Treasury of self-help of the Novgorod nobility became the last in the 20th century an attempt to help the impoverished landowners, the estates which had been pledged and re-pledged. It wasn't about paying debts, and, at least for the payment of interest, to avoid forfeiture of estates. Similar credit institutions, for example, a noble mutual schemes were established in the late 1890 in Chernigov, Poltava, Kursk and Tula provinces. Then their creation was continued by the law of June 3, 1902 [1]. This indicates the typicality of a given situation in the whole country [2]. This situation has evolved over a long period of time, in fact even before the abolition of serfdom, when the nobles mortgaged their estates, for example, in the State loan Bank and the orders of public charity. However, it has seriously worsened after the reform of 1861, when the landowners lost gratuitous labour of the serfs. Having failed in the mass, to fit into new economic conditions, the local nobility (especially small ones) are gradually losing their estates, and the disappearance of the bar becomes only a matter of time.

Mortgage the estates of many landlords were no longer able and only rewrote the loan for another term. By 1859 the state had accumulated such hopelessly laid lands for a total amount of 425,5 million rubles (65.6% of the total) [3]. In Novgorod province it was 55.6% (4 970 000 rubles) [4]. For 20 years, from 1863 to 1882, the peasant ownership of land in the province increased by 430 thousand acres (more than in any other province during this period) [5]. The ruined lands of the landlords were gradually turning to other classes, mainly peasants, who sought to buy land in any such opportunities.

Although the province has spread its operations joint-stock land banks, for example, the St. Petersburg-Tula, Moscow, the Society of mutual land credit, later, and the State noble land Bank (for example, owed him private landowners of the province for 1893 amounted to 1 652 673 rubles [6]) but they are not opened in its territory of its branches that characterizes their low interest in the prospects of development of mortgage credit in the area and the maintenance of loss-making landlords ' farms.

In the early 20th century an attempt was made to create a class of credit institution to maintain landed estates. With 1909, in Novgorod province there were self-help Treasury of the Novgorod nobility, whose main aim was the maintenance of the local land tenure (like Fund operated in Kherson, Simbirsk, Orel, Tver, Kaluga, Samara, Yaroslavl, Kazan, Kursk guberniyas). On the operations of the Treasury of the local nobility had been expelled more than 23 000 rubles (15 thousand rubles capital and escheated 8 377 rubles genealogical capital). Such funds to maintain the estates was not enough. So, in 1912, of the 337 estates, incorporated in the State noble land Bank, were appointed to sale for non-payment of interest on may – 98 estates with the payment 62 502 rubles when loan in 1 364 603 rubles and for February – 50 estates with payments 44 142 rubles in loan 917 000 rubles [7]. In this regard, in 1913, the local nobility had asked the government to appropriate for strengthening of revolutions of the Treasury self-help 200 thousand rubles. However, due to continuous cash shortage was followed by the issuance of only half the requested amount (in 1915 and 1917), and unable to significantly help business self-help Treasury of Novgorod nobility [8].

For the period 1909-1913, it has issued loans totalling more than 20 000 rubles, in the amount not exceeding 500 rubles for a period of 3 to 6 months., mainly for interest payments to lending institutions for the mortgaged land. However, in the opinion of management of the Fund, its activities are not affected severely disadvantaged on the General state of Affairs of a local noble tenure [9]. Thus, the idea of small mutual credit was attractive not only among the peasants, poor city dwellers and entrepreneurs of medium scale, created savings and credit and credit unions and loan, mutual loan societies, etc. Multiple changing conditions of their work, petty nobility tried to apply these principles and to maintain their land tenure.

But fundamentally it was impossible, as the funds necessary for the solution could not be found in the simple direction of financial assistance to maintain such a system of management. In this case, it was a simple installment loans secured private estates.

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1. Charter provincial noble solidarity funds approved. June 3, 1902, Saratov, Tipo-lithography P. S. Feoktistov, 1903. 28 p.

2. Noble mutual Fund // Russian work. 1898. No. 6. Pp. 14-16; M. T. Markova Noble mutual Fund // Pskov. 2011. No. 35. S. 117 to 121; mutual Fund (provincial noble) // New encyclopedic dictionary. Ed. F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron. T. 15. St. Petersburg, 1913. S. 685; a Short-term loan and mutual Fund // Seymour Becker. The myth of the Russian nobility. The nobility and privileges of the last period of Imperial Russia. Translated from English by Boris Pinsker. M.: New literary review, 2004. P. 56; Barinova E. P. the Economic program of the Russian nobility in the early twentieth century // Vestnik SamGU. History. 2001. №. 3.

3. Sivkov K. Economy and financial policy of Emperor Nicholas I // Three centuries. Russia from Chaos to the new time. M., 1995. Tom. 6. S. 41.

4. Statistics of long-term credit in Russia. St. Petersburg, 1894. Edition. 3. S. 53.

5. Ibid. P. 13.

6. Statistics of long-term credit in Russia. St. Petersburg, 1894. Edition. 3. S. 2, 12.

7. The Russian State Historical Archive. F. 593. Inv. 1. Un. 507. Treasury of self-help of the Novgorod nobility. S. 8-15.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.