The other day I read about scams in banks in Rus', I decided to read a little more about those times, about how everything got infected. A fairly brief excerpt from the material that I dug through might be interesting for anyone to read over the weekend. Now I understand why we have such F... And in the banking sector, because it has never been good, i.e. F... And this is a common condition that has existed for centuries))))
I’ll post about the scam in one bank on Sunday evening if I have time, there’s one guy there who’s done a lot of mischief, don’t play around.

The first appearance of credit institutions in Rus' occurred at the end of the 12th century, in Veliky Novgorod, which had close trade ties with the German merchants. During this era, Novgorod and Pskov were the richest cities where foreigners felt almost at home, since everything here was like in Hamburg or Lübeck.
Rus' adopted the basic provisions of Byzantine state law, accepted their organization of monetary transactions (the desire of the state to protect the monopoly in these matters, regulation of transactions and the amount of permissible interest). The right to engage in such a trade was farmed out. Pskov loan law formalized credit transactions on special “boards”. Debt obligations - promissory notes - were introduced into monetary circulation. According to the main legal document - Russian Pravda - the protection and procedure for ensuring the property interests of the creditor, the procedure for collecting debt, and types of insolvency were regulated.

In 1665, the Pskov governor A. Ordin-Nashchekin attempted to create a loan bank for small-scale merchants. Its functions were to be performed by the city government, operating with the support of large merchants. The lack of a clearly developed activity plan, determination of priorities, and opposition from the boyars and government officials determined the short-term nature of the actions of this bank.

The development of credit institutions in Rus' was long and slow. As a rule, Russian merchants had to take loans from foreign bankers, who provided money on truly enslaving terms. Under Alexei Mikhailovich, numerous projects were developed to create “banks,” but they all remained on paper; even Peter I the Great failed to cope with this task.

Prerequisites and first attempts to create the first banks in Russia (20-30s of the 18th century)
The first attempts to create banking in Russia date back to the late 20s and 30s. XVIII century, i.e. almost immediately after the death of Peter I the Great. In 1733, Empress Anna Ioannovna expanded and streamlined the activities of the Coin Office in terms of lending, issuing a special decree “On the rules for borrowing money.”
At the Coin Office it was possible to take out 8% loans secured by precious metals (“ and do not take diamonds and other things, as well as villages and households as collateral or ransom“) in an amount not exceeding 75% of the cost for a period of one year with the right to defer redemption for up to three years. Of course, such loans could only be taken out by court circles, i.e. limited circle of people. Some particularly influential dignitaries could “borrow” even without collateral.


Coin office

As a result, the activities of the Coin Offices as banks turned out to be insignificant and functioned on an extremely limited scale, until approximately 1736. However, the emergence of this type of activity of the Coin Office provided a precedent for some government agencies - completely far from finance and credit - to engage in “banking.” According to the Senate (1754), similar lending functions were carried out... The Post Office, the Main Commissariat (quartermaster department), the office of artillery and fortification, etc. The size of credit operations (collateral, terms, interest) remained a secret even for the highest government bodies!

The first real bank of Russia - Dvoryansky (1754-1786)
The true history of banks dates back to the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, when on June 23, 1754, the “Decree on the establishment of the State Loan Bank, on the procedure for issuing money from it and on punishing money lenders” was promulgated. The bank consisted of two actually independent parts - the Noble Bank (with offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg) and the “Bank for Correction at the St. Petersburg Port of Commerce.” The creator and developer of the bank's charter was Pyotr Ivanovich Shuvalov (1710-1762), a famous Russian statesman and military figure, field marshal, a gifted and energetic person, but suffering from Manilovism.
Among the two banks, the most viable was the Noble Bank, which existed until 1860. The bank’s clients were nobles of the empire (landowners) and foreigners who accepted “eternal” citizenship and owned real estate in pre-agreed regions of Russia (later the number of clients expanded to include the Baltic, Smolensk, Little Russian and other landowners).


The authorized capital of the Noble Bank was determined at 750.0 thousand rubles. The main functions of the bank included issuing loans in the amount of 500 to 10,000 rubles. at 6% (the so-called specified interest) with a payment period of no more than three years, secured by estates, precious metals, diamonds, stone houses (the bank did not accept deposits). The size of loans “for estates” depended on... the number of peasant souls.
To limit credit, each peasant (soul) was valued at 10 rubles. (although its cost was determined under Elizaveta Petrovna at 30 rubles). Later the price increased: in 1766 - 20 rubles, in 1786 - 40 rubles, in 1804 - 60 rubles.
The landowners took money that they did not intend to return. As a result, the government increased the authorized capital several times, and by 1786 it amounted to 6 million rubles. Due to the lack of banking specialists in Russia, the correct management of accounting affairs was very poor - not only in Dvoryansky, but also in other banks. Therefore, the government had to hire “Germans”, i.e. foreigners, and assign “trainees” to them for training. The main source of replenishment of deposits was still the state.
Initially, the Noble Bank did not accept private deposits, and if it did, only as an exception and for 1% of the amount paid to the bank. Now the following rules were established: the bank accepted deposits with the condition of paying 5% per annum. The number of first investors was small (in 1774 there were only 58 deposits) - this is not surprising. As expected, bank offices were unable not only to pay interest, but also to issue deposits on demand! The Moscow office of the Noble Bank even had to admit itself insolvent.
Higher government circles expressed concern about the current situation and the bank was asked to separate private deposits from other capital; deposits received guarantees from the government. Deposits were given selectively, “ according to seniority, who first filed an announcement about the return.”
The experience of several years of managing the Noble Bank demonstrated the great desire of landowners to take money, but not give it back. The question arose about replenishing banking capital in addition to government funds, and therefore in 1770 they decided to resort to the practice of accepting deposits.

Bank for merchants - “Bank for improvement at the St. Petersburg port of commerce” (1754-1782)
The government paid priority attention to the nobles, but it could not and did not want to completely ignore the interests of other classes, in particular the merchants. The merchants needed powerful financial support from the state (as the only source of receiving substantial sums of money), in particular, cheap credit.
In 1754, during the reign of Elizaveta Petrovna, on the initiative of the restless Shuvalov, the “Bank for Correction at the St. Petersburg Port of Commerce” was created. Since the bank was state-owned, it was placed under the leadership of the Commerce Collegium (hence its name - Commercial).
Soon the bank's affairs fell into disarray. Firstly, loans were used by a limited group of merchants (they even began to engage in usurious transactions, lending money on interest to poor merchants at the rate of 30%); secondly, most clients were “ defaulted on paying their debts“; thirdly, the government began to appropriate the bank’s meager capital to issue loans to the nobles.
As a result, in 1770 the Commercial Bank ceased operations, but formally existed until 1782, when it was finally liquidated; the remaining funds were transferred to the Noble Bank.

Copper (1758-1763) and Artillery (1760-1763) banks of Russia
When the overwhelming mass of the assets of the Noble Bank was spent, those who wanted to receive more, and those who had not yet had time, turned out to be very large. Therefore, to meet their needs, the state (according to the project of the energetic Shuvalov) creates additional banks: in 1758 - “Banking office for the circulation of copper money within Russia” (the so-called Copper Bank) and in 1760 - “Bank of Artillery and Engineering corps” (the so-called Artillery Bank).
The Copper Bank (authorized fund - 2 million rubles in copper money) was created to attract silver coins to the treasury. Loans were issued against bills of exchange (the bill of exchange charter appeared back in 1729) in copper coins at the rate of 6%, and were to be repaid according to the following scheme: 75% in silver coins, 25% in copper coins. Loans were issued under the same conditions as the Noble Bank.

For the first time, a very important provision appears in the charter of the Copper Bank - it was allowed to give money “as a loan for bills” to merchants, merchants, manufacturers and factory owners (factories). The biggest jackpot was hit by Yekaterinburg factory owners, who appropriated almost all the capital, surprising even their contemporaries with the size of the “loan.” Upon her accession to the throne, Catherine II issued a special decree to collect loans from factory owners, but most of the money was never returned.
The Artillery Bank was created with government money; the old copper cannons had to be minted into coins and a bank was opened with the created capital. The bank's income was supposed to be used to improve artillery...
As a result, the story with the previous banks repeated itself - huge sums were issued to unknown people (the bank’s biggest client was the creator himself, Shuvalov), it was not possible to repay the loans, public funds continued to be embezzled.
In 1763, it was decided to disband both banks. Exactly how many loans were given out and how much money was made from the melting down of the cannons remains unknown to this day, since accounting was in its infancy. The Special Senate Commission could not even establish the approximate expenses of the banks, in particular the Artillery. Moreover, financial fraud occurred during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763)! According to the most conservative estimates, a third of Russia’s annual budget has been siphoned off from the treasury – through the Copper and Artillery banks – in 8 years!

Assignation banks (1769-1843) of Russia
On January 9, 1769, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Catherine II founded Assignment Banks, designed to replenish the constantly needy treasury. As an immediate goal, banks were supposed to replace full-fledged small change with paper money, more convenient for circulation (in Western Europe, banks performed similar functions back in the last century).


Former FINEK (now St. Petersburg State Economic University) from Sadovaya Street

As a result, the Assignation Bank was a depository bank intended to regulate paper money circulation and did not have the right to carry out credit operations.
For the entire reign of Catherine and subsequent rulers, up to the 40s. XIX century The issue of banknotes was steadily increasing - the printing press was supposed to save Russia. By 1817, the number of banknotes reached a huge figure - about 1 billion rubles!
Along with the final withdrawal of banknotes from circulation and their replacement, according to the manifesto on June 13, 1843, with state credit notes, the State Bank of Assignations ceased to exist. On January 1, 1849, the banknotes were cancelled.

State Loan Bank (1786-1860)
In July 1786, by decree of Mother Empress Catherine II the Great, the Noble Bank was reorganized into the State Loan Bank.
The terms of the loan are constantly improving and reach a 20-year repayment period for the nobles (remember that the money was originally supposed to be repaid within three years). Loans are issued against peasant souls, factory-inhabited estates, and stone houses at an interest rate of 5% per annum. Every four years, the corresponding part of the estate (subject to repayment of the loan) returned to the full ownership of the landowner. The bank was allowed to carry out deposit operations with a payment on deposits of 4.5%.


There is now an Institute of Precision Mechanics (ITMO), if it hasn’t been closed

The most outstanding step in this direction was the reform of the monetary system of Russia in 1839-1843, initiated and implemented during the reign of Nicholas I. The improvement of the monetary system, which was aimed at introducing new principles of its organization and eliminating depreciated government bonds from circulation, began with the adoption of the Manifesto of 1839 “On structure of the monetary system." The basis for monetary circulation was the silver ruble and a mandatory banknote rate was established: 3 rubles. 50 kopecks banknotes = 1 rub. silver In 1843, banknotes began to be gradually withdrawn from circulation and exchanged at a mandatory rate for banknotes, freely exchangeable for silver.
In accordance with it, all transactions in Russia had to be concluded exclusively in silver. Simultaneously with this act, a decree “On the establishment of the Silver Coin Deposit Office at the Commercial Bank” was published. The depository office accepted deposits in silver coins for storage and issued in return deposit tickets (analogous to modern electronic cards) for the corresponding amounts. Tickets issued under the constant control of the state were 100% backed by the silver equivalent.
Reforms a century and a half ago became the basis for the mechanism of the monetary system, which is still being improved to this day.

Exchanges

Exchanges have not replaced fairs. Both coexisted for several centuries. Exchanges are a critical component of market infrastructure. Back at the end of the 17th century. they were designated as a meeting place for bankers, traders, merchants, stockbrokers and bank agents, commission agents and other persons.

They began to be called exchanges in Bruges (Holland), where they took place near the van der Buers mansion. This lord, when building the mansion, decorated its pediment with the coat of arms of his noble family with the image of three wallets (purses). In other cities, these meetings of merchants and bankers were called differently: in Lyon - “Place of Exchanges”; in the cities of the Hansa - by Merchant Colleges, in Marseille - by Lodges. The different names are explained by the fact that special buildings were not immediately built for such meetings. In Holland (Bruges) the stock exchange appeared in 1409, Antwerp - 1460, Amsterdam - 1530, London - 1554, Paris - 1563, Berlin - 1716, New York - 1772.

But in the ancient trade zone of the Mediterranean, exchanges arose back in the 14th century, i.e., the city-republics of Italy were in the lead: Venice, Genoa, Florence, as well as the large trading centers of the Iberian Peninsula - Valencia, Barcelona. And in the era of Ancient Rome, in the 2nd century. n. e., merchant meetings were held under the name fora vendalia (“Market for sale” - lat.).

During the short hours of activity, stock exchanges are a tightly packed, noisy crowd. Here transactions were concluded at once - commodity, bill, insurance. At the same time, it was a market: commodity, money, and securities. Purchases in Amsterdam, as well as in England and around Paris, were carried out on samples of goods. At the same time, a securities market emerged in Amsterdam - shares of the East India Company, which can be called the first stock exchange. Government bonds were sold in Venice and Florence at the beginning of the 14th century. Thus, the first stock exchanges arose in the Mediterranean back in the 14th century.

The first money - a symbol, i.e. paper money - appeared back in the 9th century. n. e. in China. But this greatest discovery for economic life was not in demand. In the XVI-XVII centuries. Paper money began to be used in Europe. The first innovation in this regard was back in the 13th century. became a bill of exchange in the city-republics of Italy, and government loan bonds appeared there. They were followed by bank notes of various origins.

A characteristic feature of the activities of exchanges already in the 17th century. there was a rapid transition from securities to money, and vice versa. Easy liquidity and active circulation were one of the secrets of business success in the economy of Holland and England in the 16th-17th centuries. (liquidity is the easy conversion of material assets into cash).

In the countries of the Middle East, South Asia, and the Far East there were no institutions (institutions) like the Amsterdam or London exchanges. There were many fairs in the East: in India, in the countries of the Arab Caliphate, and less often in China. In the Islamic East, fairs were called "Mausim". Indeed, when the monsoon winds blew, many merchant ships from India, Indonesia, and North Africa came to the Red Sea harbors. Their holds were filled with goods: pepper, varnish, incense, tobacco, nutmeg, camphor, cloves, sandalwood, porcelain, musk, indigo, drugs, incense, diamonds, gold-woven fabrics, coral. In the opposite direction, the ships were loaded with Persian wine and silver. The busiest fairs were in Egypt, Syria, and Arabia.

Banks

During the “dark ages” of the Middle Ages (Early Period), there were no banks anywhere in the world. The first bankers of the Christian Mediterranean can be called money changers. Banking in Europe tried three times before the Industrial Revolution in England to take a dominant position in the economy, but failed.

The path of its city-republics turned out to be almost a dead end under the conditions of the feudal system and decentralization of the country. It was the Italians who sailed the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas, reached India and China, traded in France, Spain and Portugal, England and the Netherlands. But their main occupation was monetary transactions. Florence supplied merchants with cash and provided cheap credit. From the Black Sea to the North Sea, from Aragon to Armenia, operations with money that were not easy at that time were carried out: transfers from account to account, transfers from one branch to another (transfer - from the Latin transferre - to transfer, transfer).

The Florentines, in a difficult struggle with other companies, conquered the English market, which contributed to the development of operations in this country. But in the middle of the 14th century. luck left the Florentines. Italy, like a number of other countries, was visited by the Black Death (plague), economic growth gave way to decline. The economic rise of Genoa in 1550-1560. was explained by the foresight of bankers who correctly assessed the results of the aggressive policy of Spain and Portugal in Central and South America. The Genoese acted as creditors to the Spanish crown and took control of the delivery of gold and silver to Europe. They pushed Antwerp out of the world market and took its place. No one before the Genoese had used bills of exchange in circulation so widely. With the help of bills of exchange, they controlled the circulation of gold in Europe.

The bankers' activities were also helped by the fair in Piacenza, where clearing (a system of non-cash payments) in international trade was organized. The crisis came at the beginning of the 17th century, due to the fact that at the end of the 16th century. the white metal flooded the markets. This led to the collapse of the securities market in Genoa.

The dominance of banks was restored within the quadrangle: Amsterdam - London - Paris - Geneva. The leaders of this four in the 18th century. steel banks of Amsterdam.

A new stage in the development of banks began at the end of the 18th - 19th centuries. In the 19th century The network of market infrastructure (advertising agencies, insurance companies, etc.) will expand.

The economic history of the medieval East began, as elsewhere, at the turn of the 20th century. n. e.

By the end of the reign of Peter I, the understanding of the need to create a state bank modeled on European ones was also maturing in the upper strata of Russian society. Several projects for his organization are known, submitted in 1728, 1731-1732, 1738, 1744 and 1747, but not implemented. Nevertheless, the widespread use of loan operations and bill circulation in the country required institutionalization.

Development of loan operations

Since 1733, the Coinage Office began to issue so-called pawnshop loans to persons close to the court, secured by gold, silver, precious stones and products made from them. The office received the right to issue loans in an amount not exceeding 75% of the value of gold and silver (at the so-called specified price) for a period of one year with the right to defer payment for up to three years, after which the unredeemed mortgages were turned over to the state. A decree on this on the proposal of Privy Councilor Count G.I. Golovkina appeared on January 8, 1733. The amounts that the Coin Office could operate were extremely limited, and with the establishment of the first state-owned banks in 1754, its credit operations ceased.

Bill of exchange charter

As in Europe, the promissory note in Russia was used for processing a commercial loan, making payments and transferring money and was already known in the 17th century. Bills of exchange were also used in relations between merchants and the treasury. Bills of exchange “for government money” came into use at the very end of the 17th century. when merchants pay customs duties.

At the beginning of the 18th century. The state, through bills of exchange, began to transfer money abroad through foreign merchants, mainly for the maintenance of the Russian army during its stay abroad. This was soon legalized by a personal decree of Peter I of April 15, 1716.

In 1729, the Bill of Exchange Charter was adopted, which legislatively regulated bill transactions and the circulation of bills. The bill of exchange charter was borrowed from German bill law, common in Sweden. At the same time, it can be said that the introduction of the Bill of Exchange Charter, at least in the first decades, was a measure more calculated for the future than one that consolidated Russian practice, and went ahead of the bill circulation itself, which had a very limited development in Russia, not extending beyond the capital region.

According to the Bill of Exchange Charter of 1729, the circulation of promissory notes and bills of exchange was legalized in Russia. Bills of exchange were used mainly in foreign trade (they were also called “fair bills”, since they were also widely used to transfer large sums of money in connection with large fairs).

However, the most common in Russia not only in the 18th century, but also in the 19th century. There were simple bills of exchange, and the form of a bill of exchange was used much less frequently and mainly for the transfer of government money from one government institution to another. The charter of 1729 provided for a bill of exchange form of payment not only between private individuals, but also with the treasury.

Since 1728, the practice was finally established when governors and collegium officials could act as drawers of bills on behalf of the state, and from 1740 they could also be issued by city clerks.

First State Bank 1753

The establishment of the very first state bank in Russia was associated not with the function of developing monetary circulation, but with a different task: to defeat the growing process of alienation of noble estates for debts. By decree to the Senate, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna on May 1, 1753 ordered the formation of a State Bank in Russia for credit support of the nobility (more precisely, two banks: in St. Petersburg and Moscow), and at the same time the same decree spoke of the formation of another bank - the so-called Bank for Correction at the St. Petersburg port of commerce, the establishment of which became one of the undertakings of the policy of enlightened absolutism.

Banks were a new endeavor in Russia, therefore, during their creation, foreign experience was actively borrowed; even the wording of the decree itself indicated familiarity with the experience of the Swedish Riksbank. At the same time, it must be said that the first Russian banks did not become a copy of the European ones and the established state bank, unlike the Swedish one, was not given the right to issue paper money - its bank notes or obligations for the amount of accepted deposits.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank was created in Amsterdam, through which all major transactions were paid. This led to a rapid increase in his holdings. According to historians, at the time of its greatest prosperity, the Amsterdam Exchange Bank kept deposits of more than a thousand tons of pure silver. But the bank ended badly: having invested significant funds in the Dutch East India Company, which was engaged in overseas trade and the conquest of colonies, it went bankrupt after it and was liquidated at the end of the 18th century.

Four centuries ago, little Holland was a great maritime power. It was the Dutch who were the first to discover Australia, calling it “New Holland,” and it is no coincidence that the northernmost sea of ​​Europe was named after the Dutch navigator Willem Barents.

Little Holland four centuries ago was also a huge colonial power - its overseas possessions stretched from America to Indonesia. Suffice it to recall that the first European settlement on the site of modern New York in the 17th century was called “New Amsterdam”. It was the Dutchman Peter Minate who bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians for an amount equivalent today to 700 dollars...

In a word, Holland was then a strong and highly developed country with active trade and a rich economy. But a serious problem for the Dutch economy was the instability of the monetary system - there were many different silver coins in circulation, and the silver content of even nominally identical coins varied greatly. To develop the economy, an accurate and stable monetary equivalent was required. The richest merchants in Holland offered a way out by founding, together with the authorities of Amsterdam, a special bank on January 31, 1609, which went down in the history of the world economy as the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank - Amsterdam Exchange Bank. From now on, according to the law, all transactions worth over 600 guilders (about 9 kg of pure silver) had to be paid only through the Exchange Bank. The new bank not only concentrated all major payments and settlements in one institution, but, in fact, introduced a single unit of account for everyone - not in the form of a real coin with different content and quality of metal, but in the form of a calculated “ideal” guilder. All major merchants in Holland made a deposit of at least 300 guilders to the Razmennaya Bank. Bank specialists checked the quality of the coins and the exact content of precious metals in them, opening appropriate accounts for “depositors”.

The obligation to carry out large payments only through the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank led to a rapid increase in deposits. According to historians, at the time of its greatest prosperity, the Amsterdam Exchange Bank kept deposits of more than a thousand tons of pure silver. Amsterdamsche Wisselbank deposit receipts were already circulating on the market as an independent monetary instrument in the mid-17th century, becoming the first prototype of European paper money. At the same time, for the sake of its stability (and, accordingly, the stability of the entire Dutch financial system), the bank was prohibited from issuing loans not only to individuals, but even to the authorities. The withdrawal of private deposits was also limited - by law, the withdrawal of a deposit in silver or gold led to a loss of 2% or 2.5% of the amount, respectively. A similar system, based on the activities of the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank, gave the Dutch economy a stable financial basis. The settlement “Dutch guilder” (in Holland itself it was called the “bank guilder”) began to be widely used in international trade, and the Amsterdam Exchange Bank itself served as an example for many countries, becoming the prototype of the first state central banks in Europe.

However, the ending of the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank story was not very optimistic. The Dutch authorities and bank managers could not resist the temptation to put the accumulated tons of precious metal into circulation. The bank began to secretly invest in the activities of the Dutch East India Company, a semi-state joint stock company engaged in overseas trade and the conquest of colonies.

While the colonialists prospered, the Amsterdam Exchange Bank remained stable. But by the end of the 18th century, the Dutch lost the colonial wars with England, and the East India Company went bankrupt. The scandal revealed that almost half of the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank's assets had disappeared, becoming bad loans to the government and colonial adventurers. On the verge of bankruptcy, the Changing Bank of Amsterdam, once the best in Europe, was liquidated in 1795.

06/12/2015Researchers involved in the study of monetary circulation and coin counting have been arguing about the nature of circulation and the origin of coin-weight systems for almost four centuries. Some sources contain terms that were used to designate penny units or fur commodity-money: kuna, veksha, cattle, etc. Historians claim that these monetary units were the skins of the corresponding animals that were used in circulation on the money market. However, the rapid development of production, the deepening of the social division of labor and the improvement of commodity-money relations already in the 8th-9th centuries led to the displacement of such commodity-money from the market and their replacement with coins. In the XII-XIII centuries, during the so-called “coinless period,” fur commodity-money again acquired a certain role in the market. International relations expanded the currency range of the ancient Russian state. The development of trade relations with neighbors influenced the spread of the Western European (Carolingian) pound, which was equal to 50 kunas. It is with the help coons(1/25 hryvnia) a conversion was carried out from the Western European system of weight units to the Byzantine one. All state finances were in charge of the treasury, sectoral management of affairs was carried out by bodies such as orders, which originated at the beginning of the 16th century. The state order was in charge of national institutions, the zemsky order was responsible for police functions, the local order was in charge of state lands, etc. In the system of collecting taxes from the population, the main role was played by the order of the Great Parish, where the majority of the collected funds were sent. In order to better and more correctly assess the solvency of residents of individual localities, special financial orders were organized - “quarters” (“cheti”), which were responsible for certain state areas. Each of them was named after the main city under its jurisdiction: Galitskaya, Vladimirskaya, Novgorodskaya, Nizhny Novgorod quarters. The order as a body was liquidated after the loss of temporarily conquered territories. The system of public finance management itself did not have a coherent order, and it was possible to streamline it only in 1655 with the creation Accounting order by decree of Alexei Mikhailovich. The first merchant associations arose in the cities of medieval Rus' already in the 17th century. And in 1665, Pskov governor A.M. Ordin-Nashchekin opened a small bank to support small-scale merchants. It did not exist for long and was closed when the voivode was recalled to Moscow. One of the serious reasons for the development of banks was the acute shortage of silver. In pursuit of a solution to the problem, in 1654 the government equalized the value of copper and silver money, however, this decision only provoked inflation due to the low purchasing power of copper. Silver and copper coins had the same value, but their purchasing power was different. The situation was further complicated by the fact that the state paid servicemen in copper and collected taxes in silver. After Copper Riot in 1662 the government completely removed copper money from circulation. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I began the reform of Russian finance. Large silver coins began to be issued - rubles, and also fifty dollars(50 kopecks). To streamline the country's financial system, the tsar created the Chamber Board for managing state revenues, the State Office Board for managing expenses, and the Revision Board, which controlled the first two instances. In addition, Peter I actively encouraged the development of entrepreneurship, but at the same time prevented the emergence of independent credit institutions. As historians suggest, such a decision by the head of state was caused by the need to finance reforms, which is easier to do when funds are concentrated in the tsarist hands. The history of banks in Russia dates back to January 8, 1733 when Empress Anna Ioannovna signed the decree “On the rules for borrowing money from the Coin Office.” Thus began the 127-year period of functioning of the unique Russian pre-reform banking system. In its development, the banking system of the Russian Empire went through two stages. At the first stage (from 1733 to 1860), pre-reform banks were liquidated and the State Bank was established, and the specificity of the Russian banking system was that almost all banks were state-owned. The second period (1860–1917) was characterized by changes in the banking structure of the country, in particular the liquidation of the State Loan Bank. The amounts operated by the Coin Office were very limited, and they were issued only on the security of gold and silver at the rate of 8% per annum for a period of one year with right of deferment. Only courtiers had the opportunity to use the services of the office. The efficiency of the Coin Office became more noticeable a few years later: from 1734 to 1752, the issuance of loans increased more than 16 times (from 400 to 6452 loans). The decree of Elizabeth Petrovna of May 13, 1754 on the establishment of the state Loan Bank laid the beginning of the organization of state mortgage loans for representatives of the nobility, and also commodity credit for merchants.According to this decree, the bank consisted of two independent institutions: the Bank for the Nobility (offices were located in St. Petersburg and Moscow) and the Bank for Correction at the St. Petersburg Port of Commerce. The first one soon became known as Noble, second - Commercial or Merchant.As in neighboring European countries, until the mid-19th century, real estate was considered the most reliable security. The Treasury provided funds for issuing loans to mortgage banks at 6-8% per annum with private loans up to 20% and higher. Significantly smaller amounts were allocated to merchant banks for commercial loans. In the pre-reform period in Russia, loans by mortgage banks were issued on the basis of an approximate estimate of the landowner's income as a soul owner. The capital of a bank client was established in accordance with the number of revision souls that belonged to him, and the loan was secured by land with peasants attached to it. This lending procedure, on the one hand, allowed landowners to take out fairly large loans, on the other hand, created great difficulties for state mortgage banks. Even with a very moderate interest rate, it was often necessary to pay the interest alone in excess of the income from the estate. As a result, banks issued funds received from the treasury as loans, but were unable to return them, since landowners did not pay interest on the loan and did not repay it, and confiscation of estates was very rare. For this reason, state-owned banks did not accept deposits, being unable to return them and pay interest, and the government from time to time was faced with the question of the need to provide these banks with new funds from the treasury. However, Since 1770, deposits began to be accepted with interest paid on them , which was made at the rate of 5% per annum. With low commercial and industrial activity associated with the dominance of subsistence farming, this 5% per annum on deposits was the basis for more than a century of the state's banking monopoly. Russia remained the only country in the world that accepted unlimited deposits in state-owned banks and charged compound interest on them. Thus, the owners received deposit notes, which could be transferred, like money, to other persons, receiving at least another 4%. As a result, almost all accumulations of monetary capital were concentrated in state banks. Due to low economic activity, most of the deposits remained unused. This was the reason that, already from the end of the 18th century, the treasury began to resort to “borrowing” from the Borrowing Bank to cover budget deficits, the share of which was 5-8% and increased in case of crises or wars to 12-15%. operations of the Noble Bank, the treasury provided working capital of 750 thousand rubles. The bank issued loans for up to 3 years from 500 to 10 thousand rubles per person at the rate of 6% per annum, secured by gold, silver, diamonds and pearls. The unredeemed collateral was subject to sale at auction with the excess returned to the borrower after the debt was repaid. Since 1770, the bank began to accept deposits with a payment of 5% per annum. Initially, only Great Russian nobles and foreigners who accepted Russian citizenship had the right to use a bank loan. In 1766, noble landowners of Livonia and Estland received this right. Ten years later - the Belarusian nobility, and in 1783 - the Smolensk and Little Russian nobility. The task of the Merchant Bank was to provide Russian merchants engaged in foreign trade with cheap credit, which contributed to the development of foreign trade, the activation of the trade balance and the strengthening of the exchange rate. To carry out operations, the bank received 500 thousand rubles from the treasury. He issued loans at the rate of 6% per annum to Russian merchants who traded only at the port in St. Petersburg, secured by goods in the amount of 75% of their value and for a period of up to one year. However, to obtain a loan, a certificate from the Commerce Board and a guarantee from the merchants were required. The Merchant Bank was headed by the president of the Commerce Board. The limited list of functions of the bank and the insignificant capital at its disposal were the reason that the bank's funds distributed to merchants turned into perpetual and long-term loans. The bank's cash registers were empty; the income was not enough even to pay the salaries of its employees. In 1764, the bank's capital, amounting to 802 thousand rubles, was completely issued as loans. The total amount of overdue loans was 408 thousand rubles, half of which was repaid by the debtors by 1766. In 1770, the Merchant Bank practically ceased its activities, although it was officially liquidated in 1782. The remaining funds of the Merchant Bank were transferred to the Noble Bank. Read about one of the key financial reforms and a new stage in the development of the domestic banking system, the main feature of which was the liquidation of state credit institutions and the creation of commercial banks