364 assuming control of the flow of money in his realm, the prince could acquire previously undreamed of financial resources. If such a system were to be established, however, the prince had to have unlimited authority and had to pursue a policy of promoting trade and manufacturing through a series of governmental measures. The profits from increased trade and production resulting from this policy would in turn improve the prince’s finances by increasing tax revenues. Furthermore, according to von Schröder, there was a direct causal relationship between the welfare of the people and the finances of the state, since the financial situation of the state would immediately be affected if the people suffered from any shortages. Thus, governments should not burden their subjects with taxation that was disproportional to the conditions of wealth of the population.-' Cameralist ideas are very evident in the instruktion of 1712. In one place, for example, it is stated that “the welfare and improvement of all these loyal subjects depends above all on the expansion and increase of trade and on the establishment and improvement of all types of useful crafts, and especially of such ones as can be produced profitably in the realm with our own raw materials." The text of the instruktion is arranged in three main sections dealing with the three areas of operation of the kommcrskollegium, that is, shipping, trade, and the “establishment and betterment" of manufactories. A great deal of attention was devoted to the customs administration, which was once again to be supervised by the kommerskollegium. A comparison of the unofficial Swedish instruktion of 1712 and the Russian instruktsiia for the kommerts-kollegiia reveals that the author of the latter made extensive use of the former. The Russian instruktsiia relies so heavily on its Swedish prototype that it is legitimate to say that large parts of it are nothing but a translation of the Swedish instruktion. Only the first two sections of the Swedish text, that is, those dealing with shipping and trade, are to be found in the instruktsiia, for the third section dealt with manufactories, and this administrative responsibility had been transferred to the berg- i manufaktur-kollegiia. With this excephowever, the organization of the Russian instruktsiia followed its tion Swedish prototype without any major discrepancies. The Swedish instruktion was divided into three chapters, and each chapter was divided into articles, while the Russian instruktsiia was only divided into articles. It is not possible to conduct a complete comparative analysis of the two instructions in the context of the present study, but a few parallel Daniel Almqvist, "Feifs finansiella reformer ocli Wilhelm von Schröders ‘Fiirstliche Schatz- und Rent-Cammer,’ ” Karolinska förbundets årsbok (1922), 242. See also Lindeberg, 3—4.
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