Credit relations are an integral element of commodity-money relations. Literally credit means " confidence", from Latin credite , What means " I believe».

Money lending was widely used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The so-called money changers were engaged in the exchange of gold and silver money of various denominations. This service was provided to people in need of money. In the Middle Ages, money changers began to appear on the basis of the money change business, which later turned into banks ( bank - this is the bench where the money changers sat).

Initially, both offices and banks were engaged in exchanging money, but the gradual accumulation of excess funds in banks allowed them to use money quite widely in credit and trade transactions, issuing loans for various periods at interest.

However, the formation of credit relations characteristic of the modern period relates to capitalist production.

Credit as an economic category represents a certain type of social relations associated with the movement of value on the terms urgency, repayment and payment. The loan is based on transactions in which one person ( creditor ) provides an item, having value, to another person ( to the borrower ), in exchange for a promise to pay in the future.

Economic content of credit relations

At the same time, “Credit” comes from the Latin “kreditum” (loan, debt). In the broad sense of the word, both from a legal and economic point of view, a loan is a transaction, an agreement between legal entities or individuals for a loan or loan.

Credit relations operate in a system of economic relations. They are based on the movement of a special type of capital - loan capital.

Credit relations are a separate part of economic relations associated with the provision of value (funds) on a loan and its return along with a certain percentage.

With a loan, a loan agreement or loan appears (the concepts of loan and loan can be used interchangeably). Credit relations combine two subsystems:

· Monetary relations;

· Credit and commodity relations.

In modern conditions, all loans are issued in the form of a monetary loan, and credit relations are part of all monetary relations. The main thing that distinguishes a cash loan from all other forms of monetary relations is return movement of value. In credit, production relations are expressed when business entities, the state, organizations or individual citizens transfer value to each other on the basis of repayment for temporary use. Credit relations mean all monetary relations associated with the provision and repayment of loans, the organization of cash settlements, the issue of cash, lending to investments, the use of government loans, insurance transactions (partially), etc. Money acts as a means of payment wherever credit is present. Even when a borrower receives, for example, a seed loan, it is in the form of a cash loan. Consequently, credit is a special form of money movement. This is a market category. The market must be served by a special fund of funds (let's call it the company's loan fund), which can be provided by an economic entity on repayment terms. The form of movement of the loan fund is credit. Credit serves the movement of capital and the constant movement of public funds. Thanks to credit, the economy productively uses funds released during the operation of enterprises, in the process of implementing the state budget, as well as the savings of individual citizens and bank resources.

How do funds appear that can be used as borrowed resources to meet the needs of commodity producers and the state? Free cash is generated in the process of economic activity of enterprises. Having received revenue from sold products, the company gradually, in parts, spends it on the purchase of raw materials, fuel, materials; it also does not use part of the profit received immediately, but some time after its receipt. As a result, temporarily free funds are formed in the bank accounts of enterprises.

Temporary release of funds also occurs as a result of the fact that the value of fixed assets is transferred to manufactured goods in parts and returned to enterprises in cash. These funds are spent gradually, in connection with which free cash resources are formed in the form of unused depreciation funds. Wages to workers and employees are usually paid twice a month, and the receipt of money for sold products occurs more often, which also ensures the release of funds for certain periods. The receipt of funds into the budget and their expenditure do not always coincide in time, so for some period free cash balances are formed. Cash savings arise among the population due to the excess of income over current expenses. By storing funds in accounts, the population transfers them for temporary use to banks, which use these funds as resources for lending. The need for funds in all sectors of society fluctuates. Economic entities usually have a sum of their own capital in circulation, and during periods when the need for funds exceeds the minimum, it can be satisfied by obtaining borrowed funds. Thus, temporarily free funds do not remain unused, but are involved in useful economic turnover, which accelerates the pace of reproduction and contributes to the most rational spending of all funds. Loan fund funds are used for capital investments - reproduction of fixed assets in cases where an industry or enterprise needs to make expenses before the actual accumulation of resources (depreciation, profit). With economic growth and economic development, the size of credit resources also increases. Thus, the resources for lending (loan fund) include cash reserves of enterprises and organizations released in the process of capital circulation, cash reserves acting in the form of special funds. As well as a depreciation fund used for capital investments, a state monetary reserve consisting of amounts of current budget cash resources, a fund of funds specifically allocated for the development of credit relations ( for example, for long-term investment lending), monetary savings of the population accumulated by banks, issue of banknotes carried out in accordance with the needs of increasing cash circulation. Credit is a means of intersectoral and interregional redistribution of monetary capital. Credit relations are determined by the continuous circulation of funds in the economy and allow the efficient use of all funds of funds for the needs of production, trade and consumption.

The objective need for a loan is determined by the peculiarities of the capital circulation, which are: the constant formation of cash reserves and the emergence of temporary additional needs for them; different duration of turnover of funds in individual cells of the economy, close interweaving of cash and non-cash turnover of funds; separation of capital within economic entities. The objectivity of the existence, formation and use of the loan fund and the specific form of its movement of credit is caused by the need:

· overcoming the contradictions between the constant formation of cash reserves, deposited in the process of turnover among enterprises of different forms of ownership, budget and population, and their full use for reproduction needs;

· ensuring a continuous process of capital circulation in the context of the functioning of numerous industries and enterprises with varying durations of the circulation of funds (from one day to several years);

· organizing the functioning of means of circulation and payments based on the credit nature of the issue of banknotes and non-cash funds;

· commercial enterprise management organization.

In the process of capital circulation, free resources released in some economic units can be used in others. The fact is that different industries and enterprises have different production and sales times. When products from one manufacturer are ready, the buyer may not have enough funds to purchase them. Such different rates of turnover of funds among different, closely interconnected business organizations require the attraction of loans to ensure the uninterrupted process of production and sales of products.

The objective need for a loan is also due to the commercial organization of enterprise management in market conditions, when at each enterprise, in the process of continuous circulation of individual capital, there is a need for additional amounts or, conversely, monetary resources are temporarily released. With the help of the credit mechanism, these fluctuations are flexibly regulated and enterprises receive the funds they need for normal operation. The role of credit is especially important in organizing working capital for enterprises that have seasonal supply, production or sales conditions. They need a loan to form temporary reserves. But enterprises that are not associated with seasonal operating conditions also need loans. In any enterprise, working capital and circulation funds either decrease or increase, while the proportions between capital in commodity, productive and monetary forms change. This circumstance is explained by the fact that the amount of inventory constantly fluctuates depending on the timing of receipt of raw materials. The amount of balances of finished products and the funds needed by the enterprise also depends on the terms of delivery, the timing of receiving payments from customers and payment of supplier bills, the timing of wage payments, etc. Therefore, despite the uniform production process, enterprises in non-seasonal sectors of the economy in the process of circulation of funds constantly form short-term deviations from the established average values. The objective process of ebb and flow of funds from individual enterprises requires a certain flexibility of the entire system of capital organization.

The role of credit is also great in investments and in the reproduction of fixed assets. Anticipatory property of a loan ( ability to anticipate future earnings ) ensures the implementation of capital investments even before the business entity accumulates profit and depreciation for investment. The combination of equity capital with borrowed capital allows you to quickly respond to technological progress and quickly pay for the implementation of the latest scientific achievements. Speaking about the importance of credit in the development of economic relations between industries and regions, in increasing production efficiency, it is necessary to show its role in the creation and use of income and profit.

General characteristics of the formation of financial relations in Russia.

Finance (French finance from Latin financia - income, payment) arose in conditions of regular commodity-money circulation in connection with the development of the state and its needs for resources. In terms of its material content, state finances are funds of funds. But finance is not the money itself, but the relationship between people regarding the formation, redistribution and use of funds. Finance serves as an economic instrument for the distribution of gross social product and national income.

Financial relations in Russia in the process of evolution have gone from direct commodity exchange to commodity-money relations, in which money has become the universal equivalent, and the state, in the development of its activities in managing economic and social processes, began to keep records of income and expenses in monetary form, forming various monetary funds.

Finance as a historical category appeared simultaneously with the state during the stratification of society into classes.During the period of feudalism (pre-capitalist relations), most of the needs of the state were satisfied by establishing various kinds of in-kind duties and fees, and the monetary economy was developed only in the army.

Main expenses The feudal state had costs for waging wars, maintaining the court of the monarch, the state apparatus, and building public buildings (temples, canals, roads, etc.).The main income were the proceeds from the monopoly grant of the Grand Duke (monarch) to large feudal lords to receive certain income from certain industries and trade in certain types of goods - coinage, market duties, fines, mine development, etc.), military conquests (production), tribute from conquered peoples, in-kind and monetary fees and duties, duties, loans.

With the gradual transition to the capitalist mode of production, monetary income and expenses of the state began to acquire increasing importance, while the share of in-kind fees and duties began to decline sharply.

In the early stages of the development of the state, there was no distinction between the resources of the state and the resources of the monarch. The monarchs disposed of the country's resources as their own.Only in the XVI-XVII centuries. with the allocation of the state treasury and its complete separation from the property of the monarch, state finance, the state budget and state credit arose.

Public finance immediately became a powerful lever for the initial accumulation of capital that took place in the 16th-18th centuries. Government loans and taxes were used extensively to create the first capitalist enterprises.

An important role in the creation of initial capital belonged to the system of protectionism, which allowed capitalists to set high prices for manufactured industrial products and receive high profits, most of which were used to expand production.

In the Russian Empire, the development of market relations was largely constrained by serfdom. The industry of the Russian Empire in the form of state-owned and small private manufactories and handicraft industries played a more modest role in the country's economy than agriculture. And the main thing was that many of them did not use the hired labor of free workers, but the labor of serfs.The state, interested in preserving serfdom, deliberately restrained private capitalist entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, in Russia for a long time there existed mainly a market for serfs, and not a market for hired labor. All this, naturally, affected the development of the capital market.And right up to the abolition of serfdom in1861. The Russian economy was not a mechanism for replenishing budget revenues.

Until the second half of the 18th century.emergency financial resources for the Russian state and its government served mainlyrequisitions (forced alienation) or forced loans from monasteries and private individuals. The compulsory nature of the state's credit relations with treasury creditors was explained mainly by the shortage of free capital in Russia, which could be voluntarily loaned to the government.

During the reign of Catherine II (1762-1796), one of the forms of state credit wasissuing banknotes to cover the state budget deficit, which led to the development of inflationary processes; there was also borrowing of credit resources from state-owned banks. Catherine II thanks to successful foreign policy steps in1769. managed to obtain the first external loan in the history of Russia, which was followed by other, mainly five percent, external loans.

The chronic shortage of capital in Russia continued under Paul I (1796-1801). The government continued to use the printing press and looked for ways to obtain new loans, while also using traditional methods.

During the reforms of Alexander I (1801-1825), the Ministry of Finance was established. And the first minister of finance in the history of the Russian Empire was appointed former state treasurerCount Alexey Vasilievich Vasiliev. From December 41796. The position of state treasurer was the first independent highest position in the field of state financial management. Until this time, the function of non-state management of public finances was performed by the prosecutor general. In the 19th century 13 people have replaced the post of Minister of Finance. Among them, the most famous were E.F. Kankrin, S.Yu. Witte.

In the first years of the reign of Alexander I, the issue of banknotes increased especially noticeably. The wars with Turkey (1806-1812) and Sweden (1808-1809) required large expenses. The inflationary process in Russia devalued the monetary savings of the propertied strata. The depreciation of banknotes made it unprofitable to provide loans. And all this taken together hindered the development of capitalist relations, trade, and credit.

Under these conditions, the government of Alexander I took certain measures that contributed to the stabilization of monetary circulation, based on"Financial Plan" prepared in1809. famous statesman of this era M.M. Speransky with the assistance of Professor N.S. Mordvinova.

In accordance with the “Finance Plan,” monetary reform was supposed to be carried out by withdrawing and destroying all previously issued banknotes, as well as establishing a new bank of issue, which was supposed to have a sufficient supply of silver to back the banknotes planned to be put into circulation. In addition, according to the “Plan,” it was supposed to improve the organization of the Russian monetary system, the basis of which was to be the silver ruble. Speransky had a negative attitude towards irredeemable paper money and considered it necessary to eliminate their circulation in the country. Speransky proposed measures to improve the organization of the internal state credit system, which were based on the idea of ​​​​transforming (consolidating) part of the current interest-free debt in the form of notes issued into circulation into long-term debt with the state paying interest to creditors. To do this, Speransky proposed issuing interest-bearing debt obligations - long-term government loan bonds and selling them to everyone for banknotes. Only some provisions from the “Financial Plan” were implemented.In the Manifesto of February 21810. all previously issued banknotes were declared to be the state's debt, secured by the entire wealth of the Russian Empire, it was said that further issue of banknotes would be stopped and the decision to pay off the said debt by concluding an internal loan. Besides,The same Manifesto increased taxes and taxes in order to increase expenditures in the state budget.

However, this loan was immediately doomed to failure. It was sold for only 3.2 million rubles. out of 100 million assignment rubles. The shortage of free cash capital in the country became one of the main reasons for the failure of the loan. In addition, the purchase of government debt was unusual for the wealthy segments of the population.

As a result, a special type of state credit developed in the Russian Empire, which arose under Catherine II and developed during the reign of Alexander I -constant borrowing from state-owned banks of credit resources received as deposits from individuals and institutions.

Ideas M.M. Speransky were forgotten, and the government could not complete reforms due to the outbreak of war in1812. Government policy in the field of finance, public credit and monetary circulation took a new course. It was decided to keep banknotes in circulation and prevent them from being replaced by coins.Banknotes were declared legal tender, circulating throughout the empire.

At the end of the 20s. XIX century The Ministry of Finance, in order to increase revenues to the state budget, increased the tax burden on those classes that were the main taxpayers, and primarily on the peasantry.

The Russian government abandoned the issue of banknotes as a way to cover the budget deficit; other methods of state credit were used. On the initiative of the Minister of Finance E.F. Kankrina Russia entered into three external loans, but their terms turned out to be unfavorable for the country.

Besides, in1831. in accordance with the Manifesto, the government decided to issue State Treasury tickets (series) to accelerate the receipt of government revenues. Tickets came into circulation in large quantities and gave the right to receive income at the rate of 4.32% per annum. The maturity date was 4 years later. Issues of tickets followed one after another, and tickets with expired circulation were exchanged for new ones.In reality, the State Treasury notes have become a long-term government loan.

July 11839. With the adoption of the Manifesto “On the structure of the monetary system”, its reform began, the purpose of which was to introduce new principles for the organization of this system and to eliminate depreciated state banknotes from circulation. The monetary reform fixed the actual level of depreciation of the assignat ruble and was essentially carried out by devaluing it to one third of the silver ruble.

July 11839. The Decree “On the Establishment of the Deposit Office for Silver Coins at the State Commercial Bank” was also published, which declared the tickets of the Deposit Office to be legal tender, circulating throughout the country on a par with silver coins.

But the reform was not completed.Manifesto June 11843. provided for the replacement of all circulating paper notes with state credit notes, for the production of which an Expedition of State Credit Notes was created with a permanent fund of silver coins under the Ministry of Finance to ensure the exchange of large notes. The issue of deposit notes was stopped and they were exchanged for government credit notes.As a result of all these operations, only one type of paper banknotes remained in circulation in the empire - state banknotes.

By carrying out this reform, the government of Nicholas I tried to simultaneously streamline monetary circulation and make maximum use of the issue of paper banknotes for the benefit of the State Treasury. Monetary reform gave impetus to the rapid development of commodity-money relations in Russia.

From the very beginning of the reign of Alexander II the government embarked on the path of political and economic reforms. IN1861. Serfdom was abolished and restrictions on private business were lifted.In Russia, market relations in the economy began to deepen and develop qualitatively, and the process of demonopolization of the capital market, including the securities market, began. The prerequisites for the expansion of the banking system began to take shape. IN1859decisions were made that laid downthe beginning of a new stage in the development of the banking system. Herreform1861. assumed the liquidation of all state credit institutions andcreation of commercial banks.

Finance Minister Mikhail Khristoforovich Reitern adhered to a market orientation and the concept of an open economy. It was with his active support that the widespread development of joint-stock commercial banks began in the country.

IN1860. The Loan Bank was abolished, the affairs of which were transferred to the St. Petersburg Treasury. In the same year, the State Bank of Russia was established on the basis of the State Commercial Bank. The process of creating private long-term credit institutions (St. Petersburg City Credit Society, Kherson Zemstvo Bank, Mutual Land Loan Society) and short-term ones (St. Petersburg Mutual Credit Society, St. Petersburg Private Commercial Bank - the first joint-stock bank) began.

In November1864. was released for the first time in Russian historywinning loanfor the amount of 100 million rubles. credit notes for a period of 60 years. Domestic 5% tickets with loan winnings were issued to bearer at a face value of 100 rubles.

Initially, despite the attractive conditions (payment upon repayment of the redemption premium, which increased as the draw approached from 20 to 50 rubles, twice a year draws with cash prizes, return of the amount of capital placed in the bond upon repayment), the loan was placed at exchange rate 98 rub. 50 kopecks for a hundred-ruble bond. But then interest in the loan began to grow.

A second loan was issued. These securities soon became the most popular form of government credit. The third winning loan took place in1889. But winning loans created competition between securities of the same issuer - the state, so in the future it no longer resorted to this type of loans.

TO1872. The banking system of Russia consisted of: the State Bank, public city and land banks, private banks for long-term and short-term lending.

At the beginning of the 80s. in Russia there were 44 joint-stock banks with 49 branches, 83 mutual credit societies, 729 savings and loan partnerships, 32 commercial banks, 232 city public banks.

One of the initiators of the new credit and monetary policy in the 1880s. became Minister of Finance Nikolai Khristoforovich Bunge - a major economist who defended his doctoral dissertation “The Theory of Credit”. Bunge was a proponent of a market economy.

Beginning with1881. The Russian government made every effort to accumulate gold reserves. External and internal loans, as well as increased taxation of the population contributed to budget stabilization; all this together became a prerequisite for monetaryreforms 1895--1897

The first stage of this reform was the permission to1895. transactions with gold. August 291897. An emission law was adopted that regulated the issue of banknotes and the principles of backing them with gold. Law of November 141897. introduced the unlimited exchange of credit notes for gold, credit notes became legal tender on a par with gold coins. As the basis of the monetary system of the Russian Empire, the law provided for the gold ruble, which contained 17,424 shares of pure gold. Since the system of gold monometallism was established in Russia, silver turned into an auxiliary monetary product.

As a result of the reform, Russia received a stable gold currency and paper banknotes equivalent to gold and freely exchangeable for this metal. The monetary system based on gold caused an even greater influx of foreign capital.

In the early 90s. An economic crisis broke out in Russia. His first messenger was the one that began in the summer1899. monetary crisis - the shortage of free capital increased sharply, due to the increase in demand for money, the exchange rate of many securities fell sharply, a number of banks went bankrupt, and credit decreased significantly.

Russia began to emerge from the economic crisis only in1904. But new shocks awaited her - the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905. and the surge of the revolutionary movement in 1905-1906.

At the beginning of the 10s. In the 20th century, the state of the empire's economy began to improve. The total increase in industrial production for 1908-1913. amounted to an unprecedented value - 50.8%. The economic recovery contributed to the process of financial recovery of the country: restoring balance in the capital market, overcoming the deficit of financial resources, and increasing the volume of state budget revenues. For the first time in many years, the Russian Empire was able to repay part of the national debt.

The First World War interrupted the widespread development of the banking system. Russia had a huge need for funds to finance the war. In 1914-1916. The Russian government carried out massive annual issues of State Treasury notes. An inflationary process was developing in the country; it was engulfed in devastation and famine, accompanied by mass rallies, strikes, and demonstrations.

The consequence of the growth of the money supply, not supported by commodity production, was a fall in the purchasing power of the ruble. Prolonged and severe inflation set in. Qualitative changes also occurred in monetary circulation. Law of July 271914. canceled the exchange of credit notes for gold. And then the process of its disappearance from circulation began - the hoarding of gold. Gradually, silver coins disappeared from circulation, then copper coins. ANDat the end1916. Russian monetary circulation consisted only of various paper banknotes; there were practically no coins.

The issue of paper money was regulated by emission legislation. The emission process was concentrated in the State Bank. The money supply consisted mainly of bank notes.

By the time of the February Revolution the actual metal backing of credit notes was about 13%. The country's gold reserves were declining.The ruble, having become a paper currency within the country, gradually turned into a closed currency in foreign markets. To overcome inflation and stabilize the depreciating ruble, it was necessary to end the war and switch to peaceful development. However, the February Revolution and the Provisional Government rejected this path. And this, of course, predetermined the further deepening of the processes of internal and external depreciation of paper currency.

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The formation and development of forms of financial and credit relations as components of the general economic progress of society, the experience of financial reforms, the development of the budgetary and monetary systems of the Russian state in the 9th-19th centuries, the development of financial relations and the creation of their new structure in the 20th century are considered. The tasks are presented in the form of tests that are performed as independent or test work. Addressed to students of higher and secondary educational institutions of economics, as well as to everyone interested in the history of finance and credit. The manual in the first edition was awarded a Certificate of Honor from the Department of Education and Science of the Krasnodar Territory of the regional competition “Best Scientific and Creative Work” (2006)

1. FINANCE AND CREDIT IN THE ERA OF THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS

FORMATION OF FINANCIAL AND CREDIT RELATIONS IN THE ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL RUSSIAN STATE

FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM IN THE RUSSIAN CENTRALIZED STATE. TRANSFORMATION OF THE MONETARY SYSTEM OF RUSSIA XVI-XVIII centuries.

FINANCIAL RELATIONS IN RUSSIA IN THE 19th century. REFORMING THE MONETARY SYSTEM OF RUSSIA IN THE 19th century.

THE ROLE OF FINANCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY IN RUSSIA IN THE 19th century.

6. HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF FINANCIAL RELATIONS in 1921-1951.

DEVELOPMENT OF FINANCE IN THE USSR IN THE 1950-1980s

ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING AND IMPROVEMENT OF FINANCIAL AND CREDIT

Books and textbooks on the discipline Lending:

1. Golodze I. N. Financing and lending of investments: a textbook for students of specialties 050509 “Finance”, 5B050900 “Finance” / I. N. Golodze. – Pavlodar: Kereku, 2012. – 246 p. - year 2012
2. Galina Beregovaya, Stanislav Volkov, Pavel Samiev. Consumer lending in Russia: technologies versus risks - 2011
3. Razumova I.A.. Collection of tests and tasks for the course “Mortgage Lending” of the specialty “Finance and Credit” for distance learning students: textbook. allowance / I.A. Razumov. - St. Petersburg. : Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University-EF, 2011. - 36 s. - 2011
4. Klyuchnikov I.K. Credit culture: essence, patterns, forms: textbook / I.K. Klyuchnikov, O.A. Molchanov. - St. Petersburg. : Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Economics, 2011. - 221 p. - 2011
5. Moiseev S. R.. Monetary policy: theory and practice: textbook. allowance / S. R. Moiseev. - M.: Moscow Financial and Industrial Academy, 2011. - 784 p. - 2011

Credit and credit relations in the process of their historical development went through several successive stages: the origin, formation and regulation of credit relations.

The first stage is the emergence of credit relations. Credit relations began to arise at the stage of transition from subsistence to commercial farming. During this period, a special multi-temporal exchange of products appeared, which gradually gave way to its commodity analogue - multi-temporal commodity exchange. With the advent of money, more complex credit relationships arise - the sale of goods with deferred payment. The discrepancy between the periods of production and circulation of various goods, the seasonal conditions of their production and sale led to the fact that some producers had to buy goods from others even before selling their own goods. Therefore, the buyer became a borrower, and the seller became a lender. This is how the simplest forms of commercial lending emerged.

Usury played a significant role in the origin and development of credit relations and credit. The development of the social division of labor and the emergence of private property during the period of decomposition of the natural economy gave rise to significant property differentiation, which ultimately led to the emergence of such a unique economic and social phenomenon as usury. Initially, rich families who were members of the community provided their poorer relatives with loans in kind - grain or other products. The repayment conditions for such loans were quite strict. Loans were provided against the security of land or even the identity of the borrower (the so-called self-mortgage). Lenders installed special stones on the mortgaged land, on which was stamped an inscription containing the name of the creditor, the amount of the debt and the terms of its repayment. This is how the simplest form of mortgage appeared - the pledge of land to secure a loan obligation. As payment for the loan, it was often necessary to return a very significant share of the harvest.

The emergence of money and the subsequent development of monetary exchange were an important factor in increasing differentiation and became the basis for the transition to a monetary form of usury. According to the testimony of the Greek historian Plutarch, in ancient Greece in the 7th-6th centuries. BC, the entire common people were in debt to the rich, and debtors often borrowed money as security for themselves, and for non-payment of debts, many were forced to sell their children into slavery.

In the ancient world, usury became widespread. Already the first Roman codification of law served to strengthen the position of the usurer and consolidated debt slavery. The loan agreement was called bondage (self-mortgage) in Rome. If the debtor was in default, the creditor, using the permission of the court, “laid his hand on the debtor,” which meant imprisoning him in chains. Lenders were able to control the borrower's identity and sell him into slavery.

Usury credit in the ancient world came in three main forms: first, in the form of providing cash loans to slave-owning nobility, mainly landowners, for the purchase of luxury goods; secondly, in the form of providing loans to small producers who owned the conditions of their work, which included primarily peasants, but also artisans; thirdly, in the form of lending to ancient cities and states.

Since in Ancient Rome, usurers were often patricians - landowners, and also due to the fact that all the levers of political and military power were in their hands, the spread of usurious transactions and the level of interest ensured the replenishment of the slave market. Apparently, the severity of debt law was directly related to the need for the existence of this particular source of slave labor for the land holdings of the patricians.

Along with small landowners, the slave-owning nobility were borrowers. She needed money to purchase luxury goods, organize receptions and shows, as well as to cover expenses associated with political activities.

In addition to private individuals, cities and states resorted to the services of moneylenders, who used the funds received to maintain the army and wage wars. Particularly often, cities and states that were politically dependent on Rome and were forced to pay him a large tribute resorted to loans.

A characteristic feature of usurious loans was the extremely high level of interest. The high percentage created a real possibility of degradation and ruin of the small producer, up to the loss of his property and even freedom. This undermined the deepest economic foundations of society and therefore the state itself was forced to take a number of measures to protect small-scale production as the basis of the policy economy. The legislative limitation of loan interest to a certain minimum, as well as the prohibition of debt slavery, became the most important achievements of the period of antiquity.

Thus, usurious credit had a significant impact on the entire economy and social life of ancient society. It had the following main features: extremely high interest rate; the possibility of slavery for debts; predominantly in monetary form, which contributed to the transition to a commodity economy; providing a loan from your own funds.

The wide spread of credit relations led to the emergence of banking. Initially, it arose as an additional occupation of money changers, who exchanged coins of various cities and states. Along with trading money, money changers gradually switched to accepting money for storage (in deposits), transferring it on behalf of clients, and began to engage in lending secured by houses and lands. The ancient bankers competed with the temples, which concentrated significant sums in the form of donations and deposits deposited for safekeeping. Since robbing temples was considered a great sin, they were a fairly safe place to store money. These amounts were provided on credit at interest.

In ancient Rome, banking operations appeared at the end of the 3rd century. BC e. With the development of banking, the first non-cash payments appeared. The Romans began to distinguish between payment in cash and payment by bank entries.

A special type of lending in the ancient world was maritime trade loans. The borrowers were merchants equipping expensive expeditions for goods to distant countries.

Thus, in ancient and ancient societies the origin of credit relations occurred, and various forms of credit appeared. However, in general, the economy was of a subsistence nature, credit operations developed on the basis of usurious credit, which became a constraining factor in economic development and did not contribute to the progress of production. The emerging banking industry was also usurious in nature.

The second stage in the historical development of credit relations is their formation. At this stage, there was a further development of commodity lending.

During the Middle Ages, commercial credit was widely practiced throughout Europe. His terms sometimes stretched to one and a half years. An important moment in the development of commercial lending was the emergence of bills of exchange. Already in the 15th century. in Italy the use of the simplest forms of bills of exchange is becoming common practice.

Initially, the instruments of commercial credit were: a notarized letter of payment; private letter of guarantee; a guarantee that no longer requires notarization. These documents clearly indicate that the bill owes its origin not only to the debt caused by the deferred payment, but also to money transfer operations. Back in the middle of the 12th century. Genoese merchants contributed money to local money changers in exchange for a written obligation to pay the specified amount in the city where they had to purchase goods or pay off debts.

Gradually, bills turned into instruments of commercial credit. Merchants began to pay for the purchase of goods with bills. Periodically, massive mutual payments on bills were made at fairs. In the XIII-XIV centuries. The fair in France, in the province of Champagne, held 6 times a year, acquired the greatest importance for settlements; so-called “bill fairs” appeared here.

Since 1597, bills in Holland acquired a completed form and began to be drawn up on standard forms. Here they became the main form of payment, and in the 17th century. an endorsement on their back (endorsement) became widespread practice. Discounting of bills (their accounting) originated in Antwerp in the 16th century. in the form of buying up outstanding bills and became a constant practice from the second half of the 18th century.

At this stage, a more complex form of credit relations arose - credit relations with the participation of an intermediary; the banking industry was revived and began to gain strength, gradually developing into a complex type of banking entrepreneurship. The emergence of credit intermediation was the result of resolving contradictions in the development of credit relations themselves. These contradictions, as shown earlier, were determined by the objective discrepancy in the amount of funds released by creditors and the emerging need of borrowers for additional funds, as well as differences between the duration of the release of these funds and the duration of the need for them.

In most European countries, from the end of the 17th century. within a century and a half, joint-stock and large issuing banks appeared, which meant the elimination of the monopoly position of usury and the creation of national credit systems that meet the interests of the development of industry and trade.

The emergence of banks does not reduce the importance of commercial credit as the basis of the credit system. It retains the ability to directly, directly serve the circulation of capital and serve as an important tool for accelerating it. Bank credit was developed on its basis and successfully complements it.

The third stage in the historical development of credit is the transition to regulated credit relations. Its main feature is the all-encompassing, total nature of credit relations, which is expressed in the following:

Credit relations mediate all economic processes and penetrate deeply into money circulation, the sphere of exchange, production and consumption, and international relations. As a result, the share of borrowed funds in industry and trade increases; government debt is growing; consumer and mortgage loans are increasing; the rate of centralization of capital and its intersectoral flow is increasing;

All economic entities, the population and the state become simultaneously borrowers and lenders. The production and sale of goods, as well as the redistribution of income, is carried out on a credit basis;

The connection between the issue of money and the credit operations of banks is strengthening. In turn, money becomes a source of credit. Thanks to the development of the banking system, any amount of money almost instantly turns into a loan;

International trade is almost entirely mediated by credit transactions (bank and commercial loans);

With the advent of credit cards, everyday purchase and sale of goods takes on a credit nature. Commercial lending to the population when purchasing durable goods is significantly simplified;

Various specialized credit and financial institutions are developing: savings banks and banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, mutual credit societies, mortgage banks and building societies, mortgage banks, etc. They are engaged in lending to certain areas and branches of economic activity, as a rule, dominating relatively narrow sectors of the credit market.

An important characteristic of the current stage of development of credit relations is the regulation of credit relations by the state and the Central Bank. Central banks actively use accounting and discount policy instruments to regulate the economy. They regulate money circulation and implement measures to develop the credit and banking sector.

So, in modern conditions, credit relations have acquired exceptional importance for the development of the economy and society as a whole. The total nature of these relations allowed leading economists to draw an important conclusion that the modern economy is becoming credit-based due to the nature of the processes dominant in the economy. It was the exceptional development of credit relations that seriously transformed the commodity-money economy into a different type of economy, which naturally developed on its basis - a credit economy.