The ruble is considered a historical Russian monetary unit. The history of the origin of the ruble officially begins with the Novgorod birch bark letters of the beginning of the 13th century, however, many historians agree that the ruble, as a monetary concept, existed earlier, possibly from the 10th century.
Origin of the concept
The history of the ruble is directly related to the history of Novgorod Earth. The first written mention of the ruble dates from 1281-1299. At that time, many fragmented Russian principalities used the Kiev hryvnia as a monetary unit. We can assume that the history of the development of the ruble is a continuation or even an “offshoot” of the history of the hryvnia.
At the beginning of the XIII century in Novgorod there were 200 gram sticks of silver in the shape of sticks, which in their oblong shape and weight resembled the hryvnia - the monetary unit of Kievan Rus. However, unlike Kiev, in Novgorod, these ingots were called the "ruble."
The history of the Russian ruble connects the name of the monetary unit with ordinary Russian people. Since the name is distinguished by its colloquial affiliation, it is likely that bullion began to be called ruble long before the first mention in letters, which is why it is very difficult to determine the exact time of the origin of the ruble.
Value
There is no consensus on the value of the first rubles. In fragmented principalities, they used silver bullion - hryvnias or rubles, for smaller calculations, foreign coins, denarii and dirhams, called “kuns” in Russian, were used.
Sometimes 200 gram ingots had to be cut into half or smaller parts, for the accuracy of the calculations. This fact complicates the determination of the exact value of the ruble, since according to one data the ruble was an analogue of the hryvnia, and according to others it was its “stump” equal to 100 grams.
It is likely that the fragmented principalities did not completely converge in the names of monetary units, and the ruble in Novgorod was indeed equal to the hryvnia, and the ruble in Moscow was half as much. It is proved that later appeared Lithuanian rubles were weighing 100 g.
Etymology of the word
The history of the ruble does not have data on the exact origin of the term. To date, there are four main variants of the origin of the word "ruble". The main version - the ruble is a derivative of the word "rub", which means "seam". The Novgorod ruble was minted according to the technology, according to which at first half of the silver was poured into the mold, and then its second part, while a seam was formed in the middle of the ingot. Hence the common name of the ingot is the ruble.
According to the second version, the root of the word comes from the verb "chop." In this case, scientists are considering two possible options. The first - the ruble was part of the hryvnia, or rather, its quarter; that is, half a grain, cut in half. The second option - the Novgorod ruble differed from the Kiev hryvnia by nicks, specifying the dignity and value of a silver ingot.
The other two versions involve borrowing the term from other languages. Perhaps the word "ruble" has common roots with the word "rupee", which means "silver that has been processed." In addition, a connection with the Arabic word "quarter", which sounds like "rub."
The history of the ruble dwells on the first two versions, as historians share the opinion that the word "ruble" belongs to vernacular, which does not coincide with the possibility of borrowing the term.
First rubles
The use of whole silver bullion was extremely inconvenient, but continued until the fourteenth century, when new small coins were minted during the reign of Dmitry Donskoy. Each coin weighed a little less than one gram and was called "money", being a legacy of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. It is from this moment that the history of the ruble coin begins.
The coins differed in shape, since it was difficult to mint a perfect circle, however, the weight and seal in the center of the coin were the same. The print design may vary depending on the principality in which the coins were minted.
Thanks to the transition to smaller money, settlements became much more convenient and over time, 200-gram ingots fell out of the ordinary people's life and began to be used only in wholesale trade.
Under the influence of the political power of the Novgorod and Moscow principalities, as well as the West Russian Lithuanian principality, by the 15th century the ruble completely replaced the hryvnia and became not only the name of the ingot, but also the philistine concept adopted for calculating and counting the amount of money in the household.
Change and Reform
The first widespread monetary reform of the ruble was carried out in the middle of the 16th century. In 1534, a unified monetary reform began in Moscow, the purpose of which was to unify the coins used for settlements, as well as rid the domestic market of foreign currency, which caused confusion in trade.
The main monetary unit was the Moscow ruble, which consisted of 200 Moscow money or 100 Novgorod money. Subsequently, Novgorod coins began to be called "pennies", and Moscow - "swag." These names are associated with printing on the back of the coins. A warrior with a spear on a horse was minted on a penny, and a warrior with a sword on a sword. The smallest coin was considered half, that is, half of the tag; often it was just a coin, chopped or broken in half.
Since silver bullion in ruble denomination completely went out of use during the sixteenth century, the ruble, until the middle of the sixteenth century, remained nothing more than a unit of measure.
In 1654, a coin of one ruble denomination was first minted. In fact, they were minted German coins, on which on one side was printed a coat of arms (two-headed eagle), and on the other hand the king was depicted riding a horse. The coin was called the ruble, but weighed less than its dignity - 64 grams.
Under the reign of Peter I, money began to be minted independently, and a number of changes were made and copper pennies weighing 28 g and a denomination of 1/100 of the ruble were introduced. In addition to copper kopeks, gold rubles were also introduced in denominations of 3 rubles and weighing a little more than 3 g of gold. Later, by the end of the 18th century, the weight of silver in a 1 ruble coin was reduced to 18 grams.
Bank notes
The first paper rubles appeared during the reign of Catherine II, in 1769. These notes have been in use for 50 years; at that time, their printing was not controlled by the state, which led to the actual collapse of the economy, since there were more paper rubles than the precious metals that provided them. In 1843, bank notes were completely taken out of use.
The first failed bills were replaced with bank notes in the same year, however, for the same reasons, banks soon stopped exchanging them for silver and gold - there was more paper money than the metal allocated for collateral.
The reform of 1897 introduced a new paper ruble backed by gold. The rubles were printed using the new technology, which provides for the use of several colors and various levels of protection. The multi-color Oryol seal (named after Ivan Orlov) made it possible to avoid fakes and increase state control over the issuance of the number of banknotes.
The beginning of the twentieth century and the royal monetary system
The period of the collapse of the Russian Empire and the formation of Soviet Russia is commonly called the “Time of Troubles”. Not surprisingly, the history of the Russian ruble during this period is considered the most complex and the number of official and unofficial changes in the currency is difficult to calculate.
Even during the Japanese War, the Empire began to lack cash; popular discontent, coup attempts, as well as Russia's entry into the World War actually led the Empire to an extreme shortage of money. All coins, even the smallest ones, have disappeared from everyday life.
In practice, everything that was called rubles and used in trade for reporting did not even have the smallest value, since it was not backed up by a reserve of precious metals. Rubles began to be called self-printed banknotes, wine labels and even drawn money. In the history of the development of the ruble, as well as in the history of the country, this period can be considered the most unstable.
The first Soviet rubles
The history of the ruble in Russia in the early Soviet period begins in 1923, when the first gold dime was minted , equivalent to 10 imperial rubles. To exchange chervonetz coins from silver - silver coins were issued. This is one of the rarest Soviet coins, since chervonets and silver coins were used mainly for foreign transactions, there were practically no coins left on the territory of the country.
Since the 30s. The twentieth century began to appear paper rubles and change coins from cheap metal alloys. The government’s efforts to bring money to a single format continued until the middle of the century, while the appearance of rubles and cents changed very often.
1961 reform
The largest-scale monetary reform in the history of the USSR and, possibly, Russia as a whole has been prepared for 10 years. The materials and value of the new ruble were selected, a single format was compiled, and a single design was chosen. Over the next few years, the Union underwent a complete replacement of all funds with new ones.
One ruble of a new sample was equated to 10 old rubles (of the first Soviet sample) and had a gold equivalent of 1 g of gold. Coins of precious metals were no longer minted, except for the issue of coins dedicated to important events or anniversaries.
Modern Russian ruble
The history of the ruble underwent another crisis in the early 90s. After the collapse of the USSR, old Soviet rubles were in use until 1993, when inflation and the economic crisis completely crippled the national currency and did not allow a painless transition to a new format of money .
In order to avoid an increase in inflation, a monetary reform was carried out in 1993 and new banknotes with a large number of zeros were accepted for circulation. In 1998, the government of the Russian Federation carried out a series of monetary reforms, followed by the denomination and issuance of new notes, which are still in circulation.