Between private and state-owned monopoly: The discussion of conservatives and liberals on alcohol monopoly in Russiaстатья
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 26 июня 2019 г.
Аннотация:During the active search for alternatives to alcohol tax farming and along with the proposal to introduce an excise system, there was a timorous call to arrange a stateowned alcohol monopoly. But due to the failure of 1819-1827 campaign, it was rejected without hesitation. The discontent with the excise system based on the idea of a free market was growing in the process of implementation of the 1863 alcohol reform. In this context, the idea of a state-owned alcohol monopoly was becoming more attractive. Not wishing to put up with the growing distillery standards, the restriction of overdistillation, and the higher number of drinking establishments, government and public circles returned to the discussion of the monopoly project. It was the conservatives who argued against the excise tax system. They demanded to establish a Russian-specific system, as they called the state-owned alcohol monopoly system. Liberals defended the usefulness of private alcohol trade. Among other reasons there was an economic factor that counted against the excise system. The rate of alcohol tax collection growth in the 1880s-1890s decreased and its share in the state budget became less than the one the Ministry of Finance expected. Sergei Witte managed to persuade the State Council that alcohol income did not correspond to the amounts that the population spent on alcohol, and a significant share of profits remained in the pockets of wine merchants. During the 1894 reform, alcohol trade was transferred from private hands to the hands of the State. Private individuals retained a right to run wholesale storage facilities with beer, honey and Russian grape wine, the establishments of tavern trade, beer shops, cellars for sale of the Russian grape wines, wine cellars and temporary exhibitions for sale of beer, honey and the Russian grape wine; management structure, personnel structure, functions of excise authorities remained unchanged, the borders of excise districts almost did not change; the distillery industry still remained in private hands. But in the sense of the ideology, a rather limited nature of the above described innovations was presented as a largescale, comprehensive restructuring.