Bankrupts and Usurers of Imperial Russia : : Debt, Property, and the Law in the Age of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy / / Sergei Antonov.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Harvard University Press Complete eBook-Package 2016
• VerfasserIn: Antonov, Sergei,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Harvard Historical Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (350 p.) :; 6 halftones, 14 tables

As readers of classic Russian literature know, the nineteenth century was a time of pervasive financial anxiety. With incomes erratic and banks inadequate, Russians of all social castes were deeply enmeshed in networks of credit and debt. The necessity of borrowing and lending shaped perceptions of material and moral worth, as well as notions of social respectability and personal responsibility. Credit and debt were defining features of imperial Russia’s culture of property ownership. Sergei Antonov recreates this vanished world of borrowers, bankrupts, lenders, and loan sharks in imperial Russia from the reign of Nicholas I to the period of great social and political reforms of the 1860s. Poring over a trove of previously unexamined records, Antonov gleans insights into the experiences of ordinary Russians, rich and poor, and shows how Russia’s informal but sprawling credit system helped cement connections among property owners across socioeconomic lines. Individuals of varying rank and wealth commonly borrowed from one another. Without a firm legal basis for formalizing debt relationships, obtaining a loan often hinged on subjective perceptions of trustworthiness and reputation. Even after joint-stock banks appeared in Russia in the 1860s, credit continued to operate through vast networks linked by word of mouth, as well as ties of kinship and community. Disputes over debt were common, and Bankrupts and Usurers of Imperial Russia offers close readings of legal cases to argue that Russian courts-usually thought to be underdeveloped in this era-provided an effective forum for defining and protecting private property interests.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part I: The Culture of Debt -- 1. Usurers’ Tales -- 2. Nobles and Merchants -- 3. The Boundaries of Risk -- 4. Fraud, Property, and Respectability -- 5. Kinship and Family -- Part II: Debt and the Law -- 6. Debtors and Bureaucrats -- 7. In the Pit with Debtors -- 8. Intermediaries, Lawyers, and Scriveners -- 9. Creditors and Debtors in Pre-Reform Courts -- Conclusion -- Appendix A: Glossary -- Appendix B: The Table of Ranks (as of 1850) -- Appendix C: St. Petersburg Pawnbrokers, 1866 -- Appendix D.1: Objectives of Legal Representation, Based on the Powers of Attorney Registered at the Moscow Chamber of Civil Justice -- Appendix D.2: Legal Representatives Registered at the Moscow Chamber of Civil Justice -- Appendix E: Agreement to Provide Legal Services, 1865 -- Notes. Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Index