Taxation and the social-legal status of entrepreneurs in Russia in the XVIII - the early XX centuries

The article presents the results of the analysis of the business legislation elaborated and enacted in the Russian Empire over the long period - from the second half of the 18 ^th century to the beginning of the 20 ^th century. From ancient times, Russian governmental authorities emphasized the vital importance of entre-preneurship in economic and social development of the country. Elaboration of the legal and regulatory framework for development of domestic trade and industry was one of the functions of the state administration and became especially extensive during the reign of the House of Romanov. Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Peter the Great, Elizaveta Petrovna, Catherine the Great and the later Russian rulers the government adopted a significant number of legal acts regulating the legal and social status of merchants and industrialists, defining forms and functions of their activities as well as the principles and rules of taxation. Those documents elaborated by the government in accordance with the needs of the age, domestic political and socio-economic changes and external challenges, became integral parts of the Russian economic policy legal framework. The authors examine the features of the legal status of merchants, including those with specific guild affiliation and lower middle class citizens engaged in business activities at different stages of the period under study: 1) from the second half of the 18 ^th century to the removal of serfdom, 2) after the Emancipation in 1861 to the end of the 19 ^th century and 3) from the adoption of the «Statue on State Trade Tax» (1898) to the Great October Socialist Revolution. In addition, the article analyzes the key issues of taxation applied to various categories of entrepreneurs, essential and functional weaknesses of the tax policy toward commercial and industrial business groups. The analysis results show that the most important laws passed in the Russian Empire during the second half of the 18 ^th - the early 20 ^th centuries in the field of taxation of entrepreneurial activities and regulating the legal and social status of the business people, were in general aimed at the gradual liberalization of trade and industrial activity in Russia. Despite the difficulties of implementation of and introduction amendments to the tax legislation, inevitable contradictions of the legislative norms with the political system, by the end of the period under study, Russian public and political circles' awareness of intensifying market trends in the economic development of the country was growing. That facilitated progressive adaptation and improvement of the national legal framework for entrepreneurial activities.

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