Nobility, Bank of the

a state body for the financing of pomeshchiki (landlords), the first bank established in Russia.

The Bank of the Nobility was in operation from 1754 to 1786 and was financed by the government. Bank operations were limited to issuing loans to pomeshchiki at an annual interest rate of 6 percent. The amount of the loan was determined by the number of serfs (“souls”) owned. In 1770 the bank began to accept deposits at a 5 percent annual interest rate. In 1786 it was reorganized into the State Loan Bank. In 1885 the State Noble Land Bank was established which, together with the Bank of the Peasantry, was instrumental in the implementation of the reactionary agrarian policy of the tsarist government.

Loans to pomeshchiki were issued by the Bank of the Nobility under the most advantageous conditions and with a lien on land. After the Revolution of 1905–07, with the acceleration of the process of the transfer of land from the dvorianstvo(nobility or gentry) to the rural bourgeoisie, the issuance of new loans by the State Noble Land Bank to pomeshchiki slowed down. By 1914 the unpaid balance of long-term loans—that is, the debt of the pomeshchiki to the State Noble Land Bank—had reached 894 million rubles, which equaled the total unpaid balance of loans issued with a lien on agricultural estates (whether owned by pomeshchiki or other holders) by all the ten joint-stock agrarian banks. After the Great October Revolution in November 1917, the State Noble Land Bank was liquidated.