106 many small perquisites, viewed in Sweden as a form of compensation for whatever work clerks, for example, were able to perform in addition to their regular duties. But there was one condition to be met in order for the administrative personnel to be allowed this opportunity for extra income—the regular operation of the colleges was not to be delayed or affected in any way. Perquisites could also be relied upon to serve as a partial or a complete substitute for ordinary salaries. In viewof the economic crisis resulting from his long war with Russia and her allies, Charles XII adopted a plan at the beginning of 1718 designed to eliminate the permanent salary budgets covered by state revenues and to have the administrative personnel receive their entire income in the form of fees they might receive from individual supplicants.-*^ Understandably enough, given the consequences such a system would have had for the efficiency and stability of the administrative system, this plan was never realized. As far as can be determined, perquisites were not introduced on any large scale during Peter’s reign. When, in 1724, new disbursement budgets for the colleges were approved (and these were set up on the basis of the corresponding Swedish budgets), it was stated that in the kommertskollegiia “perquisites shall be received [at the rate of] two rubles for each hundred rubles which have been paid,” and that, “of these, salaries shall be given to the chancellery and customs servants.” Here was a case of perquisites being regulated and paid as a form of ordinary income. According to him, then, perquisites were V 274 6. Recruiting the Collegial Staffs The differentation and specialization of administrative work so characteristic of the collegial system put great demands on the knowledge and ability of the staffs assigned to perform the various functions. Here the organizers of the Russian colleges were faced with a great problem: how were they to find competent people to fill all the positions called for in the college budgets? The solution to this dilemma was of fundamental importance to the success of the Russian collegial reform. The d’iaki and pod'iachie of the prikazy constituted the pool of avail2'^ Ihid., 1. 98. Nils Eden, “Frän Gustav Vasa till Karl XII:s död," in idem ct al.. Kammarkollegiets historia (Stockholm, 1941), 164. TsGADA, f. 1451 delo 18 1. 436. Cedercrcutz reported that the Russians intended to “establish a fee for everything that is issued from the chancelleries, and I have been asked informally how the Swedish fee is set up.” Cedercreutz to Kungl Majt., December 18, 1724, RA, Muscovitica 146. 275 276
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