Go to ...

The Newspapers

Gathering and spreading news from various Russian Newspapers

The Newspapers on Google+The Newspapers on LinkedInRSS Feed

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

What is not said in the concepts for the President

In recent years, and only heard about the need to reform the state and public institutions. The “converters” are obviously not aware that to this day there is neither theoretical nor practical evidence based on the quality of institutions and economic growth. Everything else is hypocritical, “kudryntsi”, “Stolypin” and other sects do not know the institutional history of their own country.

photo: Natalia Gubernatorova

Chronicle of medieval Russia significant adoption in 1649 an outstanding document of the era — Council code. The value of the act can not be overestimated, it is enough to say that he acted (of course, with changes and amendments) for nearly 200 years, until in 1832 appeared the code of laws of the Russian Empire, prepared under the direction of Mikhail Speransky.

Conciliar the code was compiled on the basis of how the Russian (the Law books of 1497 and 1550), and the best examples of foreign legislation: in particular, the Lithuanian Statute of 1588, specialized in civil relations, and Byzantine of kormchej of the book, regulating primarily the functioning of the Orthodox Church and the religious courts.

In the code present the separation of Church, state, civil, criminal, family law, and litigation. I note that the drafting and adoption of the sobornoye ulozheniye, legally enshrines the rights absolutism and override the boyar aristocracy, which led to power of the Romanovs, was in the interests of the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

In short, the legislation for those times best.

How significant step forward was the adoption of the sobornoye ulozheniye, evidenced, for example, comparing two repressive practices that existed in Russia during the reign of Ivan the terrible and after only a few decades in the era of Alexei Mikhailovich.

When Ivan Vasilyevich the elite Moscow state “raised” so wrote historian Victor Pavlov, “depending on the degree of guilt and punishment are different: one cut alive into pieces, throw the other in boiling water, put on the third count. People are less known and therefore less guilty, just cut off the head.”

Now imagine some enshrined in the code the types of newly legalized executions: the death penalty by burning; corporal punishment through mutilation and infliction of pain, imprisonment in earthen, wooden or stone prison; the link as retribution for “high-born” individuals; confiscation of property.

The difference is, we agree, grinning, really is.

Of course, the easiest way is to call our ancestors barbarians, but this perepechatyvali offset by overseas practices of those times. Recall, numerous Church-approved the burning of the heretics (auto-da-Fe in Spain and Portugal or St. Bartholomew in France, which also happened for religious reasons. Incidentally, we did not lag behind: Chapter I Council code named “the blasphemers and Church rebels” — with sufficient evidence of guilt “rebels” have followed the above mentioned burning.

The adoption of the sobornoye ulozheniye — the unconditional legal “plus” the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich and at the same time the clearest example of the limited impact of the successfully reformed institutions on economic development. By the way, the current authors of appeals to urgently improve the institutions are not even aware that are only the successors of the historical habits, to believe in the miraculous nature of the one-stage framework of innovation, when the very next day the country will Wake up happy.

Well, took the then Conciliar the code and that is protected from errors and crashes the economy began to move forward by leaps and bounds? Not at all. In confirmation — a summary of the history of the Copper riot, which occurred in 1662, 13 years after the adoption of the Code. The riots clearly showed that high-quality institutional environment is not all that it takes to succeed.

Beginning in 1654 long that lasted 13 years, the war with the Commonwealth demanded from the Treasury a large expenditure. Careful tax increase has not produced results, and then a group of “reformers” led by Athanasius Ordinem-Nashokin proposed to conduct the issue — to start production of copper coins by denomination silver. To increase the production of silver coins Russia could not, because of their industrial silver mines, the country did not exist, and the precious metal was received from abroad.

All said and done, copper coins have started to mint at the same time in Moscow, Novgorod and Pskov. Now pay sovereign’s people were paid in copper, but taxes and fees were still going with silver. Mass production of copper money quickly led to their impairment and, despite vospitatelnyi Royal decree (to be!), to a significant increase in retail prices, especially for bread.

A riot broke out in the summer of 1662. The formal reason was suspicion of the king’s father-in-law of Ilya Miloslavsky, differed irrepressible passion for bribery (and when we except, perhaps, the Stalinist era, was different?), and several members of the Boyar Duma, no, not in the failed economic policy, and that they allegedly colluded with the Commonwealth, one result of which was higher prices for everything.

An angry crowd of up to 5 thousand people habitually defeated at home the main “traitors” and had not moved to the Kremlin as during the Salt riot of 1648, and in Kolomenskoe, where the Royal Palace and spent his “vacation” Alexis.

The king, gain populist-demagogic experience with crowd even during the Salt riot, immediately promised to reduce taxes and to punish the careless barons. Celebitchy, satisfied the Royal assurances, have gone back home, but on the way met a “second wave” of protesters angered at the mother see of occurring events. In those days in Moscow servicemen had started to destroy plastered around town leaflets (“leaves of thieves”), which focuses on the role of high-level “criminals” in the people’s impoverishment.

The people moved back where it was waited already by Strelets regiments and foreign mercenaries. The king ordered to disperse the crowd: as a result of up to a thousand people were killed and drowned, and another to 3 thousand arrested. The rebels tortured, cut off arms, legs and fingers, denounced persons and finally was banished to exile in the farthest reaches of the Russia: Siberia, Kazan, Astrakhan. Some “lucky” even more — their with his hands tied was put into a large boat and sank in the Moscow river. In addition to all literate Muscovites were obliged to hand over a handwriting sample to identify “authorship” of the leaflets, though the instigators were never found.

All these events occurred, let me remind you, when the “reformed” institutions that for the sake of the moment with ease the extraordinary were violated.

Copper money? Oh Yes — their production was discontinued the following year, 1663.

“Inexperienced were, — says one, the theory did not know. The important thing is that institutions work properly. Amazingly, exactly the same story, however, is not “copper,” and “assignation,” repeated through the century under Catherine II.

In 1769 Catherine introduced paper money, which hid the temptation to use the printing press to solve political and economic problems. Than Catherine’s courtiers shamelessly exploited: if in 1769, the total amount of issued banknotes was less than 3 million rubles, and the course assignation ruble to silver was $ 0,99/1, then in 1796 a volume of notes made up nearly 158 million rubles at the rate of 0.79/1 (in 1800, when Paul I, respectively, 213 million rubles and 0.66/1).

Moreover, emission of money lacked, and Catherine’s, the government increasingly resorted to foreign loans. In 1787-1792 years was made a foreign debt of 39 million rubles, six times more than in the previous 20 years. In 1793, only interest payments absorb an amount equivalent to 4/5 of the customs revenues. The court and the government felt great.

Today we talk about the inevitability of the next reform of the institutions. And the loudest shouting about this are those who was personally responsible for the deficit of the pension system, reducing the cost of education and medicine, high interest rates on loans destruction through exorbitant exchange rate of the remnants of industry, the direction of the Russian oil and gas revenues for the support of the American government. But the main thing — that they had once established the current rules of the game (those institutions).

Screwed up everywhere. Now, to gain a foothold in power, they have to change. And we?

Related posts:
Oil prices: not predictions, but a lot of fog
In the US businessmen are going to sue Visa and MasterCard
Supreme court explained that to be considered an interest-free loan given against receipt
Brent crude rose to $47,22 for U.S.


More Stories From Economy