How successful were Witte’s economic policies?
Sergei Witte was the Minister of Finance from 1892 to 1903, his aim was to modernise Russia’s economy to a level on par with other advanced western nations (such as England and France). To do such a great task Witte needed a plan of action, so he took the ideas of Western states and formed several economic policies. These policies are seen to be very successful in Russia’s economic reform, but to what extent.
To modernise Russia Witte believed that this could be done by capitalisation. All of Witte’s policies required a vast amount of money, which Russia did not have at the time. To create this capital Witte negotiated investments and loans from aboard, as well as imposing high and indirect taxes (Similar to our VAT system). These indirect tariffs made all imported goods highly uneconomical to buy, and import trade was therefore discouraged. The money Witte began to acquire was set aside for many new schemes and initiatives.
One of these new schemes was the ‘protective tariff scheme’. This was put in place as a precaution to protect ...
In 1900, Russia was an autocracy led by a Tsar who had a total control over the country. The Tsar was Nicholas II. Along with his family and all other nobles, he was very wealthy and lived in luxury. Other wealthy groups of people were: Ÿ Upper class- Church leaders and lesser nobles. Ÿ Commercial class- Bankers, factory workers all known as capitalists.
No war is fought without the struggle for resources, and with Russia still rapidly lagging behind in the international industrialisation race by the turn of the 20th century, the stage was set for social unrest and uprising against its already uncoordinated and temporally displaced government. With inconceivable demands for soldiers, cavalry and warfare paraphernalia, Russia stood little chance in the face of the great powers of World War One. Shortages of basic human necessities led to countless subsistence riots and the eventual power struggle between the ruling body and its people. From the beginnings of WWI to 1916, prices of essential goods rose 131 percent in Moscow and more than 150 percent in Petrograd. Additionally, historian Walter G. Moss stated that in September 1915 that “there were 100,000 strikers in Russia; in October 1916, there were 250,000 in Petrograd alone.” Moss continues to exemplify the increasing evidence of social unrest and connects the riots to a lack of resources when he goes on to point out that “subsistence riots protesting high prices and shortages… also increased.” ...
When recognised as being an ageing superpower by Alexander II it was inevitable that some sort of change would take place in Russia in the hope of modernisation. We can see that the changes were mostly political and economical. During Alexander III’s reign we can see that the changes were suppressive although it ultimately led to further change in the form of revolution in the future.
In a protectionist position, the government is aiming to ensure American businesses and at the same time decrease the amount of sales of foreign business. The fastest method for accomplishing this task is to increase tariffs, as in taxes on foreign goods coming into the country.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Mau, Vladimir. " The road to 'perestrokia': economics in the USSR and the problem of
While most of Europe had develop strong central governments and weakened the power of the nobles, Russia had lagged behind the times and still had serfs as late as 1861. The economic development that followed the emancipation of peasants in the rest of Europe created strong industrial and tax bases in those nations. Russian monarchs had attempted some level of reforms to address this inequality for almost a century before, and were indeed on their way to “economic maturity” (32) on par with the rest of Europe. But they overextended themselves and the crushing defeats of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and the First World War in 1917 lost them the necessary support from their subjects and created “high prices and scarcity” which were by far “the most obvious factors in the general tension”
After the War of 1812, cheaper British manufactured goods poured into American markets. In order to protect American “infant industries” from British competition, Congress passed a protective tariff in 1816. Proponents of the tariff reasoned that, without some protection, American would always be in the position of supplying raw materials (such as cotton) in ret...
Protect farmers and manufacturers from the impacts of climate change. What: established the highest protective tariff in US history. The tariffs made unemployment worse in industries that could no longer export goods to Europe. Why: to prevent other countries from earning American currency to buy American goods. When: 1908 - 1908 Where: United States of America.
Through these decrees we see how Russian social class is very stratified and there are more high official roles but more people in poverty. Russia still had to serfs until 1861. Also the state of the Russian economy was probably very limited to do the fact that there was no manufacturing company to provide for the empire. The Russian economy was very isolated and they go to areas where they can trade. With Russia’s subsistence economy, they were not able to specialize in other areas.
Many businesses used this new process to raise the price of their competitors. They did this by putting constraints on entry restrictions (Woods 1986). At the state level, other laws were put in place to support the Food and Drug Act mainly to help local and area producers who were and would be facing new nat...
Russia, a vast country with a wealth of natural resources, a well, educated population, and diverse industrial base, continues to experience, formidable difficulties in moving from its old centrally planned economy to a modern market economy. President Yeltsin's government has made substantial strides in converting to a market economy since launching its economic reform program in January 1992 by freeing nearly all prices, slashing defense spending, eliminating the old centralized distribution system, completing an ambitious voucher privatization program, establishing private financial institutions, and decentralizing trade. Russia, however, has made little progress in a number of key areas that are needed to provide a solid foundation for the transition to a market economy.
The Soviet Union, which was once a world superpower in the 19th century saw itself in chaos going into the 20th century. These chaoses were marked by the new ideas brought in by the new leaders who had emerged eventually into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union was crumbling at this period both politically and socially, as well as the economy. There were underlying reasons for the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eventually Eastern Europe. The economy is the most significant aspect of every government. The soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1. fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government needs a strong economy to maintain its power and influence, but in this case the economic planning of the Soviet Union was just not working, which had an influence in other communist nations in Eastern Europe as they declined to collapse.
Starting 1928, the Stalinist economic policy was characterized by a rupture with Lenin’s quasi-capitalist New Economic Policy. The need to protect the Union from eventual capitalist and imperialist wars necessitated the creation of a self-sufficient industry and agriculture freed from the constraints of the market. The industrial policy resembled that of a war economy focused on heavy industries such as steel, weapons and the industrial centers were relocated in remote areas such as the Urals and Siberia, rich in natural resources. In 1937, the part of small industries had fallen from a third in 1913 to 6 percent (Davies 1989, 1029). This process revealed to be extremely successful on a macroscop...
Rents and taxes were often unaffordable, while the gulf between workers and the ruling elite grew ever wider. After their defeat in the Crimean war (1853-1856), Russia’s leaders realized they were falling behind much of Europe in terms of modernisation and industrialisation. Alexander II took control of the empire and made the first steps towards radically improving the country’s infrastructure. Transcontinental railways were built and the government strengthened Russia’s economy by promoting industrialisation with the construction of factory complexes throughout rural Russia.... ...
Lenin's Economic Policies in 1924 When the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917 they inherited many of the problems faced by the old Tsarist regime as well as those of the Provisional Government after the Tsars abdication. Lenin, as leader of the Bolsheviks took many measures to try and solve these problems, each with varying degrees of success. This essay will, therefore, go on to look at and discuss the various measures that Lenin and the Bolshevik party took, and, whether these measures created more problems for Russia in the end or in fact made significant progress towards the communist society that Lenin had prophesised for Russia. In the early days of Bolshevik rule, there were many problems facing Lenin.