Collegium of the Economy

(also known as the Collegium of the Economy of the Synodal Administration), the central state institution in 18th-century Russia in charge of the administration of ecclesiastical, monastery, and synodal estates and the collection of revenue from them. It was established in 1726 in connection with the division of the Synod into two departments, one for ecclesiastical and the other for economic matters. The department for economic affairs was reorganized into the Collegium of the Economy, which reflected a move to subordinate the church to the state; the collegium was under the jurisdiction of the Senate. In 1744 it was abolished when the church succeeded in having the ecclesiastical estates returned to the authority of the Synod. After the secularization of church property in 1763, the Collegium of the Economy was reestablished in order to administer the economic estates. It was abolished in 1786.