Michael Speransky. Statesman of Imperial Russia, 1772–1839 - Marc Raeff

92 REFORM OF RUSSIA'S FINANCES AND CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION

must be noted more particularly, as it is the very core of his proposal

for a new system of taxing the country's agricultural wealth. It marks

a new departure in the fiscal and economic thinking of the Russian

government. From that time on it will be included in all reform plans

and projects. The meaning and full import of the phrase is stated

clearly by Speransky in another part of the Financial Plan, and the

passage is worth quoting in its entirety:

"The first source of new revenue is the land tax. The poll tax

now in existence has no true foundation. The best proof for this

is that the good common sense of landowners and state peasants

does not recognize it in fact anywhere in the sante sense as the

government. Nowhere, in no village, is the tax repartitioned

according to the number of 'revision souls' [i.e. taxable male souls

as listed in the government census] of which many do not exist

any more, while others have come to the village recently. On the

contrary, everywhere the repartition is made on the basis of the

amount of the tiaglo [i.e. a figure expressing the relation between

the acreage tilled and the number of workers in a household].

Therefore, this [poll tax] is in truth nothing else than an addition

to the quitrent. Consequently, the poll tax even now exists only

on paper and in the accounts of the government. In reality, it is

a land tax, but a tax established on very inadequate and incorrect

principles. Abolish this [poll] tax and introduce a land tax in its

stead." 1

Clearly, such a new land tax would relate the fiscal burden directly
to the productivity of the land and of agricultural labor.
The establishment of an orderly and effective system of taxation is
but half of the battle won. The goal will be achieved only with the

help of a proper financial administration. To this end, Speransky

proposes to introduce a standard schedule of the state's receipts and

expenditures which would serve as a basis for the yearly budget. To

insure budgetary uniformity and order, government accounting should
be done in terms of silver rubles instead of the fluctuating assignats
and multiple currencies. For the duration of the period when a stable
relationship between silver and paper will yet not have been achieved,
the yearly budget must also fix this relationship for the entire coming
fiscal year. Once established, the budget cannot be changed during the
fiscal year by the Minister of Finance. Any change - only for reasons
of absolute necessity - must be approved by the Emperor and its
implementation supervised by the Council of State. In no case should
new expenditures be incurred if no equivalent source of revenue has

1 Plan Finansov, Sec. 120-121, p. 26.