Encounters and Practices of Petty Trade in Northern Europe, 1820-1960: Forgotten Livelihoods

by Jutta Ahlbeck (Editor), Ann-Catrin ïstman (Editor), Eija Stark (Editor)

Overview

This open access book uncovers one important, yet forgotten, form of itinerant livelihoods, namely petty trade, more specifically how it was practiced in Northern Europe during the period 1820–1960. It investigates how traders and customers interacted in different spaces and approaches ambulatory trade as an arena of encounters by looking at everyday social practices. Petty traders often belonged to subjugated social groups, like ethnic minorities and migrants, whereas their customers belonged to the resident population. How were these mobile traders perceived and described? What goods did they peddle? How did these commodities enable and shape trading encounters? What kind of narratives can be found, and whose? These questions pertaining to daily practices on a grass-root level have not been addressed in previous research. Encounters and Practices embarks on hidden histories of survival, vulnerability, and conflict, but also discloses reciprocal relations, even friendships.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030980825
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	06/17/2022
Edition description:	1st ed. 2022
Pages:	353
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jutta Ahlbeck is a Researcher and Docent of History of Ideas. She is affiliated with Åbo Akademi University and University of Oulu, Finland.

Ann-Catrin Östman is a Senior Lecturer and Docent of History. She is affiliated with Åbo Akademi University, Finland.

Eija Stark is a Researcher and Docent of Folklore Studies. She is the Development Manager of the Finnish Literature Society, Finland.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Encounters and Trading Practices
2. Unearthing Livelihoods: Sámi Trade as an Active Livelihood
3. Dressed for Peddling: Dalkullor, Marketing and Practices of Tradition
4. Rag Collectors: Mobility and Barter in a Circular Flow of Goods
5. Unruly and Submissive Marketgoers: Peasants Practicing Trade and Forming Markets
6. Gifts, Feasts, and the Surplus of Friendship: Practices in a Remembered Economy of Petty Trading
7. Mobile Sex Trade: Fairs and the Livelihoods of Female Itinerant Sex Workers in Early Nineteenth-Century Finland
8. Exhibiting the Extraordinary Body: Six Itinerant Performers and Their Livelihood in the Nordic Countries, 1864–1912
9. “The Whole World Had the Sound of the Barrel Organ”: Representations of Fairs in Finnish Newspapers and Fiction from the 1870s to the 1910s
10. “Threatening Livelihoods”: Nordic Enemy Images of Peddlers from the Russian Empire
11. Respectable and Masculine Livelihoods: Roma Stories of Horse Trading
12. Forced into Trade Out of Necessity: Working-Class Narratives on Petty Trade
13. Settling Down and Setting Up: Itinerant Peddlers from Russian Karelia as Shopkeepers in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Finland
14. Conclusions: Dealing with Difference

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This book is an exciting and welcomed contribution to the study of social and economic history of the Nordic countries. It provides a broad, yet empirically precise, interdisciplinary insight into the understudied topic of petty trade, which in turn offers a valuable entry to exploring the livelihoods, trading practices, and encounters of mobile and often marginalised social groups (e.g. Sámi, Jews, and Roma people) in Finland, Sweden and its neighbouring countries. The book is therefore a must-read for anyone interested in not only petty trade, but also economic activities and everyday lives of ethnic, religious and/or linguistic minorities in the Nordic countries.” (Fia Sundevall, Skholm University, Sweden)

“The volume assembles case studies on practices of petty trade – often regarded as marginal – and highlights just how common they were throughout Europe. The book shows how such highly ambiguous and diverse activities or trades served the needs of consumption, bartering and entertainment. By reading sources against the grain, the individual chapters depict everyday routines and encounters of sellers and residents, while also reconstructing sellers’ agency and tactics. Overall, this book opens up new perspectives while drawing a highly differentiated and multifaceted picture of practices often neglected by historians because they do not fit neatly into traditional categories of work or trades.” (Sigrid Wadauer, University of Vienna, Austria)