Merchants preferences as a necessary condition of formation and development of economic relations in pre-petrine Russia

Old Russian state was formed largely due to the entrepreneurial spirit of the Eastern Slavs. Economic relations, based on the exchange, as the oldest form of economic activity, which subsequently gave rise to the trade, has been one of the economic causes of the formation of statehood in Rus. The increasing complexity of economic activity demanded its ordering and authority regulation. Initially in Rus, to support entrepreneurship, and in particular merchants, carried out by the Russian Church, since Orthodoxy did not suppress but developed entrepreneur interest. The state also took care of the protection of the interests of merchants, traders, but feudal disunity complicated trade and economic relations in the Russian lands, and trade of the Russian principalities with foreign States. Trade development was obstructed by customs fees, introduced at the boundaries of principalities, enhancing the self-sufficient character of the economy of the Russian lands, cutting to a minimum the trade ties.