MINISTER OF FINANCE I. A. VYSHNEGRADSKY AND THE ENTREPRENEURS: A DIALOGUE AT THE NIZHNY NOVGOROD FAIR (1887)

The article deals with the meeting of Finance Minister I. A. Vyshnegradsky in August 1887 with representatives of business circles at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, where a note was submitted to him on behalf of the “All-Russian merchantry”, which included a number of wishes. This petition along with other similar petitions had a number of consequences. The financial department sided with the manufacturers of the central provinces in their struggle with competitors from the Kingdom of Poland, adopted the 1891 protectionist customs tariff, sympathized with the demands to accelerate the development of eastern markets for Russian goods, tried to soften the 1882–1886 factory legislation in favor of the owners. This indicated a certain influence of private business on economic policy. At the same time, the higher bureaucracy was not going to sacrifice national priorities in favor of the corporate interests of entrepreneurs. The government did not prematurely abolish Porto Franco in the Far East in the 1880s, did not undertake a radical revision of the 1886 rules on regulating relations between employers and workers, did not force a revision of the norms of commercial law, refused to reduce the already moderate taxation of trade and industry. The state, stimulating industrial growth, supported private initiative, but sought to use it primarily to its advantage and allowed freedom of entrepreneurship only within certain limits.