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

REFORM OF RUSSIA'S FINANCES AND CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION 95

and regulate speculation on copper, an activity which for a long time
has been hampering trade and making small-scale commercial trans-
actions a very risky affair. 1 True enough, so far the Treasury has
benefited from the differential in the rate of silver and copper, but it
is a very unhealthy and questionable advantage. In the long run it is
bound to have detrimental effects on the country's economy. In
abandoning this undesirable "profiteering" from the disorders of the
monetary system,

"the government will derive two advantages: 1. the circulation of

credit notes of private banks will decrease the domestic need for

silver, will shorten its [silver's] circuit, and, as a result, its larger

mass will balance the burden of foreign credit; 2. the circulation

of these credit notes will also diminish the need for small change

and thereby increase the quantity of copper goods. The foregoing

advantages are so notable that the establishment of private banks

should be promoted by all means for the sake of good national

economy." 2

The long term measures just described should be implemented by a

series of steps to be taken immediately. We recall that Speransky has

argued that the assignats are only a hidden state debt. To end the

chaos which results from the unregulated issuance of paper money and

to prepare the way for a new and stable system, the government's first

step should be a clear and emphatic declaration that it recognizes this

debt and assumes the obligation to redeem it. Such a declaration, argues

Speransky, will have primarily a psychological role in restoring con-

fidence in the government's policies and thereby it will contribute to

a rise in the value of the assignats.^3 After the country's faith has been

restored, the next step of the programme can be taken: reduction of

the quantity of assignats in circulation. This will be achieved by

stopping further issues of paper money, by reducing expenditures, and

by floating a domestic loan for a "caisse d'amortissement." 4

It is easy to advocate cuts in government expenses, but in a period

of unsettled political conditions, with the threat of war hanging over

the country, it is not a simple operation to perform. Speransky was too

close to the Emperor to ignore the state of affairs in the world and

1 Plan Finansov, Sec. 176, p. 63 and pp. 47, 49.

2 Plan Finansov, p. 51.

3 This was also the reasoning of Thornton in 1802, incorporated in the English

Bullion Report issued in early 1811, too late to have a direct influence on

Speransky's plan, but whose preparatory stages might have been known to

Speransky. On Thornton's ideas, d. Rist op. cit., pp. 131-132, 152.

4 Plan Finansov, Sees. 22-27, pp. 8-9.