Copper rebellion: causes, events, consequences

Copper rebellion is a significant event in the history of Russia, an uprising of the urban poor and bottoms that occurred in Moscow during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. The very concept of "copper riot" has become a household name. It is used whenever you need to comment on the depreciation of money and the bankruptcy of the state.

Copper riot: causes and historical situation

The Moscow state led a long war for Ukraine against the Commonwealth, for which a huge amount of money was spent. There was a shortage of money. Own deposits of precious metals, of which money was minted, at that time Russia was not yet, so they were imported from abroad. The Mint used foreign money to make them Russian - pennies, pennies and money.

The situation came to the fact that the boyar Ordin-Nashchokin offered a very controversial solution: to coin copper money at the nominal value of silver. At the same time, taxes were still collected in silver, but the salary was issued with new copper coins. Since 1654, copper money was officially put into circulation instead of silver ones.

At first everything went as the government planned: new money was accepted at the price of the former silver money. But soon they began to produce an incredible amount, because there were no problems with copper. Chased courtyards in Moscow, Pskov, and Novgorod worked at full capacity. The flow of unsecured money supply swept Russia, so very soon the demand for silver began to grow rapidly, and the purchasing power of copper money fell.

The slow, and then sweeping, inflation began. The government refused to accept copper money as taxes, so the old silver coins jumped sharply in price: from 15 to 20 new copper coins were given for one former silver ruble. Merchants went to the market and carried copper money literally with wagons, while copper depreciated every day. The townspeople panicked: nothing could be bought for the copper coins , and there was nowhere to take the silver.

But the government did not want to admit the error of its actions and, out of habit, began to look for the guilty on the side. The cause of wholesale inflation was called counterfeiters. Demonstrative courts began to be arranged all over the country. For the production of "left" coins, the verdict was then only one: a brutal execution. According to the Code, the red-hot metal was filled with guilt.

The problem was that almost anyone who knew how to handle metal was able to make coins from copper. "Kotelniki and tin" at the time mass enriched, were able to build a stone house, bought expensive goods. After all, everyone had their own small money yard. Fake copper coins in one Moscow went more than half a million.

Copper Riot: events

On the morning of June 25, 1662, according to the old style, an incriminating letter was pasted at the Lubyanka column in Moscow, where Rtishchev, Miloslavsky and their guest Vasily Shorin were called traitors. In fact, they were attributed to the Rzeczpospolita, with which the war was still going on. The accusation was absolutely groundless, but the people already needed any excuse to begin the unrest.

A crowd of several thousand people, having read this message, went to the village of Kolomenskoye, the summer residence of the tsar. The security was crushed, and the people broke into the royal court unhindered. Alexei Mikhailovich ordered Rtishchev and Miloslavsky to hide in the chambers of the queen, and he himself went out to the people. And then there was a scene that broke all the foundations and canons of society. Commoners surrounded Alexei Mikhailovich, and literally holding on to the buttons of the royal attire, they asked: "Where is the truth?" The conversation was quite peaceful, and the emperor promised the people to restore order. One of the rebels even "beat the hands with the king." After that the crowd calmed down and began to disperse. The incident seemed to be exhausted. But this day was destined to end differently.

Another crowd at this moment was smashing the house of Shorin, and forced his young son to write a confession that his father was allegedly sold to the Poles and specially arranged a venture with copper money to help the hated enemy. With this "confession" in their hands, rebels rushed to Kolomenskoye, drawing back those who had already returned from there. At this time, the tsar was already going to go to Moscow, to investigate the case. However, the new threats of the rioters made him angry. From Moscow by that time archers and soldiers were pulled up. And Alexei Mikhailovich gave an order to Artamon Matveyev to cut down the rebels.

A real battle began. The crowd was unarmed. People were pressed, drowned in the river, pricked and chopped. That day killed more than a thousand people. During the following days, they searched intensely for the participants of the march to Kolomenskoye, arrested, hanged, chopped off their arms and legs, branded, expelled from Moscow to an eternal settlement. Many of the arrested were forced to write under dictation in order to compare the handwriting with that ill-fated leaflet. However, it was not possible to find the true instigators.

The copper revolt of 1662 was the performance of the present urban lower classes - artisans, peasants, butchers, the local poor. Of the traders and people of the higher class, no one took part in it. Moreover, they also contributed to the subsequent arrest of the rioters.

As a result of the riot, about three thousand people suffered, most of them just a curious crowd.

Copper Rebellion: Consequences

The tsar kept his promise and dealt with the problem of copper money. In 1663, the chased factories in Novgorod and Pskov were closed, and copper money was completely withdrawn from circulation. The minting of money from silver resumed. And copper coins were ordered to smelt the cauldrons or hand them over to the treasury. Copper cash was exchanged for new silver coins at the previous inflation rate of twenty to one, that is, the state officially recognized that the old copper rubles were not provided with anything. The salary soon began to be paid back with silver.