Settling Down and Setting Up: Itinerant Peddlers from Russian Karelia as Shopkeepers in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Finland

Abstract The chapter analyzes mobile traders from Russian Karelia who abandoned their itinerant livelihood and settled down in Finland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Many of these former peddlers opened up stores in the Finnish countryside, making use of their skills as traders...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sundelin, Anna
Format: Book Part
Language:unknown
Published: Springer International Publishing 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98080-1_13
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-98080-1_13
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Summary:Abstract The chapter analyzes mobile traders from Russian Karelia who abandoned their itinerant livelihood and settled down in Finland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Many of these former peddlers opened up stores in the Finnish countryside, making use of their skills as traders and previously formed networks to keep their stores well supplied. The analysis revolves around the relationship between local residents and strangers settling down. By combining ethnographical sources with newspaper writings and advertisements the chapter offers new insights into the transition from itinerant peddling to storekeeping as well as the experiences of migrant entrepreneurs in Finland at the turn of the twentieth century.