Michael von Reutern explained

Honorific Prefix:Graf
Birthname:Michael von Reutern
Order1:Finance Minister of Russia
Monarch1:Alexander II
Predecessor1:Aleksandr Knyazhevich
Successor1:Samuil Greig
Order2:Chairman of the Committee of Ministers
Monarch2:Alexander III
Term Start2:1881
Term End2:1886
Predecessor2:Pyotr Aleksandrovich Valuyev
Successor2:Nikolai von Bunge
Birth Place:Porechye, Smolensk Governorate, Russian Empire
Death Date: (aged 69)
Death Place:Tsarskoye Selo, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Resting Place:Groß-Essern Manor, Courland Governorate (in present-day, Latvia)

Michael Graf von Reutern (Russian: Михаил Христофорович Рейтерн|Mikhail Khristoforovich Reytern; –) was a Russian statesman of Baltic German origin who served as the finance minister from 1862 to 1878.[1]

Life

Reutern was born on in Porechye of Smolensk Governorate in Russia. He came from the Baltic German noble family of ; his father Christoph Adam von Reutern (1782–1833) was a lieutenant-general in the Imperial Russian Army and his mother Charlotte Elisabeth von Helffreich was a noblewoman. He was the nephew of the famous painter Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern. The Reuterns were of Holsteinish descent, originating in Lübeck. The family was originally called Reuter, they got their name when Johann Reuter (1635–1698), a merchant, was raised to in the Swedish nobility in 1691.

Reutern graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum in 1837. He started his career as a civil servant in the ministry of finance in 1840; he was transferred to the Ministry of Justice in 1843, where he remained until 1854. In 1862, he was appointed finance minister under the liberal reformist tsar, Alexander II, and introduced a system of public accounting. Reutern's period in office was also marked by the promotion of private credit institutions and attempts to stabilise the ruble. He succeeded in reforming taxation and customs laws, by abolishing the spirits lease and the introduction of an excise tax on brandy. Government revenues rose significantly, the chronic budget deficit was removed in 1867, and budgetary surpluses were achieved from 1873. On trade policy, Reutern pragmatically supported reducing some tariffs and duties on manufacturing goods in 1863 and 1868.

The Russo-Turkish War reversed some of the measures that had led to Reutern's successes, and he resigned in 1878.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Arthur Raffalovich, "Russian Financial Policy (1862-1914)" Economic Journal (1916) 26#104 pp. 528-532 Online