| 1839 - 1843. The Fiscal Reform of Е. F. Kankrin |
The Fiscal Reform of E. F. Kankrin
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E. F. Kankrin |
The fiscal reform developed by E.F. Kankrin, was carried out to put the monetary system in the Russian Empire in order. Assignations issued by the Government in the first half of the 19th century did not have any stable gold backing and therefore their rate fell considerably by late 1830ies. In those days there existed several different exchange rates for exchange of assignations into metallic coins: public rate, poll-tax paying rate, stock exchange rate, etc. All this contributed to the instability of the Russian financial system and complicated control over monetary circulation.
The reform began in 1839 with the issue of a new silver rouble equal to 3.5 roubles in assignations. Later on new deposit notes were issued and their backing was based on the new silver roubles. Finally, new banknotes were issued in 1843 and were declared the main type of paper money (by that time the Government had bought old assignations off the population at the rate of 1: 3.5).
The reform made it possible to establish a stable fiscal system in Russia that remained as such until the beginning of the Crimean War. New banknotes were of good printing quality and were trusted by the Russian population.
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