Alexander II + III - Economy

Question 1

Von Reutern tax reforms

Answer 1

-treasury reformed
-new arrangements for collecting taxes
-tax farming was abolished
-more indirect taxation

Question 2

Von Reutern banks reforms

Answer 2

-state bank 1860
-municipal bank 1862
-savings bank 1869

Question 3

Von Reutern further reforms

Answer 3

-reduction of import duties 1863
-foreign investment encouraged
-new legislation regulated joint-stock companies
-gov support for the development of the cotton industry

Question 4

Impact of reuterns reforms

Answer 4

-forced tax farmers to invest elsewhere
-foreign technical expertise + capital expanded industry
-marked railway network expansion
-annual average growth rate of 6%

Question 5

New economic developments under reutern

Answer 5

-oil extraction in caspian sea port baku 1871
-ironworks in donetsk 1872
-1879, naptha extraction company set up to exploit coal and oil resources further

Question 6

Fallbacks of reuterns economy

Answer 6

-1/3 of gov expenditure on debt repayment
-rouble subject to variations in value
-peasantry kept poor and small domestic market
-tariff reductions reduced government revenues

Question 7

Vyshnegradsky’s improvements

Answer 7

-took over in 1887
-introduced import tariff, 30% of raw materials value
-helped iron industry and development of machinery
-negotiated loans, french in 1888

Question 8

Vyshnegradsky grain exportation

Answer 8

-mounted a drive to swell grain exports
-between 1881 and 1891 increased by 18%
-russian budget in surplus by 1892
-at expense of peasants who paid taxes and had grain requisitioned by the state

Question 9

The great famine

Answer 9

-1891-92 affected 17 of 39 provinces
-over 350,000 die from starvation or disease
-early winter, long hot dry summer ruined crops
-worsened by grain requisition, no reserve food stores
-vyshnegradsky dismissed in 1892 due to this

Question 10

Witte’s policies

Answer 10

-continued protective tariffs, heavy taxes + forced exports
-sought loans from abroad, 280mil investment by 1895
-huge expansion of railway network, 60% state owned
-worlds 4th largest industrial economy by 1897

Question 11

Agricultural failures

Answer 11

-average peasants received around 4 hectares of land
-high taxes, grain requisition, redemption payments, traditional agriculture practices hampered change
-crop yields low in comparison to western europe
-average peasant had too little land to earn money

Question 12

Introduction of land banks

Answer 12

-peasants land bank, 1885
-set up to assist peasants who wished to acquire land
-Nobles land bank, 1882
-helped nobles with legal costs involved in land transfer
-interest rates kept low, 26 million hectares passed to peasants