Commission, Highly Established for the Organization of Zemstvo Banks

"Proceedings of the Commission, Highly Established for the Organization of Zemstvo Banks."

St. Petersburg, 1860.

This edition constitutes a collection of materials of the Commission, Highly Established for the Organization of Zemstvo Banks, which worked in St. Petersburg in 1859–1860. The Commission was created to develop the principles of organization and charters of zemstvo (mortgage) banks — credit institutions intended to provide long-term financing to landowners secured by real estate. This issue became especially topical on the eve of and during the preparation of the Peasant Reform of 1861.

The "Proceedings" publish draft charters, minutes of sessions, opinions of commission members, statistical data, and other working materials reflecting discussions on the forms and principles of mortgage credit in the Russian Empire. The edition was printed in St. Petersburg in 1860 and is a valuable primary source on the history of financial and agrarian policy of the era of the great reforms.

Rarity and uniqueness. This edition belongs to the category of departmental and "low-circulation" publications: it was printed not for open sale, but for the internal use of the commission members and higher state institutions, which makes it a rare bibliophilic monument. The uniqueness of the information lies in the fact that the "Proceedings" capture the very process of developing financial legislation on the eve of the abolition of serfdom — here are contained not only the final documents, but also intermediate opinions, objections, and statistics that were not included in later official compilations. For economic historians and researchers of the agrarian reform, this is a primary source that allows reconstructing the logic of decision-making that determined the development of Russia's credit system for decades to come.