of fish from own catches were in the storerooms, 14 thousand rubles were in the treasury, and the ships belonging to the monastery could be found both in the White Sea and off the coast of Norway.
The customs regulations adopted in 1653 abolished various local charges on merchants and introduced a single duty for all trade within the country: 10% on salt and 5% on other goods. As a result, the huge Russia has finally become a "single economic space".
Subscribe to the channel and put on a liking - this is the best thanks and help for us.