The ruble is considered the historical Russian currency. The history of the origin of the ruble officially begins with the Novgorod birch bark letters of the beginning of the 13th century, however, many historians agree that the ruble, as a monetary concept, existed earlier, possibly since the 10th century.
Origin of the concept
The history of the ruble is directly related to the history of the Novgorod Land. The first written mention of the ruble dates back to 1281-1299. At that time, many fragmented Russian principalities used the Kyiv hryvnia as a monetary unit. We can assume that the history of the development of the ruble is a continuation or even an "offshoot" of the history of the hryvnia.
At the beginning of the 13th century, 200-gram silver bars in the form of sticks were in use in Novgorod, which, with their oblong shape and weight, resembled the hryvnia, the monetary unit of Kievan Rus. However, unlike Kyiv, in Novgorod these bars were called "ruble".
The history of the Russian ruble connects the name of the monetary unit with the common Russian people. Insofar asthe name is distinguished by its belonging to the vernacular, it is likely that ingots began to be called the ruble long before the first mention in letters, which is why it is very difficult to determine the exact time of origin of the ruble.
Value
There is no consensus on the value of the first rubles. In the fragmented principalities, they used silver ingots - hryvnias or rubles, for smaller payments, foreign coins, denarii and dirhams, called “kuns” in Russian, were used.
Sometimes 200-gram bars had to be cut into half pieces or smaller pieces, for the accuracy of calculations. This fact complicates the determination of the exact value of the ruble, since according to some data, the ruble was an analogue of the hryvnia, and according to others, its “stump”, equal to 100 grams.
It is likely that the fragmented principalities did not fully agree on the names of monetary units, and the ruble in Novgorod was really equal to the hryvnia, and the ruble in Moscow was half as much. It is proved that later Lithuanian rubles weighed 100 g.
Etymology of the word
The history of the ruble has no data on the exact origin of the term. Today, there are four main variants of the origin of the word "ruble". The main version - the ruble is a derivative of the word "rub", which means "seam". The Novgorod ruble was minted according to the technology, according to which, first, half of the silver was poured into the mold, and then the second part of it, while a seam was formed in the middle of the ingot. Hence the common name of the ingot - the ruble.
According to the second version, the root of the wordcomes from the verb "to cut". In this case, scientists consider two possible options. The first - the ruble was part of the hryvnia, or rather, its quarter; that is, half a piece, cut in half. The second option - the Novgorod ruble differed from the Kyiv hryvnia with notches that specify the dignity and value of a silver ingot.
The other two versions involve borrowing the term from other languages. Perhaps the word "ruble" has common roots with the word "rupiah", which means "silver that has been processed." In addition, a connection with the Arabic word "quarter", which sounds like "rub", is likely.
The history of the ruble stops at the first two versions, since historians share the opinion that the word "ruble" belongs to vernacular, which does not agree with the possibility of borrowing the term.
First rubles
The use of solid silver bars was extremely inconvenient, but continued until the XIV century, when new small coins began to be minted during the reign of Dmitry Donskoy. Each coin weighed a little less than one gram and was called "money", being a legacy of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. It is from this moment that the history of the ruble coin begins.
The coins differed in shape, as it was difficult to mint a perfect circle, however, the weight and printing in the center of the coin were the same. The design of the seal could differ depending on the principality in which the coins were minted.
Thanks to the shift to smaller money, settlements have become muchmore convenient and over time, 200-gram bars went out of everyday life of the common people and began to be used only in wholesale trade.
Under the influence of the political power of the Novgorod and Moscow principalities, as well as the Western Russian Principality of Lithuania, by the 15th century, the ruble completely replaced the hryvnia and became not only the name of an ingot, but also a philistine concept adopted for calculating and counting the amount of money in the household.
Changes and reforms
The first widespread monetary reform of the ruble was carried out in the middle of the XVI century. In 1534, a unified monetary reform began in Moscow, the purpose of which was to unify the coins used for settlements, as well as rid the domestic market of foreign currency, which confuses trade.
The main currency was the Moscow ruble, which consisted of 200 Moscow money or 100 Novgorod money. Subsequently, Novgorod coins began to be called "kopeks", and Moscow ones - "marks". These names are associated with the printing on the reverse side of the coins. A warrior with a spear on a horse was minted on a penny, and a warrior with a sword was minted on a sword. The smallest coin was considered a half, that is, half a label; often it was just a coin, chopped or broken in half.
Since the ruble-denominated silver bars completely went out of use during the 16th century, the ruble, until the middle of the 16th century, remained nothing more than a measured unit.
In 1654, a one-ruble coin was minted for the first time. In fact, these were re-minted Germancoins, on which the emblem (double-headed eagle) was printed on one side, and the king on horseback was depicted on the other side. The coin was called "ruble", but weighed less than its value - 64 grams.
During the reign of Peter I, money began to be minted independently, and a number of changes were made and copper kopecks weighing 28 g and denominated in 1/100 of the ruble were introduced. In addition to copper kopecks, gold chervonets were also introduced in denominations of 3 rubles and weighing just over 3 g of gold. Later, by the end of the 18th century, the weight of silver in a 1 ruble coin dropped to 18 grams.
Banknotes
The first paper rubles appeared during the reign of Catherine II, in 1769. These banknotes were in use for 50 years; at that time, their printing was not controlled by the state, which led to the actual collapse of the economy, since there were more paper rubles than the precious metals that provided them. In 1843, banknotes were completely withdrawn from use.
The first failed notes were replaced in the same year by bank notes, however, for the same reasons, banks soon stopped exchanging them for silver and gold - there was more paper money than metal allocated for security.
The reform of 1897 put into circulation a new paper ruble backed by gold. The printing of rubles was carried out using a new technology that provides for the use of several colors and various levels of protection. The multi-colored Oryol printing (named after Ivan Orlov) made it possible to avoid fakes andincrease state control over the issue of the number of banknotes.
The beginning of the 20th century and the tsarist monetary system
The period of the collapse of the Russian Empire and the formation of Soviet Russia is commonly called the "Time of Troubles". Not surprisingly, the history of the Russian ruble during this period is considered the most complex and the number of official and unofficial currency changes is difficult to count.
Even during the Japanese War, the Empire began to experience a lack of funds; popular discontent, coup attempts, and Russia's entry into the world war actually led the Empire to an extreme shortage of money. All coins, even the smallest ones, have disappeared from everyday life.
In practice, everything that was called rubles for reporting and used in trade did not have even the smallest value, since it was not backed by a stock of precious metals. Rubles began to be called self-printed banknotes, wine labels and even drawn money. In the history of the development of the ruble, as well as in the history of the country, this period can be considered the most unstable.
The first Soviet rubles
The history of the ruble in Russia of the early Soviet period begins in 1923, when the first gold chervonets was minted, equivalent to 10 imperial rubles. For the exchange of chervonets, silver coins were issued - silver coins. These are one of the rarest Soviet coins, since chervonets and silver coins were used mainly for foreign transactions, on the territory of the country theythere was almost no left.
From the 30s. In the 20th century, paper rubles and change coins made of cheap metal alloys began to appear. The government's efforts to bring money to a single format continued until the middle of the century, while the appearance of rubles and kopecks changed very often.
1961 reform
The largest monetary reform in the history of the USSR and, perhaps, Russia as a whole was being prepared for 10 years. Materials and the value of the new ruble were chosen, a single format was drawn up and a single design was chosen. Over the next few years, the Union underwent a complete replacement of all funds with new ones.
One ruble of the new sample was equal to 10 old rubles (of the first Soviet sample) and had a gold equivalent of 1 g of gold. Everyday coins made of precious metals were no longer minted, with the exception of the issue of coins dedicated to important events or anniversaries.
Modern Russian ruble
The history of the ruble suffered another crisis in the early 90s. After the collapse of the USSR, the old Soviet rubles were in use until 1993, when inflation and the economic crisis completely undermined the national currency and did not allow a painless transition to the new money format.
To avoid an increase in inflation in 1993, a monetary reform was carried out and new banknotes with a large number of zeros were adopted for circulation. In 1998, the Government of the Russian Federation conducted a series of monetaryreforms, followed by denomination and the issuance of new banknotes that are in circulation to this day.
