RB 29

183 nors or others, and what is more there is no list whatsoever of what there is for the Senate from the beginning of the year in income, expenditures, surpluses, or deficits. The collegial reform of 1718 included the establishment of the shtatskontor-kollegiia, thus giving Russia a central organ for the planning of state revenues and expenditures. The new administrative organ had jurisdiction throughout the empire, and its primary task was to draw up an annual budget. As was mentioned in an earlier context, the government was preparing a tax reform aimed at imposing upon peasant males a personal tax, the so-called podushnaia podat\ which corresponded to the Swedish mantalspenningarna. The old system of taxing farms or homesteads had proven ineffective, since estate owners had succeeded in avoiding the increased burden of taxation by moving all of theirs serfs onto one farmand being liable for taxes on only one farmunit. The Russian Senate adopted a preliminary instruktsiia for the shtatskontor-kollegiia in February 1719.^*’* Since the tsar was not in St. Petersburg at the time, this piece of legislation was promulgated by the Senate alone. Since the Senate felt that it could no longer delay the commencement of collegial operations, it simultaneously issued an ukaz ordering that the shtats-kontor-kollegiia be presented with a copy of the instruktsiia and stating that it was to be considered valid until the tsar had the opportunity to confirmit with his signature. In an ukaz adressed to Count Musin-Pushkin, the president of the college, in December 1718, Peter directed that the new administrative organ was to conduct its business “according to the Swedish manner” {po shvetskomu maniru') beginning in 1719.-*’'^ With its twenty-five short articles, the instruktsiia is a document rich in information about how the newly established college was to operate. In terms of both style and organization, the text of the instruktsiia has much in common with the instruktsiia for the kamer-kollegiia. It is probable that the two were drawn up at one and the same time on the basis of similar descriptions of the actual operating procedures of the corresponding Swedish colleges. The long list of fundamental parallels between the instruktsiia for the shtats-kontor-kollegiia and the Swedish statskontoret in terms of organization and tasks becomes apparent immediately upon the first reading of the instructions. And, indeed, a more thorough analytical study of the Se below, p. 258. 201 version of the text that served as the basis for this presentation is published in ZA, 589—601; for the manuscript, see TsGADA, f. 370 delo 11. TsGADA, f. 248 delo 654 1. 12. ZA (no. 423), 589. 200 202 20U 202 203

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