In the second half of the 17th century, Afanasy Lavrentievich Ordin-Nashchokin tried to implement the reforms necessary for the Moscow state through reforms. He entered Russian history primarily as one of the prominent diplomats of his time. However, this nobleman proved himself in other fields. He is known as an economist, a prominent specialist in military affairs, and also as an organizer of the postal service.
The early years of A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin
The exact date of birth of Afanasy Lavrentievich is unknown. Most historians agree that he was born at the very beginning of the XVII century, possibly around 1605. It is also impossible to say exactly about the place of his birth. Some connect the origin of Ordin-Nashchokin with Opochka, others with Pskov.
If the date and place of birth of the future reformer are shrouded in mystery, then his education can be said with greater certainty. He was well versed in mathematics, and also spoke German and Latin. Since about the 20s. he carries out military service in Pskov. During this period, he made contacts with the entourage of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.
Since the 40s. Ordin-Nashchokin's diplomatic activity begins. Under 1642, his signature first appears in official documents. At the end of the war with Sweden, it was required to establish a new border between the two states, and it was the Pskov nobleman who was involved as an expert.
Russian-Swedish war of 1656-1658
Thanks to participation in the work on border delimitation, Ordin-Nashchokin became known in the capital's circles. Even more his merits were appreciated during the period of the next war between the Moscow kingdom and Sweden. Ordin-Nashchokin during this period acted as governor of the city of Druya ​​(modern Belarus), personally led troops to Dinaburg and led the assault on Drissa. During these years, Ordin-Nashchokin actually led Livonia. For all his services, in 1658 he was promoted to the Duma nobility, which subsequently allowed him to initiate a reform program. Ordin-Nashchokin was also part of the diplomatic corps, which made peace with Sweden. Largely thanks to his efforts, Russia managed to retain most of the conquered territories.
Reformation and the last years of life
For 1665-1667 years. accounts for the Ordin-Nashchokin Voivodeship in Pskov. During this period, he first embarked on transformations in the management system. For participating in the conclusion of the Andrusov Armistice (1667) he received the boyar rank and headed the Ambassadorial order. This meant that the activities of Ordin-Nashchokin became all-Russian. As chancellor, he managed to implement important reforms.
However, not all of them liked the ruling circles. Already in the early 70s, the reforms of the Ordin-Nashchokin caused more and more resistance. Because of this, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich thought about removing a too zealous converter. He is dismissed from the post of head of the Ambassadorial order. Seeing that his undertakings are not supported by the authorities, Ordin-Nashchokin leaves the civil service. In 1672, he became a monk in the Krypetsky monastery near Pskov. From time to time he acted as a diplomatic consultant at the request of the Moscow tsars, as, for example, when confirming the Andrusovsky truce in 1679. In 1680, he died.
Economic views
In order to understand which Ordin-Nashchokin reforms were ahead of their time, it is necessary to become more familiar with his views on the conduct of the national economy. Afanasy Lavrentievich left no programmatic work, but his point of view is reconstructed from numerous personally written messages and reports.
Towards the end of the 17th century, Russia's lagging behind the European powers became more and more obvious. Ordin-Nashchokin saw the reason for this in the prevailing among the authorities approach to trading activities only as a source of replenishment of the treasury. The reformer could not agree with this. He believed that in order to protect the country's economy from foreign dominance, it is necessary to develop its own productive forces. This was supposed to happen with the direct participation of the state, which would not limit private initiative. In short, the Ordin-Nashchokin reforms paved the way for entrepreneurship for the first time in Russian history.
Particularly indicative from this point of view in the economic program of Ordin-Nashchokin is the clause on the abolition of trade privileges to monasteries and foreigners. This allowed new segments of the population to enter the market. Ordin-Nashchokin was especially well acquainted with the state of affairs in trade when he was in Pskov. He saw very well that Russian merchants most often act as agents of foreign, because they do not have enough money to confront them. In addition, the Russian merchants were more concerned with internal problems and did not unite against foreign capital.
New Trade Charter of 1667
Reforms of the Ordin-Nashchokin were inspired by considerations that are in line with the pan-European economic trend of mercantilism. On their basis, on April 22, 1667, with his active participation and actual leadership, a new economic program was adopted, which went down in history under the name of the Novotrade Statute.
The essence of the reform of A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin was to change the procedure for levying trade duties. They were divided into two large groups: external (for goods that were imported into the Moscow kingdom) and internal. The former included import and purchase, and the latter were divided into ruble, second-hand and various fees.
Internal customs did not cover the entire territory of the state. There were markets that were not subject to duties, and trade in which was free (for example, the points of Moscow artisans). Basically, customs barriers existed for peasants who brought their products to another city and village. It was necessary to pay the fee once, after which a special document was issued. If the seller did not want or could not sell his product directly, then he transferred it into the wrong hands, in which case the reform of A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin provided for the payment of a small second-hand fee.
The size of the ruble duty in the Novotorgovaya charter was determined by the nature of the goods being sold. Some types of products were completely banned from sale: bread, hemp, raw silk. This was due to the fact that such transactions were completely under the jurisdiction of the state. The gradation of contributions for other goods was as follows: 10% of the cost of salt, 2.5% for furs, and 5% for other goods.
Foreign goods were exempted from the ruble duty if the merchant could prove that they were purchased to the proceeds from the sale of their own products or exchanged. The only condition was payment of duties on the domestic market of the country.
Customs control system
The reforms of the Ordin-Nashchokin reflected the main provisions of the policy of mercantilism. They also appeared in the organization of customs control. To check the documents, as well as the quality of goods imported into the country, a special institute of the customs head was introduced. If an individual merchant violated the provisions of the Novotrade Statute, the official should have driven him out of the market, publicly announcing the reason.
Goods sent abroad were subject to customs inspection twice. The first was carried out in the port of the city where the product was loaded onto the ship, and the second in Arkhangelsk, the only port connecting the Moscow kingdom with Europe.
At customs, they carefully monitored that smuggled products from precious metals were not exported. In fact, only this was affected by state intervention in trade operations, since it was interested in preserving the gold reserve.
Other economic transformations
In addition to the regulations governing domestic and foreign trade, one of the main directions of the Ordin-Nashchokin reforms is the attempt to create a credit system. The reformer considered it advisable to strengthen trade and maintain an active balance in the creation of zemstvo huts, in which medium and small traders could receive the necessary amounts for transactions on sale. However, this reform was immediately disapproved of by the big merchants, and after a while it was curtailed.
The politics of mercantilism is told in the course of history for the 7th grade. Reforms of the Ordin-Nashchokin represent its full embodiment. However, there was also what distinguished the Russian politician from his European colleagues: the requirement to support sectors of the economy that do not work directly for export. This stems from the ideas of Ordin-Nashchokin that the main reason for the weakness of Russian trade is its lack of capital. Along with the re-minting of European coins containing precious metals (in particular, the Joachstaller), financial strengthening could be carried out by establishing a system of domestic consumption.
Understanding the role of the state in the economy, Ordin-Nashchokin nevertheless sought to limit it somewhat in favor of private initiative. A case in point is the nationalization in 1662 of the metallurgical plants of the Danes Marelis. Treasury management brought them to the brink of ruin. Ordin-Nashchokin insisted on the return of the property to the former owner, realizing the benefits of his entrepreneurial abilities.
Administrative transformation plans
As subsequent events showed, the reforms of the Ordin-Nashchokin formed the basis of the Petrine reforms. Not always Athanasius Lavrentievich managed to bring his plan to the end. First of all, this concerns the introduction of a new administrative management system, which was tested during the Pskov Voivodeship.
The existing clerical system did not suit Ordin-Nashchokin with its excessive regulation and red tape. The same case was sometimes considered in different orders, which contributed to the delay in decision-making and their implementation. The reformer's dislike was also caused by the fact that orders were blind instruments for the execution of the monarch's will: A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin demanded administrative initiative with special persistence. Briefly, the reform in Pskov consisted of the election of fifteen people as a prisoner for a term of three years, who, alternating, deal with issues of current management. Their area of ​​competence included the management of the urban economy, especially on income from drinking establishments, levying customs duties and trade with foreigners. The Pskovites received the right to conduct courts for trade crimes and administrative offenses. In the area of ​​authority of the central authorities, there remained only such serious misconduct as murder, robbery and high treason.
If the issue that was before the elected people was too complicated or an ambiguous decision was required, they should have held advice with all the residents of the city.
The reform plans of the Ordin-Nashchokin consisted in the formation of a special order that would carry out both financial and physical protection of the Russian merchants from oppression.
However, the system did not accept Ordin-Nashchokin reform. The date of signing the Andrusov Treaty actually became the delayed end of its activities. The diplomat’s unwillingness to violate the clauses of the agreement signed by him, which Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich demanded in the changing foreign policy situation, was a formal reason for curtailing his reforms. The central government decided that it was worthless to govern Pskov in special ways, and soon after the departure of Ordin-Nashchokin to a monastery in the city, the previous orders were restored.
Reform Plan of the Russian Army
Bad service Ordin-Nashchokin played his intransigence and integrity. The noble Moscow boyars did not accept an unknown upstart. Only the tsar supported the reformer, but faced with his unwillingness to violate international agreements, Alexei Mikhailovich facilitated the resignation of Ordin-Nashchokin from all posts and the cessation of his reforms. The same fate befell the transformations planned by the reformer in the system of the Russian army.
First of all, he insisted on the dissolution of ineffective formations of the noble mounted horse militia. Instead, it was planned to create specially trained on foot foreign militias, which would take shape on the basis of a recruitment fee. In fact, Ordin-Nashchokin came close to the idea of ​​forming a regular army.
Afanasy Lavrentievich not only in this anticipated the Petrine transformation. It was with his submission that in Russia they seriously thought about creating their own fleet. But at that time it was only a dream: the Moscow kingdom, after all the upheavals of the beginning of the century, was still not capable of gaining access to the Baltic, or the Black, or even the Caspian seas.
Importance of Ordin-Nashchokin Reform and Conversion Projects
Both the personal qualities of the reformer and the unprecedented nature of his reformative program have become the reasons for the premature termination of his activities. Of all the undertakings of Ordin-Nashchokin, only the Novotrade Statute took root, and even then only because, basically, it fixed an already existing practice.
However, appreciated the activities and reforms of Ordin-Nashchokin Golitsyn Vasily Vasilyevich - statesman of the time of the regency of Princess Sophia. Based on their ideas and practical results, Peter I built his transformational program. For example, the Moscow City Hall and the Burmeister Chamber that he created clearly focused on the failed special merchant order of Ordin-Nashchokin.
Improving the administrative management system, based not least on the high discipline and responsibility of its employees, electing those who deserve them with their wisdom and merits, rather than origin, to leadership positions, as well as increasing treasury revenues through the development of industry and trade, are all this forms the basis of the Ordin-Nashchokin plan for modernization of the state. He did not hesitate to turn to foreign experience and even considered it useful. At the same time, one should be aware of what kind of innovation of a European standard is necessary, and which can be dispensed with. Unlike Peter, who decisively turned Russia toward Europe, Ordin-Nashchokin assumed a gradual improvement of the existing system without excesses such as shaving beards and forcibly introducing assemblies.
But it should be noted that the whole essence of the Ordin-Nashchokin reforms consisted only in improving individual elements of the existing system. On the basis of the political system, he did not attempt. Premature termination of his activities led to the fact that the contradictions continued to accumulate, and cosmetic measures could no longer save the adopted order. The departure of Ordin-Nashchokin to the monastery in 1672 actually predetermined a decisive breakdown of the old order in Peter's time.