The economic argument had to do with international banking. A prominent French financier informed Kokovtsov that the dissolution of the First Duma had struck French financial markets like a “bolt of lightning”. Later, in 1917, Kokovtsov explained the close relationship which had existed under tsarism between parliamentary government and Russia’s standing in international credit markets. The market price of the Russian state loan of 1906 sunk rapidly after the dissolution of the First Duma. When rumors spread that the Second Duma was to suffer a similar fate, Russian obligations with a face value of 100 dropped from 88 to 69, or by 21 per cent. Experience thus strongly suggested that the liquidation of the Duma would have had a disastrous effect on Russia’s ability to raise foreign loans at acceptable interest rates.
Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution
I’m shocked, shocked! ¿Se habrá enterado Gabilondo?
Posted on julio 29, 2010
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