REMUNERATION OF OFFICERS OF STATE CUSTOMS SERVICE IN GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA IN LATTER HALF OF XVIII CENTURY

Abstract

The article presents the analysis of the sources of remuneration for customs officers in the Great Duchy of Lithuania in the latter half of the XVIII century. Organizational issues of the State Customs Services in the GDL including the financial provision of customs officers were the responsibility of the Skarbovaya Commission of the GDL. The research leads to the conclusion that the remuneration of the officers was primarily determined based on their position in the Customs hierarchy (counter-registrant, superintendant, intendant, record clerk, chief guard, guard, etc.) and their performance: cost-effectiveness and capacity of customs checkpoints and the workload. Customs officers could be paid not only a fixed amount of a yearly salary but also an additional bonus which was called accidens (from Latin accidens - accidental). An accidens was assigned by the decision of the Skarbovaya Commission and its amount wasn’t regulated by any in-house guidelines. As a rule, it was paid for outstanding day-to-day professional performance and as a reward for honorable service upon retirement. The source of an official pay rise for the performance of Customs officers in the latter half of the XVIII century was a reward for detecting smuggled goods upon customs examination. Its amount initially equated to a quarter of a duty paid by a merchant for transportation of smuggled goods (promyto) and it reached 50% starting from January 1794. For a certain period, large sums of money were accumulated at the customs within the personal responsibility of the head of the Customs as the money from customs duties was transported to the treasury every six months. Such a situation created favourable conditions and opportunities for heads of Customs checkpoints to abuse of official position. Civil servants, having relatively small yearly allowance, often used the collected money for their purposes returning it at the time it was supposed to be transported to the treasury. The article also notes that Customs Service in the GDL in the latter half of the XVIII century presented a special institute in the system of state government and the establishment of a single payment rate for Customs officers of various ranks was definitely an innovation.