“THRIFT” AND VIRTUE: ETHICAL REGULATOR OF THE LANDOWNERS’ ECONOMY IN THE RUSSIAN PUBLIC THOUGHT OF THE XVIII - THE BEGINNING OF THE XIX CENTURY

Abstract

The paper deals with the analysis of the role of ethics in the ideas on landlords’ economy in Russian public thought of 18th - early 19th centuries. The study of writings of N. I. Panin, M. M. Shcherbatov, A. P. Sumarokov, F. O. Tumansky, N. M. Karamzin and some other authors who represented the highest ranks of Russia’s intellectual and administrative elite of the age, allows to specify peculiar theory of economy of the noble’s estate, which emerged by the middle of 18th century. The central point of such theory was the idea of ethical regulator - that is, an ability possessed by the ‘virtuous landlord’ to rule his estate in a manner which enriches both him and his serfs. This approach, in turn, appropriated certain elements of older Muscovite theories of Domostroy, and was stressing the importance of landlord’s personal involvement in the matters of administering the estates. Thus, landlord’s private economy was reshaped as a variation of service in the name of ‘common good’ and, as such, was made a central argument in the defense of nobles’ monopoly in owning serfs. In the literature of 18th century this theory was usually presented by means of figures of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ landlords; typically, ‘good’ landlord was appearing as a masterful owner of village capable of self-restrict and justice. In spite of M. Raeff’s ideas, it was ethical regulator that distinguished this theory of estates’ economy from the cameralist intellectual arsenal that was aimed at unleashing the creative capacities of subjects and became so popular in the 18th century.

Keywords

• nobility
• serfdom
• m. m. shcherbatov
• a. p. sumarokov
• domostroy
• economics
• ethics
• estate