Graf Michael von Reutern
Finance Minister of Imperial Russia
In office 23 January [O.S. 11] 1862 – 7 July [O.S. 25 June] 1878
Monarch	Alexander II
Preceded by	Aleksandr Knyazhevich
Succeeded by	Samuil Greig
Chairman of the Committee of Ministers
In office 1881–1886
Monarch	Alexander III
Preceded by	Pyotr Aleksandrovich Valuyev
Succeeded by	Nikolai von Bunge
Personal details
Born	Michael von Reutern 24 September [O.S. 12] 1820 Porechye, Smolensk Governorate, Russian Empire (present day Demidov, Smolensk Oblast, Russia)
Died	23 August [O.S. 11] 1890 (aged 69) Tsarskoye Selo, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Resting place	Groß-Essern Manor, Courland Governorate (in present-day Ezere, Latvia)
Nationality	Baltic German

Coat of arms of the Middendorff family, in the Baltic Coat of arms book by Carl Arvid von Klingspor in 1882.^[1]

Michael Graf^[2] von Reutern (Russian: Михаи́л Христофо́рович Ре́йтерн, tr. Mikhaíl Khristofórovich Réytern) (September 24, 1820 - August 23, 1890) was a Baltic German statesman and the Finance Minister of the Russian Empire from 1862 to 1878.^[3]

Life

Reutern was born on 24 September [O.S. 12] 1820 in Porechye of the Smolensk Governorate. He came from the Baltic German noble Reutern family, his father Christoph Adam von Reutern (1782–1833) was a lieutenant-general in the Imperial Russian Army, his mother was noblewoman Charlotte Elisabeth von Helffreich, he was the nephew of the famous painter Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern. The Reuterns were of Holsteinish descent, originating in Lübeck. The family was originally called Reuter, they got their name when Johann Reuter (1635-1698), a merchant, was raised to in the Swedish nobility in 1691.

Reutern graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum in 1837. He started his career as a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance in 1840, he was transferred to the Ministry of Justice in 1843, where he remained until 1854. In 1862, he was appointed Finance Minister under the liberal reformist tsar, Alexander II, and introduced a system of public accounting. Reutern's period in office was also marked by the promotion of private credit institutions and attempts to stabilise the ruble. He succeeded in reforming taxation and customs laws, by abolishing the spirits lease and the introduction of an excise tax on brandy. Government revenues rose significantly, the chronic budget deficit was removed in 1867, and budgetary surpluses were achieved from 1873. On trade policy, Reutern pragmatically supported reducing some tariffs and duties on manufacturing goods in 1863 and 1868. The Russian-Turkish war reversed some of the measures that had led to Reutern's successes, and he resigned in 1878.

References

https://oeconomia.revues.org/559 http://bse.sci-lib.com/article096289.html