Merchant class in the legislation of the Russian Empire in the XVIII century

The author considers the main legislative acts related to the gradual formation of the merchant class in the Russian Empire in the XVIII century. The formation of the guild merchant corporation begins in the era of Peter the Great, when the consolidation of traders in towns was aimed at improving the efficiency of the taxation system and increasing the flow of funds to the state budget. In the first third of the XVIII century, there was a terminological and legislative separation of traders into a separate group, integrated not only into the economic sphere, but also into the structure of local government. In the legislative practice of the second third of the XVIII century, the term “merchant class” was used to denote a group of people engaged in trading activities; in 1742, the merchant class was divided into three guilds. In the last third of the XVIII century, the Manifesto on the Supreme Favors Granted to Different Classes on the Occasion of the Conclusion of Peace with the Ottoman Porte in 1775, and the Charter on the Rights and Benefits of the Towns of the Russian Empire in 1785 finally formalized the class organization of the guild merchant class. Thus, by the end of the XVIII century, the merchant class in the Russian Empire was represented by three guilds, each of which implied conditions for entry in the form of the amount of declared capital and provided a certain range of privileges related to trade, entrepreneurship, communication routes and social status.