The first step in this direction was the decree of the Soviet of People’s Commissaries of January 23rd, 1919, on accounting operations, containing regulations on the settling of merchandise accounts (products, raw material, manufactured articles, etc.) among Soviet institutions, and also among such industrial and commercial establishments as have been nationalized, taken over by the municipalities, or are under the control of the Supreme Council of National Economy, the People’s Commissariat for Food Supply, and Provincial Councils of National Economy and their sub-divisions. In accordance with this decree, the above-mentioned accounts are to be settled without the medium of currency, by means of a draft upon the state treasury for the amount chargeable to the consuming institution, and to be credited to the producing institution, or enterprise. In the strict sense, the decree establishes a principle, in accordance with which any Soviet institution or governmental enterprise requiring merchandise, must not resort to the aid of private dealers, but is in duty bound to apply to the corresponding Soviet institutions, accounting, producing or distributing those articles. Thus, it was proposed, by means of the above-mentioned decree, to reduce an enormous part of the state budget to the mere calculation of interdepartmental accounts, income on one side and expenditures on the other. In other words, it becomes possible to transact an enormous part of the operations without the use of money as a medium of exchange. As regards the policy of the Commissariat of Finance in the domain of the circulation of money, one of the most important measures in this respect was the decree of the Soviet of People’s Commissaries of May 15th, 1919, on the issue of new paper money of the 1918 type. This decree states the following motive for the issue of new money: “this money is being issued with the object of gradually replacing the paper money now in circulation of the present model, the form of which in no way corresponds to the foundations of Russia’s new political order, and also for the purpose of driving out of circulation various substitutes for money which have been issued due to the shortage of paper money.”