A bill is a paper currency. Paper money was invented in China in the 8th century. They immediately provoked inflation in the country. In the XVIII century, the Englishman John Law proposed the introduction of bank notes in Europe. But his idea was rejected by the monarchs. Only in France was a bank established that exchanged gold and silver coins for bank notes. Some of the funds went to Law, the rest to the French government. But soon, the bank's customers began to hurry to close their deposits. The state bank could not compete with private ones. Law's system was more like a financial pyramid than ordinary monetary circulation.
Paper money of the Russian Empire
The habit of adopting everything French was characteristic of Russia at that time. Banknotes, as cash, were used in the country in the XVIII-XIX centuries. Huge government spending on wars led to a shortage of silver. Large payments were made by small copper coins. To collect 500 rubles, I had to equip a whole cart.
National Bank
Money is what? For the first time, a decree on the founding of a state bank was signed by Peter III in 1762. But because of the palace coup, assignments were introduced only after 7 years. In 1769, Catherine II established the Assignation Bank. He had branches in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Soon in other regions of the country began to open exchange offices. The amount of money should not exceed the number of coins in the bank. But this rule was observed only in the first years. Unlike a French bank, interest was not paid for storing money in Russian bank notes.
Course
What is a bill? Denominations of 25, 50, 75 and 100 rubles were issued. On the bills, the date of its issue was applied. The paper date is currently printing the sample date. Buying money could only afford wealthy people. Despite the presence of watermarks, the first banknotes were easily falsified. The denomination of the note was applied in words. Bills of 25 rubles were converted into 75 rubles with a simple pen. In 1780, the export of paper money was prohibited. In 1781, money of 75 rubles was withdrawn from circulation. Banknotes issued before 1773 are currently a rarity.
Paper money was exchanged only for copper coins. An increase in the issue of bank notes led to a decrease in the rate of copper money. As a result, two monetary units appeared in the country: silver and banknote. At the same time, the second of them was practically not provided with anything. At the end of the 17th century, the rate of paper money fell sharply. The official rate set by the state was significantly different from the real one. For a paper ruble they gave only 20 kopecks in silver. In 1787, the government decided to reduce the number of bank notes to 10 million rubles. But ensuring military spending leads to an increase in the money supply to 58 million. New bank notes in denominations of 5 and 10 rubles were issued. In 1810, to demonstrate a real decrease in the money supply, banknotes were burned right at the door of the St. Petersburg Bank.
Napoleon's counterfeit money
Money is what? During the Patriotic War of 1812, France issued fake Russian banknotes to undermine the economy of the empire. Napoleon had extensive experience in conducting such operations. Bags of counterfeit notes were used by soldiers for settlements with the local population. Fakes often outperformed the original in paper quality. They differed from real spelling mistakes and typographic signatures. On real money, signatures were made in real ink. In 1840, as a result of the monetary reform, bank notes were completely withdrawn from circulation. They were replaced with credit tickets.