Institutional aspects of economic development in the works of I.V. Vernadsky

The article is devoted to the study and coverage of the institutional environment formation in the scientific achievements of the famous scientist-economist of the XIX century Ivan Vernadsky. The purpose of the study is the historical and economic generalization of I. Vernadsky's views on the institutional aspects of economic activity and development. The scientist had a deep understanding of the important role that social institutions play in economic reality and the importance of their study for the completeness of economic analysis. He highly valued the work of other economists who used institutional approaches, and paid considerable attention in his work to the influence of the institutional environment and its individual components on the results of economic activity. The main attention of the article is devoted to the historical-theoretical analysis of I. Vernadsky's views on the concept of property and possession as key categories of economy and law, their economic significance and relationship with other categories of political economy, such as wealth, value, income. The author analyzes I. Vernadsky's views on the most important institutional factors of economic development, in particular economic freedom, free private property, development of knowledge, education and science, education of such moral qualities as conscience, honesty, thrift, etc., as well as the influence of national mentality on economic policy. The conclusion is that the original concept of property and possession developed by I. Vernadsky can be assessed as a significant achievement of contemporary economics, as it contains not only the postulates of classical political economy, but also elements of the subsequent institutional theory of property rights, in particular the institutional nature of ownership and property as factors that determine the borders of economic activity.