Among those who ate from trade, peddlers stood at the lowest level - wandering merchants, they were also called walkers, and in the Vladimir region the peddlers of the manufacture, wandering through the villages with boxes, were called offeni.
Instructions
Step 1
The peddlers carried goods in a box and did small trade, you can't carry much in a box behind your back, and the peasants have little purchasing power. According to one version, this profession appeared in the 15th century, the founders were the Greeks who moved to Russia. The popularity of itinerant merchants was explained by the fact that they delivered trifles necessary for peasant use to remote villages.
Step 2
Initially, the ofeni, or peddlers, united into a caste - a professional community that lived according to its own rules, a code, they spoke in a dialect that only they could understand, it was called Fenya. With this "gibberish" they discussed trade transactions in front of outsiders. This profession passed from father to son, boys from childhood were taught to trade and not always honest.
Step 3
At the end of the 18th century peddling became widespread. In the winter period, peasants without a specialty, without exception, went to trade in remote remote areas of Russia, where there were no other supplies of goods. Peddlers traded from Siberia to the Caucasus in various trifles: books, popular prints, fabrics, ribbons, beads, soap and other haberdashery. At the large Novgorod and Moscow fairs, traders bought goods and set off on a long journey, delivering them to the villages. In hot and cold weather, they walked along the roads, carrying a box over their shoulder with various trifles, for an amount not exceeding 40-50 rubles. In the north they reached the White Sea, in the south they descended along the Volga to Astrakhan.
Step 4
Moving from settlement to settlement, peddlers, along with goods, brought news, gossip and tales to peasants who had no other sources of information, so they were expected and were always glad to come. In addition, their things could be exchanged for food, which was quite satisfactory for the peasants.
Step 5
Many itinerant merchants were literate, they successfully sold books, not only praising them, but also telling the content in detail. The storytellers gathered crowds of people around them, not forgetting to offer their goods. Particularly lively, cunning, able to praise managed to sell books with beautiful illustrations even to illiterate peasants. Peddlers contributed to the development of literacy in Russia.
Step 6
Despite the fact that the walkers were a quick, quirky people, who had seen a lot, as they say, grated, they did not go on a hike alone, they kept in groups to avoid the danger that lay in wait for them on the roads. With the development of railway transport, this trade became unclaimed, the profession of peddler disappeared.