МІЖ ПРАВОМ СИЛИ ТА СИЛОЮ ПРАВА: ЗОВНІШНЬОТОРГОВЕЛЬНА ДІЯЛЬНІСТЬ УКРАЇНСЬКИХ ПІДПРИЄМЦІВ XVIII СТ.

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to conduct a historiographical and historical analysis of scientific approaches regarding the evolution of the regulation of trade practices of the Hetmanate in the conditions of its political dependence. The research methodology is based on the principle of historicism, interdisciplinary, systematic and scientific principles. The following general historical methods have been used: historiographic, historical-genetic, and comparative analysis. Ideas about the dominance of political and security components before the formation of the legal circle are crystallized and the possibilities of taking into account the opinion of the Ukrainian administration regarding foreign trade are outlined on the basis of the analysis of historical and historiographical sources. Based on the analysis of historical and historiographical sources, it can be stated that the government structures of the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the All-Russian Empire set themselves the goal to gain complete control over foreign trade and customs affairs of the Hetmanate together with the elimination of its political autonomy. Law was used to justify force, coercion. The interests of ethnic or social groups became the reason for applying exceptions. Mockery over the essence of law-making of the Moscow state formed a style, the slogan of which was «people’s welfare». The desperation of the Ukrainian business community and the Cossack self-governing structures led to the unity of the merchant community around the search for precautionary measures that would protect against the abuses of state and state institutions. In the era of the «golden autumn» of the Cossack Hetmanate, the Cossack elite concentrated on fighting the «true plague of merchants», offering society a program of self-implementation in the economic sphere.