76 foreign personnel for the Russian colleges.For this reason, Pick did not arrive at the Russian capital until the autumn of 1717, but once there he immediately set to work on setting up the colleges. Heinrich Pick proved to be very energetic and efficient and devoted all of his efforts to the task of reforming the Russian administration and improving the country’s finances in general. It was characteristic of him to write in a memorandumto the tsar that: weilen ich wegcn Mangel der Sprache und andern Ursachen, die beste Zeit und Morgen-Stunden im Cammer-Collegio meistentheils unniitz passiren muss, in welcher ich doch zu Hause wichtigere Dienste leisten, und daneben doch, so viel es von mir dependiret, dass Cammerwesen in gewissen Tagen oder Stunden befordern könte, so wird es Ihro Majtt: Gnädigstem Gutfinden in tieffester Unterthänigkeit iibertragen, wie sie iiber meiner geringen Persohn und kiinftigen Verrichtungen zu disponiren Gnädigst geruhen wollen. There is no doubt that Pick and his efforts were held in high esteem by Peter,^^"* and in December 1720, as a token of his appreciation, the tsar bestowed upon him the estate of Oberpahlen in Estonia.^®^ Pick succeeded in maintaining his position even under the reigns of Peter I’s successors, Catherine I and Peter II. In 1726 he was named vice president of the kommerts-kollegiia, which position gave him great responsibility in viewof the fact that the college’s president, Andrei Osterman, was often absent. In his “Berättelse om Ryssland,” the Swedish minister to Russia, Cedercreutz, wrote that Österman “holds the presidency of the college of commerce, but seldomor never sits there, and leaves the direction thereof to Vice President Pick, who is a Hamburger and was previously a regimental quartermaster in Swedish service.” If we are to believe Cedercreutz, then, it was Pick who ran the kommerts-kollegiia. This quotation from Cedercreutz’ “Berättelse om Ryssland” also gives us reason to ask how much the Swedes knew about Pick’s activities in St. Petersburg. To judge from the way he expressed himself, Cedercreutz was entirely ignorant of the role Pick had played in the Russian administrative reforms. Cedercreutz was aware that the Russians had used Swedish models in setting up the colleges, for in 1724 he had reported 157 See p. 125. Cederberg, Beilagc 4, 104. In 1719 Pick told the Riga burgomaster von Bcnckendorff that he had had the honor of hosting in his house the tsar himself and “das gantze hohc Ministerium.” See August von Bulmerincq, ed., Aktcnstiicke und Urkunden zur Geschichtc der Stadt Riga (Riga, 3 v., 1902—1906), I, 320. TsGADA, f. 1451 dclo 11 1. 155. Concerning Pick’s estate in Estonia, see CederBERG, 69—70. RA, Muscovitica 155. Cederberg, 70.
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