The form of contracts with the callers of the colonists, 

approved by Catherine II

Google translated from http://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/fond/issues-doc/65224

11/16/1764

12.283. - November 17. Highest approved form, on which to enter into contracts with callers to settle into Russia foreigners.

Report. Alien Bene Paul Dakurth, with two of his comrades, first of all submitted to the Office of Foreign Guardianship the project of bringing colonists to Russia, which, in many negotiations with them, inclined them to the adoption of the most moderate conditions, rather than they first demanded that your Imperial Majesty, as presented by to me the most devoted report of March 1 of this year, the Highest and tried to deign, with such a command: to continue to be with the recruiters to do the same for example; and although, with the aforementioned Dakurt, there is no contract for failure to submit money to him from the Chancellery, which is required in advance from the Chancellery, but, as a result of Your Imperial Highness's Confirmation, Copies from that report to all at the European Courts to the Russian Ministers under the Foreign Collegium were sent at the same time, so that they also did the same with such recruiters; but as in the aforementioned my most recent report mentioned very briefly about those only advantages that the prosecutors asked for, which the Chancellery could not promise them; all the others belonging to that detail were silenced, it also happened because the Plenipotentiary Minister Prince Golitsyn, who was at the French Court of Your Imperial Majesty, with the Frenchmen Jean Deboeuf, Quentinius, Benjamin, Coulnett, Dutherivus and with Menie Deprescure, concluded this contract, which in the main paragraphs with the original resolution is very different; namely: instead of, to accept for the foundation of 100 families, to promise to transport these loan money for their own callers, housekeeping is 4,000 rubles in total, with the construction of the same state house maintenance, and is promised to everyone for one hundred for one hundred families, without mentioning the other lesser importance of failures and although from this contract in fact, there was not the slightest damage in the interest of your Imperial Majesty, because the aforementioned callers in explaining to them from the Office of Foreign Guardianship the precise strength of the report, not only on this slope ilis, but at the same izyasneniyu for they have brought people in both lending and money to travel with the Office voluntarily committed the calculation and concluded with the contract of Prince Golitsyn destroyed.

The form of the contract with the callers, which must be concluded on such a basis that all the promises and monetary promises that they make are available according to the number of people summoned to the settlements, and not according to the number of their callers.

1. To give them, at the discretion of the Office of Foreign Guardianship, a convenient place from the uninhabited land to the settlement, and to give to each family against the foreigners who left them a certain number of land which they, the callers, can divide among the settlers they have caused by their invention.

2. If several families leave them in some way, they will not leave the place for others who have not settled themselves in other tracts, below those which already appeared to the Russian Ministers themselves and received the moneys for themselves, in no way to deceive and not to accept, but to supplement their colony with newly summoned people, without demanding anything in excess of travel and fodder for the number of those people; And if they do not call for such fallen places again in two years, then the number of retired families will be taken from them as much and the land plots back, and in their own possession will be given for every 100 families of foreigners called for three sites for each family, land neither to the callers, nor to the villagers, nor to sell or pledge, is not allowed to be changed below.

3. A husband with a wife and children with a male below 20 and a female below 18 years of age are supposed to be in the family; Single men are considered to be male at least two years old, and women are not less than 18 years old, four in one family.

4. If they have their own, oprich colonists, workers from foreign people, which require the land: it will give them for each of those workers a family against the colonists, so that these workers will be revered as settlers; and when in the proximity of the porous land is not found, then in this case the caller can use their work on the land allotted to him before.

5. To prescribe in such contracts precisely: whether the recruiters undertook to summon people with their kosht, when, with trustworthy surety or a sufficient mortgage, they were given money in advance, how much; and, in the first case, to explain to bailiffs that they can not be free from their bail before the authorization of the Office of Guardianship, and in the second, to declare to the callers themselves that they will not be refunded to them before such permission; when the caller, without making a promise to the action, will die or for some other obstacle his obligations will not be fulfilled: in the first case the guarantor must pay the money issued from the treasury and with interest, and in the second the money will be taken from the pledged interest with interest.

6. The recruited people are brought to Hamburg or Lübeck, where in the first place the Messenger, and in another established Commissioner, taking those people, send to St. Petersburg; and to return them to the callerss and the Commissioner to the callers or their attorney, the money spent by them on the transportation of colonists on colonial receipts, and moreover not more than 40 rubles for each family, and without returning to the grocery for 100 families of 1000 rubles each, selecting in that from the originators the receipts, and give them receipts, and send them along with the colonists to the Office of Guardianship; when sending colonists from Hamburg or from Lübeck, have the aforementioned Messenger and Commissioner to give the callers or their attorney for the maintenance of these people and for the transportation of money, counting the time, how much they ought to be on the way at present in these places to the prices of foodstuffs without excess, as well as the freight money, in which the callers or their agents on arrival in St. Petersburg must file for themselves and with colonial receipts detailed accounts; if the callers for the transportation of their people to Hamburg will spend more than 40 rubles per family, then they should collect the money on the establishment of their house-building, at the place of the settlement, from the colonists caused by them, but without burdening the special agreements that the colonists had with the colonists the conclusion of the contract to declare the approbation to the Ministers who have agreed with them; and upon arrival in St. Petersburg, submit to the Office of Foreign Custody, where they are approved and are to be kept, and they will be given a copy from them for signing; and thus, if they are lusty to continue their work further, then it must apply for permission in the Office of Foreign Custody; for the first case with those who will go to the place of settlement, send their own attorneys; if they no longer wish to call people and come to establish their colony for the place of their settlement, as mentioned above, then:

7. At the meeting of all the people, they will be given to them by the callers for their own house-building for every 100 families for 4,000 rubles a loan for ten years without interest, with the payment of these at the end of that time in three terms according to the manifesto, and moreover in rewarding for their labors will be given to them on the building of the house for every hundred families of 350 rubles each without collection; and if there are more or less than one hundred families summoned, then the money for building a house, and the land for their own possession, will be given to them according to the number of people;

8. All colonists must act in everything according to the special contracts concluded by them with the callers, in which, among other things, the following must be observed without fail, namely: 1) that the callers do not promise the colonists anything contrary to the Russian rights and superfluous over-published about the settlement of the foreign manifesto; 2) to include in them that the colonists will not have freedom to leave before they return to the treasury of all state money held on them; 3) that in all they must act on the legalized and hence legalized in Russia rights; and as to their own phantom incomes and other mutual obligations between them, they can agree on their own volition.

9. The goods procured by the colonists and all sorts of supplies, other than those purchased, are allowed for them to sell duty-free average [urgent] 10 years.

10. Animals and fisheries, which are not in swindle and not for repayment, they can use in their dachas unrestrictedly, and at the disposal of forest and other land to do their own good, just to discern the similarity of such orders with state legitimisations and common good, should submit them for approbation of the Office of Guardianship.

11. If the callers are not one, but several will join the contract: then to disgust any inconvenience, they should have them mutually from each other to receive money and to calculate in writing written, according to which the Russian ministers or the Guardianship Office agreeing with each of them, as with all in general, any business could be solved.

12. In conclusion, the callers are obligated to fulfill their contracts in everything exactly according to this contract, not taking any fictitious excuses and various explanations, on the contrary, the Office of Promise has to fulfill it without fail.

Resolution. So be it

.

PSRE. Coll. 1. T. XVI. Pp. 965-968.

Published: The Germans-colonists in the Age of Catherine / Comp: E.E. Lykova, M.I. Osekin. M., 2004. P. 65-72.