Zholobova G.A. The Mechanism for Legal Regulation of Private Alcoholic Drinks Trade Under the Conditions of State Wine Monopoly in Russia at the Turn of the XIXth - XXth Centuries

Abstract: The object of the present research is the process of deliberate and effective influence of the Russian government on private (non-state) relations in the sphere of alcohlic drinks trade as well as on behaviour of participants by using legal measures. The subject of the research is the integral system of successively arranged legal measures regulating the alcoholic trade during that period in Russia. Special attention is paid to the targets and means of legal regulation of the aforesaid relations. Over the last decade the discussion of state policy projects in the sphere of production and turnover of alcoholic drinks and creation of a healthy lifestyle of Russians have intensified; the process of optimization of the legislation regulating this sphere of the public relations has become more active. The analysis of the history of legal domestic mechanism regulating the alcoholic trade at the end of the XIXth  and at the beginning of the XXth centuries is very important for creating a modern concept of state regulation of alcohol turnover in Russia. During that time period the alcohol production and sale made up the essential part of state revenues and the government was interested in the increase of alcoholic tax; the government was also concerned by the fact that illegal production and trade led to the considerable shortage of state benefits. Admittedly, it was necessary to govern regulations of alcohol trade. On the other hand, its regulation was also caused by moral and medical reasons, because the development of alcohol-distillation and alcohol trade had been always closely connected with the problem of alcoholization of the population. That topic was widely covered in the economic and historical literature, mainly with the aim to increase state revenues and counteract to the alcoholization of the population. However, the experience of legal regulation of private trade has not been practically researched. The main contribution made by the author to the research of the aforesaid topic is the analysis of the acts of the Russian Empire at the turn of the XIXth  and the XXth centuries and materials of the Ministry of Finance. Based on the results of this analysis, the author reviews the domestic retrospective of the mechanisms of legal regulation of alcoholic drinks trade under the conditions of state wine monopoly, describes the steps to solve state tasks existing in this sphere, and analyses the results.

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