ABSTRACT
The successes of Peter’s army on the battlefield would have been impossible without fundamental reforms in the economy of Russia: the victorious arms at Noteburg, Poltava, and Hangö had been forged in the foundries of the Petrine works of the Urals and Tula. It is beyond doubt that during Peter’s reign a fundamental reform was instituted in the economy that had far-reaching consequences. It may be confidently asserted that in the first quarter of the eighteenth century an abrupt economic leap took place in Russia equal in significance and consequences to the industrialization of the Soviet period. The industrial buildup of the Petrine epoch proceeded at a tempo never seen before that time: over the years 1695–1725 no fewer than two hundred enterprises of different sorts arose—that is, ten times more than there had been at the end of the seventeenth century—and this was accompanied by an even more impressive growth in the scope of production.
