Video: How Did A Unified National Currency In Russia Come Into Being – Alternative View
Painting "Baskaki" by Sergei Ivanov.
Undoubtedly, the simultaneous collection of 14 types of "horde burdens" and the homage to the princely treasury has significantly undermined the national economy, finances and the related circulation of money. At the same time, there were so few foreign high-quality silver coins that they were only enough to pay tribute to the Golden Horde, not for proper internal circulation of money. Therefore, the Russian principalities, which somehow managed to hide and preserve previously accumulated currency reserves during the Batu invasion, sometimes used silver ingots – Kiev's "hryvnia", weighed from the time of Yaroslav the Wise in the form of an elongated hexagon about 135-170 grams. At the same time Novgorod grivnas were in circulation – longitudinal bars of silver weighing about 200 grams, as well as Chernihiv,representing a cross between Kiev and Novgorod.
The principalities found themselves in a difficult financial situation and tried to use various fiscal measures to find and seize the remains of coins with full value from the population. In turn, the population buried the most valuable things in the ground (turned them into treasures) and often used various substitutes for their needs (which necessarily have a standard form), which were available to them in mass quantities: Glass, carnelian or ceramic beads, furskins, shells, etc.
Daniel Moskovsky
It was during these difficult times that the Moscow Principality emerged, whose true founder was Alexander Nevsky's youngest son, Daniel, who at the age of eleven inherited the city of Moscow with several villages and a population of about three thousand people. Of course, nothing at first was indicative of the rapid rise of the new state, but strangely enough, the young prince was able to organize and implement exceptionally competent socioeconomic policies.
Monument to Daniel of Moscow.
Without waging wars over new lands, the young Prince Daniel endeavored with all available forces and methods to increase the population and economic power of the Moscow Principality. During the period of constant princely feuds and enemy invasions, Moscow took in refugees and settlers from all parts of the Russian land, provided them with food, supplied them with livestock and tools, built houses and entire settlements.
At the end of his life Prince Daniel significantly increased his property and not only settled new land, but also inherited his father's legacy – the principality of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, which he inherited from his older unmarried and childless brother, who considered him the best ruler of all possible applicants. A little later, after Daniel of Moscow had adapted the life and structure of the rapidly growing principality, he felt its increasing power and was the first to gather land around Moscow, while trying to avoid war but often using cunning. In particular, in this way he managed to remove Kolomna from the Ryazan principality, invite the Kolomna prince to Moscow, capture him and force him to "visit" the rest of his life.
Resumption of minting
If in the period in question in Western Europe there were already numerous trading cities, trading guilds with significant trading turnover, which required an established circulation of money, bills of exchange and much more, then this has not yet happened in Russia. There were cities, of course, but their quality was quite different. 20% to 40% of the urban population (with the exception of Novgorod, Pskov and several other large cities) were engaged in agriculture and horticulture, 10% to 20% – in handicrafts and trade, and the rest was the service class. Therefore, at that time in Russia there was practically no trade and craft class. This was mainly due to the deplorable state of finances, lack of developed circulation of money, and for that matter, lack of orders.
Painting "Winter evening", Ivan Kulikov.
Obtaining the necessary capital and most of the loans were in kind, the object of lending was bread, honey, bees, animals, hides, etc. If the object of the loan was money (in rare cases), then despite legal restrictions interest An annual loan often reached 80% and with a long-term loan about 40% per year.
The further course of Russian history showed that to overcome these difficulties a single political and economic space had to be created. After the partial reunification of the disunited Russian countries into a single state, there was a population increase, an increase in goods production and economic turnover. The necessary conditions for the restoration and growth of money circulation emerged. By the end of the XIV century. Century. Coinage was resumed in Moscow, Ryazan, Tver, Yaroslavl, Novgorod the Great, Pskov and other cities.
An interesting fact is that in 1384, after the victory on the Kulikovo field, Prince Dmitry Donskoy made the first coinage of his own, but he and other princes had to impose Arabic signs on Russian money – this was a requirement of the Khans of the Golden Horde. In the absence of a single coin ornament, the banknotes put into circulation by the respective princes naturally differed in the variety and diversity of silver specimens, weight, size, and images. Only after the formation of a single nation state at the turn of 16. to the 16. Century. It is time to mint a national coin.
Collector of Russian land
In domestic historiography, it is generally believed that the process of creating the Russian state in the 15. Century ended. under Ivan III (Grand Duke since 1462). In particular, the strengthening of the centralization of the Russian state was largely due to the abolition of tax privileges for large feudal lords, the marriage of Ivan III. At the suggestion of the Pope with Sophia Palaeologus, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine Palaeologus, killed by the Turks, as well as facilitated the final liberation from the Golden Horde.
The wedding of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologue.
After his marriage in 1472 Ivan III. So to speak the heir of the Byzantine emperors and Roman Caesars. To increase the importance of Russia in international affairs, he adopted a new coat of arms for the country – a two-headed eagle. Taking into account the spiritual heritage of the fallen Byzantine Empire, which became the only metropolis of Orthodoxy, Moscow promised to patronize Christians of the Greek confession throughout the world. And to solve such global problems, great efforts were required. Including the construction of the financial system, the improvement of the circulation of money and the minting of a single state currency, which was carried out by Greek and Italian masters who arrived with Sophia.
Sophia finally began to have a tremendous influence on her husband, and it was largely thanks to her that Ivan III., Who, after the death of his eldest son, also called Ivan, for the first time established the order of autocracy in the Moscow state, named his successor in his will Vasily, his second son, and not his grandson Dmitry. During the election of the heir to the throne, who received sovereign rights, including those that gave only him the right to mint coins, the Moscow court was divided into two parties. Each of them was skillfully fascinated, so that Ivan III. First imprisoned his son Vasily, then changed his mind and imprisoned his grandson and appointed his son as heir. To him III. Bequeathed all his movable property or treasury (precious stones, gold and silver objects, furs, clothes, etc.).) Vasily.
Picture from the series "Vedic Rus", Vsevolod Ivanov.
The reign of Vasily Ivanovich (Vasily III.), Who was called the "last collector of the Russian land", lasted 28 years: from 1505 to 1533. All his efforts were aimed at continuing the work of his father. The last Appanage principalities disappeared under him: Volotsk, Kaluga, Ryazan, Uglich and some others. The Republic of Pskov was liquidated. After Vasily III. Having conquered Novgorod and Pskov and annexed the land of Ryazan, he initially tried to unite Lithuanian and Moscow Russia exclusively diplomatically and ascended to the Lithuanian throne. But the Lithuanian nobility, preferring the freedoms of the nobility rather than the Russian autocracy, chose the Polish King Sigismund I. to the Grand Duke of the Polish King.Until his sword is blunted, he will give Lithuania neither peace nor rest. " He fulfilled his promise so much that this enmity fundamentally shook Europe and led to the application of sanctions by Western European countries against Russia, which, of course, hurt him a bit, but did not slow down the development significantly.
For the first time Vasily III. Married to Solomonia from the boyar family of the Saburovs, but had no children by her. However, he did not want to die childless and leave the great rule to his brothers Yuri and Andrei, because, according to him, "they did not know how to arrange their own inheritance". With the permission of Metropolitan (Daniel) forced Vasily III. His wife to cut her hair as a nun, sending her to the Susdal Women's Intercessory Convent. He himself remarried and took Princess Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya from a family of Lithuanian nobles for himself, who was expelled by Lithuanian Prince Alexander and accused of malicious intent of his life.
Elena Glinskaya seduced her old husband not only with her beauty, but also with free manners, firm mind and character, a variety of knowledge rarely found among Russian women of that time. She was a progressive woman, so Vasily III. Their along with custody of the children of Ivan IV. And Yuri could leave the care of the Russian state behind.
Elena Glinskaya, reconstruction by Mikhail Gerasimov.
During her short reign, which lasted only three years (1535-1538), Elena Glinskaya tried to contain the various attempts by the oligarchic elite to resist the autocracy of grand-ducal power. She did not trust boyars, princes or her relatives, and brought with her the great equerry, Prince Ivan Ovchina Telepnev-Obolensky, who, according to the people, was her lover during her husband's lifetime. The measures she took against internal enemies did not please the oligarchic party, of course, and in 1538 Elena died of poison, and her lover, the Great Horseman, was killed in prison.
Currency reform of Elena Glinskaya
The growth of opposition sentiment and the constant intrigues of the palace led to a significant disturbance of public order, and this in turn was the beginning of the massive appearance of "tainted" money in Moscow, Smolensk, Kostroma and other cities. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that earlier attempts to produce counterfeit banknotes were made under the previous rulers, although these acts were prohibited from 1533 by Vasily III's decree. Were punished by death. Moreover, a massive search for counterfeiters across the country began even earlier – in 1530, as evidenced by the Kholmogory Chronicle.
But the massive suppression of counterfeiters has not helped and never helped to solve this problem for good. And Elena Glinskaya managed to realize and understand this by taking a series of steps aimed not only at combating counterfeiting, but also at improving the country's entire financial system. Therefore, Elena Glinskaya's currency reform was aimed firstly at improving the circulation of money itself, and secondly at reducing the damage that the treasury had suffered from counterfeiting and being forced to accept defective, worn, truncated precious metals that had been tainted by various impurities and other defects. Coins.
For a relatively short period of her reign, after Elena Glinskaya had implemented only the initial phase of the reform of the circulation of money, she did not manage to solve the problem of criminal responsibility, but she did manage to take care of a number of other measures that helped reduce money theft. In particular, it followed their order to improve the quality of coinage, strengthen the supervision of the mint's money, etc. However, having issued such progressive orders no less than her late husband, the ruler continued to fill the throats of counterfeiters with molten metal.
In the course of the reform of the circulation of money under Elena Glinskaya, the ruble (68 grams of silver), a kopeck (0.68 grams), money (0.34 grams) and half (0.17 grams) formed the basis for a unified system of banknotes. At the same time, there were currencies that were smaller than half. Written sources of the time mention "cutting money" – pennies cut into pieces, as well as "leather foals" – pieces made of branded leather.
Historians link the beginning of the reform to the March 1535 decree ordering the Novgorod and Pskov mints to mint money – Novgorodok (kopeks) on a new foot (standards). In the same decree it was noted that counterfeiters mixed base metals in silver and used all kinds of tricks. A group of people led by a Moscow merchant and craftsman Bogdan Semenovich Kuryukov was appointed to oversee the three mints existing at that time.
The monetary reform carried out in a short period of time, which began in March 1535 and ended in April 1538, removed from circulation the coins issued before its beginning. Coins of Ivan III., Vasily III. And even coins minted in 1534 had to be exchanged for new money. As a result of the reform, a single monetary system was introduced, and the silver penny became the main purely Russian coin for a period of about 200 years – until 1718.
Nikolay Semenovich Globa, professor at the Moscow State Linguistic University