The reign of Catherine II (1762-1796) was characterized by the extensive development of the economy and trade, while maintaining the "patriarchal" industry and agriculture. By decree of 1775, factories and industrial plants were recognized as property, the disposal of which does not require special permission from the authorities. In 1763, the free exchange of copper money for silver was banned so as not to provoke the development of inflation. The development and revival of trade was facilitated by the emergence of new credit institutions (the state bank and the loan office) and the expansion of banking operations (since 1770, the acceptance of deposits for storage was introduced). A state bank was established and for the first time the issuance of paper money - banknotes - was launched.
State regulation of prices for salt, which was one of the vital goods in the country, was introduced. The Senate legislated the price of salt at 30 kopecks per pood (instead of 50 kopecks) and 10 kopecks per pood in the regions of mass salting of fish. Without introducing a state monopoly on the salt trade, Catherine counted on increased competition and, ultimately, improving the quality of the goods. However, the price of salt was soon raised again. At the beginning of the reign, some monopolies were abolished: the state monopoly on trade with China, the merchant Shemyakin's private monopoly on the import of silk, and others.
The role of Russia in the world economy has increased - Russian sailing fabric has been exported to England in large quantities, the export of cast iron and iron has increased to other European countries (the consumption of cast iron in the domestic Russian market has also increased significantly) . But the export of raw materials grew especially strongly: timber (5 times), hemp, bristles, etc., as well as bread . The volume of exports of the country increased from 13.9 million rubles. in 1760 to 39.6 million rubles. in 1790.
Russian merchant ships began to sail in the Mediterranean Sea. However, their number was insignificant in comparison with foreign ones - only 7% of the total number of ships serving Russian foreign trade in the late 18th - early 19th centuries; the number of foreign merchant ships that annually entered Russian ports during the period of her reign increased from 1340 to 2430.
As the economic historian N. A. Rozhkov pointed out, in the structure of exports in the era of Catherine there were no finished products at all, only raw materials and semi-finished products, and 80-90% of imports were foreign industrial products, the import volume of which was several times higher than domestic production . Thus, the volume of domestic manufactory production in 1773 was 2.9 million rubles, the same as in 1765, and the volume of imports in these years was about 10 million rubles . Industry developed poorly, there were practically no technical improvements, and serf labor dominated.
So, from year to year, cloth manufactories could not even satisfy the needs of the army, despite the ban on selling cloth "to the side", in addition, the cloth was of poor quality, and it had to be purchased abroad. Catherine herself did not understand the significance of the Industrial Revolution taking place in the West and argued that machines (or, as she called them, “colosses”) harm the state, since they reduce the number of workers.Only two export industries developed rapidly - the production of cast iron and linen, but both - on the basis of "patriarchal" methods, without the use of new technologies that were actively introduced at that time in the West - which predetermined a severe crisis in both industries that began shortly after the death of Catherine II .
In the field of foreign trade, Catherine's policy consisted in a gradual transition from protectionism, characteristic of Elizabeth Petrovna, to the complete liberalization of exports and imports, which, according to a number of economic historians, was the result of the influence of the ideas of the Physiocrats. Already in the first years of the reign, a number of foreign trade monopolies and a ban on grain exports were abolished, which from that time began to grow rapidly.
In 1765, the Free Economic Society was founded, which promoted the ideas of free trade and published its own magazine. In 1766, a new customs tariff was introduced, which significantly reduced tariff barriers compared to the protectionist tariff of 1757 (which established protective duties in the amount of 60 to 100% or more); even more they were reduced in the customs tariff of 1782. Thus, in the "moderately protectionist" tariff of 1766, protective duties averaged 30%, and in the liberal tariff of 1782 - 10%, rising to 20% only for some goods. 30%.
Agriculture, like industry, developed mainly through extensive methods (an increase in the amount of arable land); the promotion of intensive methods of agriculture by the Free Economic Society created under Catherine had no great result. From the first years of Catherine's reign, famine periodically began to arise in the countryside, which some contemporaries explained by chronic crop failures, but the historian M.N. .3 million rubles in year.Cases of mass ruin of peasants became more frequent. The famines acquired a special scope in the 1780s, when they covered large regions of the country. Bread prices have risen sharply: for example, in the center of Russia (Moscow, Smolensk, Kaluga) they have increased from 86 kop. in 1760 to 2.19 rubles. in 1773 and up to 7 rubles. in 1788, that is, more than 8 times.
Introduced into circulation in 1769, paper money - banknotes - in the first decade of its existence accounted for only a few percent of the metal (silver and copper) money supply, and played a positive role, allowing the state to reduce its costs of moving money within the empire. However, due to the lack of money in the treasury, which became a constant phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1780s, there was an increasing issue of banknotes, the volume of which by 1796 reached 156 million rubles, and their value depreciated 1.5 times.In addition, the state borrowed money from abroad in the amount of 33 million rubles. and had various unpaid internal obligations (bills, salaries, etc.) in the amount of 15.5 million rubles. That. the total amount of government debts amounted to 205 million rubles, the treasury was empty, and budget expenditures significantly exceeded revenues, which Paul I stated upon accession to the throne. All this gave rise to the historian N. D. Chechulin in his economic research to conclude that there was a “severe economic crisis” in the country (in the second half of the reign of Catherine II) and “the complete collapse of the financial system of Catherine’s reign” .
