This project undertakes to produce the first neo-classical economic history of seventeenth-century Russia. It also is the first Russian economic history to study closely the link of society and the legal structure of the economy. Russia was primarily an oral society well into the sixteenth century. Massive destruction of those documents which were created has made detailed study of Russian history prior to 1611 (the "Great Fire of Moscow") difficult. Previous neo-classical attempts at Russian economic history began no earlier than l700, the reign of Peter the Great, as summarized in Arcadius Kahan's work on the eighteenth-century Russian economy. This study is based in part on the gathering and analysis of 15,000 prices and wages in the social context of their transactors. More than 1200 different commodities are in the study. Price indices show that the price level was falling for the majority of commodities. This was especially true for imported goods and substitutes manufactured in Russia, a process that began in the 1630s and accelerated in the 1650s as Russia became increasingly integrated into the European market. The result was a rise of real incomes. The picture of a non-stagnant economic structure that emerges from the data belies the traditional nature of 17th century Russian society and the relatively unfavorable legal climate that prevailed. The study seeks to analyze the mainsprings of development that were at work and to delineate and better understand the shifting balance between stagnation and change.
