The formation of the mechanism of legal regulation of the competitive bidding procedure in the Russian state in the XVI-XVIII centuries: historical and legal analysis

The issues of the formation of the competitive bidding procedure both in public procurement and in the sale of state property and rights to lease it in Russia in the legal literature date back to the reign of Peter I. At the same time, an analysis of archival materials shows that the system and procedure of competitive bidding in the Russian state was well known already in the first half of the XVII century and was used, for example, to identify tenants of the so-called «well-groomed» - vast uninhabited territories in the south of the country before and during the construction of the main fortification to protect against permanent Tatar raids - Belgorod zasechnaya line. Such auctions were organized and conducted by the so-called Order of the Grand Palace, a public administration body that was responsible, among other things, for the procurement of goods to ensure the activities of the royal court and, accordingly, it seems likely that this procedure was used during their conduct. The principles inherent in the competitive bidding system - transparency, competitiveness, efficiency, transparency, and so on - are beginning to be laid down in the normative legal acts of the late XVII - early XVIII century. But the mechanism of legal regulation of the competitive bidding procedure was created and improved throughout the first half of the XVIII century, having been finalized during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.