A Standard Ruble of Account for Russian Bussiness History, 1769–1914: A Note
"In this way one may lose ten silver rubles," said the cornet, looking at Liza, and wishing to enter into a conversation with her. "Are you not playing with assignats?" Anna Fedorovna asked, looking at everybody. "I do not know how it is,—I can't count by assignats," said the count. "How is it? What is an assignat?" "Nowadays nobody any longer counts by assignats," interposed the uncle, who had been winning, playing with the flintstone. —Lev. N. Tolstoy, Two Hussars
Living Standards in Nineteenth-Century Russia
Most of the studies of living standards in pre-revolutionary Russia by economic historians have focused on a narrow range of measures for predominantly urban areas. A micro-level analysis that employs a broader set of measures of well-being for a small rural region in central Russia suggests that, contrary to previous findings, living standards were improving throughout the nineteenth century, even in seemingly less dynamic rural areas. Moreover, the variation in income and consumption patterns, human-capital development, and the distribution of resources in the countryside was greater than typically assumed. Since state and local institutions might be able to account for it, these determinants should be emphasized in future analyses of rural living standards in pre-Soviet Russia.
The Russian Gold Standard, 1897–1914
This paper examines the workings of the Imperial Russian gold standard, presents annual estimates on money supply under three definitions, and compares changes in money with changes in gold reserves, finding no relation. The Russian monetary system was insulated from gold movements in at least seven ways, of which three were accidental and four were deliberate. The article concludes on a note of speculative skepticism about the macro-economic significance of the rate of monetary growth, and of the gold standard itself, during the period.