IV. The Administration ofJustice and Legislation on Procedural Law 1. hifroduct'ion This study has emphasized the intimate connection between the economic processes taking place in Russia—that is, the development of a commodity market and a cash economy—and the rational administrative forms which the absolutist government was attempting to introduce. The absolute monarchy was in constant need of cash with which to pay for the maintenance of its standing army and its centralized administrative apparatus, neither of which would have been possible without these very same economic developments. It was therefore natural that the tsarist regime, through the introduction of a rationally unified and systematically organized hierarchical administration, should attempt to overcome the feudal divisions which characterized the political structure of the Muscovite state and presented obstacles to any expansion of the authority of the absolutist government. By doing so, the government could also promote its fiscal interests by creating the necessary preconditions for a more effective exploitation of the developing commodity market. At the same time, of course, the reform policies themselves stimulated the development of a cash economy and a commodity market by replacing the old administrative structure—the prikazy and voevodas—with a systematic administration capable of developing a common and uniform administrative power for the whole country. In addition, the commodity market was expanding thanks to the large government orders on behalf of the military forces. Characteristic for Peter the Great’s absolutist regime, therefore, was its attempts, similar to those of other contemporary absolutist governments, to regulate its administrative apparatus according to general principles and rules, which would satisfy the need for rational economic planning then emerging from the expansion of the military and civil services. Indeed, the same observation may be made concerning the
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