History of Finland's rural trade and tradesmen

Abstract

During the ascendancy of mercantilism, from the beginning of the 17th to the middle of the 19th century, trade in the Finnish countryside was pursued only by city burghers who travelled round on business or attended the fairs held in certain places at definite dates, and by pedlars. Among the latter were the famous Russo-Karelians, immortalised by J. L. Runeberg in his poetical work Elgskyttarne. Resident merchants were not permitted in the rural areas. Alanen shows, however, that liberation of rural trade from mercantilist shackles in the mid-19th century largely amounted to the acceptance by the authorities of changes already effected. Although a few new towns were founded in the interior, most parts of Finland were still very far from any town and the number of rural fairs was reduced in 1821 from 50 to 9. Yet the thriving farmers increasingly consumed in their households more purchased goods, and in consequence must obviously have sold more agricultural produce than before. When St. Petersburg replaced Stockholm as the principal market for Finnish butter and other country produce, the ship-owning burghers of the coastal towns were unable to maintain their dominance as middlemen to the same extent as during the period of Swedish rule. The export trade in eastern Finland gradually came to be handled by farmers who specialised in this work and who travelled with their products, while the peasants no longer made their purchases in towns to the former extent. In the country as a whole the retailing of imported goods came to be managed by, in addition to the burghers, pack pedlars from Russian Karelia and other travelling vendors and, in the large villages, by illicit traders who paid bribes to the authorities for their freedom of action. Had rural trade not already been well developed, the forgotten demands of Anders Chydenius (1729–1803) or the forceful arguments advanced by J. W. Snellman (1806–81) for the liberation of rural trade would hardly have impressed the Senate and the Governor-General. It would otherwise be impossible to understand the fact that permission to trade in agricultural produce and in products of home crafts was granted in rural districts in 1842 during the régime of Baron L. G. von Haartman, a firm opponent of liberalism. Only one condition was made, that no ‘open shops’ should be established.