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

REFORM OF RUSSIA'S FINANCES AND CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION 83

of the crisis dated back to the reign of Catherine II. In the second half

of the 18th century, the expenses of the government had risen very
sharply, while the revenues had failed to keep pace. As a matter of
fact, the revenues had fallen off - relatively speaking - as a result of
lower tax income due to Catherine's generous gifts to private individuals
of large tracts of state lands and a great number of state peasants. A
few figures will illustrate this trend: in 1784 the state had a revenue
of 40 millions rubles while its expenditures were 58 millions; in 1790
the expenses had increased to 73.5 millions, while the revenue h,ad
remained more or less the same, 44.5 millions.^1 Under Paul I there
was no apparent decrease in this rising deficit, and it reached UIl-
controllable proportions in the first decade of the reign of Alexander I.
Thus in 1803 revenue was at 95.5 millions rubles, the expenses at 109.4
(the relative improvement was due to the brief period of peace for the
duration of Paul's alliance with France), in 1805 the revenue had in-
creased to only 100 millions, while the expenses had reached 125.3
millions; in the next two years the deficit almost doubled and in 1807
the expenditures were 170 millions against 121 millioIls in receipts.
The disastrous war which ended with the Treaty of Tilsit resulted in
the following figures for the budget of 1809: 127.5 millions of revenue
and 278.5 millions of expenditures! 2
The treasury had to be filled again, and the minds of all Russian
officials were busy seeking a method of solution. The first recourse
was the floating of a loan abroad. Catherine II had done this, and her
example was followed by her successors. In 1798 the Bureau of Court
Bankers was created for the express purpose of negotiating foreign
loans. The Bureau remained in existence until 1811 when the reor·
ganized Ministry of Finance took over its function. As time went on,
however, it became increasingly more difficult to negotiate foreign
loans. Moreover, in the long run, it was proving to be quite an
expensive expedient, for the commission and conversion rates were

1 Jean de Bloch, Les Finances de la Russie au Ige s. I (Paris 1899), p. 78 (figures
are in ruble-assignats).
2 Ibid., I, p. 113. Slightly different figures, based on a more detailed computation
in Khromov, Ekonomicheskoe raz:uitie Rossii (Moscow 1950), pp. 440-441 and 446-

447. From it we excerpt the following table:

1803

1805

1807

1808

ordinary receipts

101,597

107,180

114,765

122,633

extraord. ree's.

(borrowings)

9,160

29,606

39,144

39,229

(figures are in 1,000 rubles-assignats)

Expenditures

109,442

125,449

159,021

248,213