Michael Graf von Reutern (russian: Михаи́л Христофо́рович Ре́йтерн, tr. ) was a

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

statesman and the Finance Minister of the Russian Empire from 1862 to 1878.Arthur Raffalovich, "Russian Financial Policy (1862-1914)" ''Economic Journal'' (1916) 26#104 pp. 528-53
Online
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Life

Reutern was born on in Porechye of the

Smolensk Governorate Smolensk Governorate (russian: Смоленская губерния, Smolenskaja gubernija), or the Government of Smolensk, was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR. It ex ...

. He came from the Baltic German noble , his father Christoph Adam von Reutern (1782–1833) was a

lieutenant-general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

, his mother was noblewoman Charlotte Elisabeth von Helffreich, he was the nephew of the famous painter

Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern (17 July 1794, Walk - 22 March 1865, Frankfurt) was a Baltic-German military officer and painter who co-founded the Artists' Colony at Willingshausen. Life He was born into a noble family of Baltic-Germans datin ...

. The Reuterns were of Holsteinish descent, originating in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

. The family was originally called Reuter, they got their name when Johann Reuter (1635-1698), a merchant, was raised to in the

Swedish nobility The Swedish nobility ( sv, Adeln eller Ridderskapet och Adeln) has historically been a legally and/or socially privileged class in Sweden, and part of the so-called ''frälse'' (a derivation from Old Swedish meaning ''free neck''). The archaic term ...

in 1691. Reutern graduated from the

Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum The Imperial Lyceum (Императорский Царскосельский лицей, ''Imperatorskiy Tsarskosel'skiy litsey'') in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg, also known historically as the Imperial Alexander Lyceum after its founde ...

in 1837. He started his career as a civil servant in the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Eco ...

in 1840, he was transferred to the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

in 1843, where he remained until 1854. In 1862, he was appointed

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

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

Russian-Turkish war The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...

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

References

https://oeconomia.revues.org/559 http://bse.sci-lib.com/article096289.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Reutern, Mikhail von 1820 births 1890 deaths Baltic-German people Counts of Germany Finance ministers of Russia Ethnic German people from the Russian Empire Mikhail