For most of their history, people have made money from metal: gold, silver, copper. At the same time, a small duchy, where there were ore deposits, could easily be richer than a large kingdom. Paper money, which appeared in Europe only in the 17th century, helped to get rid of this dependence.
The main means of payment in post-Petrine Russia was copper money. They were durable, and the production cost was low. But there were also disadvantages. So, in order to move 500 rubles of copper, a whole cart and a horse were required, and to them - also security. While for several thousand copper rubles a caravan of carts was required at all.
Coin history
Until the 18th century, the production of coins in Russia was entirely dependent on imports. More precisely - foreign-made gold and silver coins. This practice has started since antiquity. So, the Slavic tribes even before Rurik used silver Roman denarii and drachmas minted by the rulers of Persia. Also in use were the silver dirhams of the Arab Caliphate, issued in the 8th century, and Byzantine silver miliary and gold solidi.
Own coin in Russia first appeared at the end of the 10th century. Prince Vladimir began to mint gold coins and silver coins in Kiev. However, the princely civil strife and the Mongol-Tatar invasion interrupted the monetary period. Until the middle of the XIV century, in Russia, for large calculations, silver ingots, called hryvnias, were used. And with small ones - old dirhams, denarii, scraps and fragments of coins and various commodity-money (beads, shells, skins).
The first silver rubles of the Moscow state appeared in 1381, during the reign of the Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. After that, other Russian principalities followed his example.
To bring the monetary system of the Moscow kingdom to a single form, the regent of the young Ivan IV the Terrible - Elena Glinskaya - banned all old coins in favor of the silver Moscow ruble. Since 1547, by order of Ivan the Terrible, an imprint appears on all minted coins: "The Tsar and Grand Duke of All Russia."
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In 1655, at the Moscow court, for the first time, copper money began to be minted - kopecks and pennies (2 kopecks), but the increase in their number caused hyperinflation in the country, and the government considered it good to withdraw them from circulation.
In 1700, Emperor Peter I again issued a copper coin - dengu, half and half half (1/8 kopeck). The population, meanwhile, preferred to pay taxes in copper money, and keep the silver ones. Under Peter, Russia for the first time established the extraction of silver, although the amount of copper money was still large. With the expansion of possessions, the problem of transporting copper coins arose, especially to Siberia. So, a thousand rubles in copper coins weighed 62.5 pounds, and two carts were required for their transportation.
Long harnessed
The first of the Russian autocrats who tried to solve the monetary issue was the husband of Catherine II - Emperor Peter III. Although the expenditures of the treasury for military needs became a headache for Empress Elizabeth I. Prosecutor General of the Senate Yakov Shakhovskoy suggested that Elizabeth issue paper money in Russia. The Empress did not mind, but bureaucratic delays led to the fact that in her reign the banknotes never saw the light of day.
At the same time, the huge spending of the yard in silver coin led to the depletion of silver reserves, and the existing mines were no longer able to maintain the metal balance.
In addition, all payments for foreign goods were made exclusively in gold and silver coins. A shortage of silver and an impressive volume of copper coins made it difficult to make large payments. For example, when collecting poll taxes, the county treasuries used whole caravans of carts to transport huge masses of copper.
At that time, paper money was no longer a novelty in Europe. They were first issued by the Stockholm Bank in 1661. Banknotes "Creditiv Sedels" had denominations in ducats, in rigsdaler, in daler in silver coin and in daler in copper coin. All denominations were handwritten. Naturally, the Russian merchants who traded with the Swedes showed distrust of such a means of payment. The complaint of the merchant Semyon Gavrilov from 1663 has survived: “Yes, now they have, instead of money, pieces of paper … how many will buy such a product."
Having ascended the throne in December 1761, the nephew of the late Elizabeth I, Peter III, six months later, signed a decree establishing the State Bank on the model of the Bank of England.
He was ordered to issue banknotes in denominations of 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 rubles for a total amount of 5 million rubles. But while preparations were underway for the innovation, the guards carried out a palace coup in favor of the wife of the emperor, Catherine II. The already printed banknotes, called "bankotsittels", were urgently destroyed by the courtiers, who feared that they would be caught in loyalty to the ousted emperor.
Circumstances forced Catherine II to return to the idea of issuing paper notes six years later. The reasons were the same - difficulties in transporting large sums of copper, depletion of silver reserves, and most importantly, the upcoming costs in connection with the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish war.
A Counterfeiter's Paradise
In 1768, Count Yakov Sivere presented to Catherine II a project demonstrating the benefits of introducing paper money. According to the project, a specially created bank could issue paper notes, freely exchangeable for coins. It was legal tender accepted by all government institutions. The Empress heeded the arguments of Sievers and on December 29, 1768 signed the Imperial Manifesto on the establishment in St. Petersburg and Moscow of branches of the Assignation Bank, which had the right to issue paper notes. “We are happy to begin the establishment of our exchanged banks in the empire and hope that through this we will provide a new sign of maternal care for all our subjects,” the manifesto said. It was also noted that all those who presented banknotes in the bank should change them for a copper coin without delay. The capital of the Assignation Bank was equal to 1 million rubles - half a million each in the capital and Moscow branches. Count Andrey Shuvalov was appointed director of the Assignation Bank.
Catherine instructed Prince Alexander Vyazemsky to deal with the plan for issuing banknotes. This choice was due to the fact that Vyazemsky had a reputation as an incorruptible dignitary. Having received the rank of Attorney General of the Senate, he subsequently monitored the spending of budget money, which was actively used to cover military spending.
Interestingly, the first treasury notes were made in 1769 from old royal tablecloths and napkins. But the main mass still began to be printed in the Senate printing house on cast thick paper. The appearance of the banknotes resembled the title page of a book: the same font with curls, black and white print and filigree - curly watermarks. The inscriptions on banknotes in denominations of 25, 50, 75 and 100 rubles read: "Acts for the benefit of onago" and "Love for the Fatherland." There were no inscriptions or drawings on the reverse side.
Weak protection of banknotes has become a tasty bait for counterfeiters. The simplest trick is to convert a 25-ruble note into a 75-ruble note. Because of which, after some time, the authorities had to abandon this bill.
Later, the director of the Assignation Bank, Count Shuvalov, came up with the idea of reforming the institution into a Noble Loan Bank. This was done with the aim of filling the treasury by issuing bank notes up to 100 million rubles. However, it was this measure that caused the depreciation of banknotes. Already from the second half of the 1780s, the exchange rate of paper money, and accordingly, of copper coins, began to fall. Now, two payment systems have appeared in Russia: a solid silver ruble and a silver penny and a devalued banknote ruble with copper coins. Paul I, who ascended the throne in 1796, ordered the seizure and destruction of part of the banknotes. In his presence, officials burned 6 million paper rubles, which was a colossal amount. However, the constant budget deficit could no longer allow any emperor to abandon the issue of paper money, which forever took a place in the payment system.
Alexey MARTOV