Economic Development after Peter the Great

Abstract

PETER the Great’s industrialisation policies have been discussed in some detail because they bring out important general factors in Russian economic history. It should be obvious that Russian society was very different from that in the West, and its problems were correspondingly distinct. Russia was more backward than her Western neighbours, and only the state could mobilise the capital and entrepreneurship and provide a market sufficient for a major increase in the tempo of industrial development. Russia’s political aspirations necessitated the establishment of certain industries; the realities of Russian backwardness dictated an institutional framework (such as the possessional factory and the strengthening of serfdom) which imposed further rigidities on the economy.