The history of the emergence of trade
The history of trade as an exchange of commodity-material values has been known since the Stone Age. Even then, it existed in the meaning familiar to us: an offer for an exchange with the aim of deriving benefits.
At first, trade was exclusively natural and, according to one version, it originated from the custom of exchanging gifts. Such an exchange had a symbolic meaning and sanctioned peace, union, friendship. Later, people began to exchange items of equal value, for example, a hammer instead of an ax or animal meat instead of vegetables or fruits. The main prerequisites for the further development of trade were the specialization of industry and the coin, the role of which different peoples jewels, slaves, furs, cattle, etc.
The history of trade in the ancient East goes back to 3.5 millennia BC. e. The main branches of production then were weapons, ceramics and textiles.
In Egypt in that era, there was mainly land trade: caravans brought luxury items - fragrances, metals, wood, precious stones. Eastern traders pitched huge tents and laid out their goods for sale.
Ancient Eastern trade entered a new phase of development with the Phoenicians - it became maritime. Now the ships took away local goods - timber, metals and fruits, and returned with grain, wine, oil, raw materials, livestock and others. Goods were often sold right in the ports, from the side.
Trade received a huge impetus from the ancient Persians thanks to a developed transport system. Persian fabrics and carpets, furniture made of precious woods, mosaics and enamel had no rivals. These goods were transported by caravans and sold in major cities at fairs. Of course, commercial equipment was then in infancy: either things were laid out in tents on the ground, or on simple racks, benches and board stalls on the street.
In ancient Greece, the rise of trade began with colonization. Oils, silver, bread, wine, purple and iron were imported from various regions. Trade focused on major markets where there were open counters and awnings.
The trade of ancient Rome is characterized by the early appearance of fairs dedicated to the festivities. The most important of them took place at Soracta, an Etruscan mountain near Rome. It was a grandiose event, where many merchants converged. They laid out the goods in tents, sheds and on the counters, and crowds of buyers walked between them. In huge quantities, various varieties of fish, a variety of vegetables and fruits, wine, oils, and salt were sold. For wealthy Romans, they brought precious furniture decorated with silver, marble and elegant statues. Until the end of the third century, the Roman Empire was the greatest area of free trade.
The turning point in European trade occurred during the era of the Crusades. When the knights became aware of the luxury of the East, the demand for oriental goods increased, and Italy began to look for an opportunity to bypass Byzantium, which until now was an intermediary between the West and the East. The Levant ports were opened to the Italians. Merchants penetrated deep into Asia and bought expensive spices and camphor, Persian sulfur and Chinese porcelain, Indian steel and glass in the famous oriental bazaars.
The flourishing of Levant trade immediately reverberated in Europe. The Italians mastered the secrets of Eastern industries, markets and fairs began to develop, merchants organized themselves into guilds, and cities into unions. Numerous trading enterprises were opened - shops, the founders of modern stores. Shelves were installed in them, where the goods were placed, and there was a counter behind which the seller stood.
Of great importance for the development of trade were geographical discoveries, the era of which began in 1475. Then the Portuguese reached the equator. The discovery of America and new sea routes provided access to new markets for raw materials and sales and made trade world wide.
In Russia, which was at the center of many trade routes, trade also developed very actively. It is noteworthy that in the code of laws of the 14th century there is an indication of the cost of domestic animals: "... For a cat, pay 3 hryvnias, for a dog - 3 hryvnias, for a mare - 60 kunas, for an ox - 2 hryvnias." Since the hryvnia was equal to 50 kunas, it turns out that dogs and cats were valued like one ox or three horses.
Associations trade enterprises- markets and fairs - were transformed into shopping arcades and guest yards. These were impressive buildings, for example, Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg (18th century), Upper Trading Rows in Moscow (19th century). They were akin to modern, equipment for shops, which housed various goods.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the first shop windows appeared: the number of stores grew, and buyers needed something to attract. In 1909, Gordon Selfridge opened a department store in London that kept the window open at night so customers could inspect the merchandise even in the dark. This quickly made the store popular. Later, other trade enterprises began to actively use the shop windows: they were painted by popular artists, including Salvador Dali, they were filled with amazing installations. trade commodity material
Shopping centers in their modern sense appeared in the early 40s. 20th century in the USA. Their emergence is due to the rapid development of transport. The lack of parking places has led to the fact that in the territories free from housing construction, large centers were erected, surrounded by huge parking lots. The first such enterprises are considered to be a complex near San Diego and Roosevelt Field near New York.
In Western Europe, such centers began to be built after the Second World War. The first were the complexes in Coventry, UK, and Liil-baan in Holland.
In June 1963, the first hypermarket was opened in the suburbs of Paris by Marcel Fournier and Denis Defforet. It occupied an area of 2.5 thousand square meters and had a parking lot for 500 cars. At first, the trading world reacted to this idea as an eccentricity, but the Carrefour company continued to expand, and soon 5 more hypermarkets opened. The success of this venture became obvious, and others followed the example of Carrefour.
At first, hypermarkets were mainly grocery stores, but gradually acquired multiple specializations, expanding the product range. Today it's huge shopping malls, where the latest commercial and refrigeration equipment is installed, and all the equipment as a whole is focused on convenience for customers.
The evolution of trade, of course, did not end there: the next step was the transfer of stores to the Internet. This made the buying process as comfortable as possible. The consumer does not have to spend time looking for the necessary things in physical outlets - he can open an online store website, where any goods provided with a detailed description and characteristics are presented on virtual showcases. You can select and order them with a couple of clicks of a computer mouse.
What will be the next step in the development of trade? You can assume different options, but one thing is for sure: the exchange for the purpose of obtaining benefits will exist as long as humanity is alive.
Trade(English) trade) is one of the most powerful factors in the historical process. There is no such period in history when it would not have influenced social life to a greater or lesser extent. From the modest exchange within a country to the network of the most complex commercial transactions spread all over the world, various types of commercial relations always react in one way or another to various aspects of social life.
Trade among primitive peoples
Trade is one of the most accurate indicators of the cultural level of a people. If trade relations occupy an outstanding place in his everyday life, then his general cultural level is high - and vice versa. Ethnography knows few peoples to whom trade is not known, at least in the most elementary form. Such a people are the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, who, before meeting Europeans and to a large extent even later, were unfamiliar with the very idea of trade. Alongside them stand, or rather stood, many of the Australian savages. The Ceylon Vedas - even having come into contact with cultural newcomers, could only think of the most primitive type of exchange, which Charles Letourneau (a modern French ethnographer and sociologist) calls "commerce par depots" (trade by storage places).
As soon as the material conditions of life become more complicated, as soon as tools and, in general, the beginnings of industry appear, the idea of exchange arises. Letourneau is looking for the origin of commercial relations in the custom of exchanging gifts. One thing is undoubted: the economic character of the exchange did not immediately receive. Initially, it had a symbolic meaning, sanctioning an alliance, peace, friendship, entering into closer relations. The first sign by which one can judge that the exchange is beginning to receive economic importance- this is the establishment of a custom to exchange objects of more or less equal value or considered equivalent. Perhaps, in order to distinguish exchange, as such, from symbolic exchange, the savages introduced into the custom those storage places that Herodotus already notes among the Libyans and which are still found to this day, besides the Veddas, among the Eskimos, among the Polynesians, among the African Moors, in Abyssinia. Already among the savages we find in embryonic form two essential conditions for the development of commerce: the specialization of industry and the coin. The role of the latter in different places is played by jewelry, ornaments (shells), furs, slaves, cattle, etc.
Trade among the peoples of the ancient East
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The first information about the existence of trade relations is found very early. Already three and a half millennia BC. the first king of Assyro-Babylonia from the Sumerian dynasty started trade relations with the north and south) from his capital Sirtella. A thousand years later, one can already state a rather complex system of exchange. A huge number of documents (wedge-shaped) about the purchases of land, slaves, buildings have come down to us; we know about the existence of a loan, about the size of interest (17-20% per annum). Three branches of production especially flourished in Assyro-Babylonia: the manufacture of weapons, ceramics and dressing of fabrics (Babylonian carpets and dyed fabrics). These fabrics in the flourishing era of the country, starting from about 2000 BC, are widely distributed throughout the East, and somewhat later penetrate into Europe.
Trade routes, which at the same time satisfied strategic goals, were laid in all directions: to Bactria, to Media, to Persia, to Armenia, to India, to Arabia, to Asia Minor. The Chaldean monarchy, due to its geographical position, served as an intermediary between East and West. Caravans delivered there the products of Arabia and East Africa (gold, smoking), India (fabrics, metals and products from them, precious stones). From there they were also transported on caravans to Phoenicia. The Persian Gulf was little exploited by the Assyrians as a trade route. Inside the country, trade was mainly along the two great rivers of Mesopotamia: the Tigris and the Euphrates. Semitic peoples also took an early part in international trade. The Ishmaelite caravan, which was going from Gilead (Palestine) to Egypt with various kinds of incense (resin, tragacanth, incense, mastic), delivered, in all likelihood, from Arabia, bought Joseph from the brothers; a little later, the latter went to Egypt by sea with a cargo of fragrances, honey, nuts and almonds, in order to get bread from there. These facts indicate constant intercourse with Egypt.
More detailed information about the trade of the Jews refers to the era of Solomon. Relations with the south were maintained very regularly; every three years, the king's fleet made trade voyages to India and in exchange for wood and gum brought gold, silver, ivory, monkeys, and so on from there. Under Solomon, Palmyra (Tadmor) was built, which became an intermediate station between Palestine and the East; under him, the Queen of Sheba (from southern Arabia) appeared in Jerusalem, who brought spices and precious stones in an unprecedented quantity until then. Relations with Phoenicia were constantly maintained; there were always many Jews at the fairs in Tire. From Arabia to Phenicia there were two routes: one - from Yemen through the present Mecca and through the countries of the Moabites and Ammonites; the other from Hadhramawt and Oman through the northern desert and Dedan, and then to the west, where it joined the caravan route of Yemen. - In Egypt, in the era of the construction of the pyramids, subsistence farming dominated; insignificant internal exchange had an exchange character. Only at the beginning of the XVI century. BC. the influence of the Asian east is found in Egypt; a coin (copper ingots) appears. In this era, trade is predominantly overland. Its main routes are concentrated at Memphis and Thebes.
Ramses II began the construction of a canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea; Neho continued. It was the main waterway before the founding of Alexandria. Two roads led south from Thebes to Ethiopia and Meroe; one walked along the banks of the Nile, the other through the desert. Thebes communicated with Carthage through the oasis of Ammon and the great Sirte. Relations with the Red Sea coast did not present any difficulties. Egypt received in this era mainly luxury items - precious stones, metals, wood, fragrances, vessels, etc.; but even after Psammetichus trade in Egypt did not acquire any serious significance. The real commercial flourishing came here only after the foundation of Alexandria.
The importance of the Phoenicians in the history of trade
With the Phoenicians, trade enters a new phase of development. Previously, it almost did not go beyond the framework of a simple exchange of products between various states and tribes of the East; now it is becoming worldwide and is becoming predominantly maritime. Initially, however, the Phoenicians did not dare to embark on long sea travel; they visited the nearest places: India, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, Greece - by sea, Assyro-Babylonia, Armenia - by land. Particularly close trade ties existed between the Phoenicians and the Jews. In exchange for local (timber, fruits and metals) and imported (ivory, jewelry, glass, etc.) products, the Phoenicians received grain, oil, wine and all kinds of raw materials from Palestine. From Syria they received wine and fine wool, which they dyed with their famous purple dye and transported all over the world, from Cappadocia - horses, from the Caucasus - mules. All items of trade were exchanged one for another and the Phoenicians received huge profits. These profits increased many times over when the Phoenician merchants began to call further west along the Mediterranean Sea. Carefully making their way along the coast, they reached Spain, where they founded a colony (now Cadiz). Silver from the mines of the Iberian Peninsula was exchanged for products of the East; oil, wax, wine, bread, wool, lead, etc. were exported from there. The Pillars of Hercules did not stop the Phoenician merchants; they reached the Baltic Sea, establishing trade relations everywhere; and exported from the villages of Europe fish, leather, amber, tin.
Years over 1000 BC Phoenician trade was in full bloom. Strictly preserving the secrecy of their western voyages, they inseparably reigned on the sea from India to Jutland, delivering the products of the East to the West and vice versa. But the decline of this trade came as quickly as the heyday. Internal turmoil and enemy invasions exhausted the strength of a small nation; his trading monopoly came to an end, but one of his colonies, Carthage, subsequently became a great trading power.
Trade among the ancient Persians
Trade among the ancient Persians received a huge impetus thanks to the activities of Darius Hystaspes. He completed the canal of Ramses and Necho, carried out a monetary reform to facilitate exchange, covered his vast state with a whole network of roads and intermediate stations that served military as well as trading purposes, explored the course of the Indus and the shores of the seas washing its power. Industry has reached a flourishing state; Persian fabrics and carpets, mosaic and enamel products, furniture made of precious wood had no rivals. The products of India were transported by caravans throughout the state; the Arabs were intermediaries in relations with the south, the Greek colonies of the Asia Minor coast, subject to the Persians, with the west and north. And here the decline came soon after the heyday; the loss of the western coast of Asia Minor was his first moment.
Trade in ancient Greece
The fact of the existence of relations between the Phoenicians and Greeks in the Mycenaean era can be considered, apparently, established. The Phoenicians brought oriental goods, took away raw materials. The well-being of the coastal inhabitants increased, the needs increased; native industry began to imitate overseas products. Eastern influence spread mainly along the eastern shores of Hellas, along five bays: Laconian, Argive, Saronic, Euboean and Pagasean; cultural center was Argos.
The main industry in the Mycenaean era was metal. Metals mined from local mines, both in Hellas and on the islands and on the coast of Asia Minor, were not enough; The Phoenicians brought copper and tin. Metals became the most valuable object of trade and within the country, where the measure of value was cattle. In the 8th century sailing begins among the Greeks, but the influence of the Phoenicians does not fall. Eastern imports hold on: Phoenician ships bring silver vessels from Sidon, metal armor from Cyprus, linen chitons, glass, ivory; from the East, the Greeks received some domestic animals and plants. Goblets and swords were imported from Thrace to Hellas; very lively relations existed between the Greeks of Asia Minor and their neighbors - Lydians, Lycians, Carians. The real commercial boom in Greece begins with colonization. The Hellenes gradually populate almost the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the shores of the Euxine Pontus and Propontis, the islands of the Archipelago, trade relations are opened with the Scythians, with the Thracians, with the native tribes of Asia Minor and the Caucasus, with the Libyans, with the inhabitants of Italy, southern France, Spain. In the middle of the 7th century Egypt joins. Attica delivered oil and silver, Boeotia - bread, the islands - wine, Cythera - purple, Laconia - iron. Imports consisted mainly of all kinds of raw materials and slaves; but the East and Etruria imported into Greece the products of their industry.
The main subject of import was bread, which even in Attica was only enough to spare. Cattle and jewels, as a measure of value, first gave way to ingots of copper and iron, and then to noble metals, by weight units; finally, a coin was borrowed from Lydia. In the 7th century the first place in trade belonged to Aegina; only Corinth could compete with her. In the VI century. Athens gradually begins to advance and, with the help of Corinth, they overcome Aegina.
The success of trade is leading everywhere to the downfall of the landowning aristocracy. The attempts of the Corinthian Kypselides and the Athenian Pisistratides to raise small landownership did not lead to anything, and both cities, in the 5th century, turned into merchant republics. Agriculture could not withstand the competition of Pontus, Sicily, Egypt and southern Italy. In the 5th century at least 300,000 meters were imported into Piraeus annually. tsntn. bread, and the total import to all the harbors of the Aegean reached several million meters. tsntn. The income from trading was proportional to the amount of risk; if swimming in Sicily and Italy gave up to 100%, then swimming in the Archipelago brought no more than 20-30%. Such was the state of affairs in the era of the highest commercial flourishing that followed the Greco-Persian wars. The Peloponnesian War led to a decrease in population, the ruin of the country, tax oppression, economic crises; but even Athens, which suffered the most from the wars, did not lose all its strength and retained its commercial and industrial importance. Syracuse took the first place among the western Hellenic cities and retained it until the rise of Alexandria; Ephesus became an intermediate point through which there was trade with Asia Minor; Rhodes rose in the southeast, rivaling the largest trading centers in the Greek world.
In line with industrial development, trade also grows. In maritime trade, the importance of risk early led to the formation of trading companies, the simplest form of which was the bodmeran contract. A cash loan secured by a ship and cargo paid more than a simple cash loan; while the former was as high as 30%, the latter rarely rose above 18%. The campaign of Alexander the Great in Egypt led him to the idea that trade with India could go through Egypt much more conveniently than the old way. At the mouth of the Nile, Alexandria appeared, which its founder predicted the role of a trading intermediary between East and West. Under the Ptolemies, a large merchant fleet in the Red Sea served for relations with India; along the Nile, relations were made with Ethiopia, from where came mainly ivory. With the subjugation of Rome, the trading activity of Alexandria - like Byzantium, another port that connected the West with the East - increased significantly.
Carthage and Etpyria
When Tire fell under the blows of Alexander, Carthage took over the commercial legacy of its mother country. The history of Carthage is especially interesting because it always had trade considerations in the foreground. State structure, conquests - everything was adjusted to economic needs. To retain a trading monopoly in the western Mediterranean - that was the main task. Alien ships were expelled, and on occasion they were sunk; any other maritime power that wished to enter into relations with a powerful republic had to trade exclusively in Carthage itself.
An unusually favorable geographical position put Carthage in very favorable conditions. Caravans that regularly traveled into Africa and to Egypt brought ebony, ivory, gold, ostrich feathers, dates, and slaves from there; European colonies delivered wool, metals, bread. Carthaginian factories processed raw materials and put textiles, metal products and glass on the market.
During the heyday of Carthaginian power, Etruria grew in Italy, which also played a role in the history of trade. She made an alliance with Carthage; in 540, the allies defeated the Phocaean colonists near Alalia (Corsica) and pushed them back to the mainland (Massilia). The power of Etruria did not last long; after his fall, the Greek pirates became bolder, so that Rome and Carthage had to agree on their extermination (The question of the time of the first Roman-Corthaginian treaty is very controversial. Mommsen, Ar. Schaefer and Clason date it to 348 BC, and E. Müller, Nissen and Ed. Meyer tend to consider the Polybian date - 509 - to be genuine). Some time later, the rise of Rome did away with the Greeks, and the Etruscans, and the Carthaginians.
Trade in ancient Rome
In ancient times, trade in Italy was limited to relations between neighboring communities. Periodic fairs appeared early to coincide with the festivities; the most significant of these was at Soracta, an Etruscan mountain near Rome. Here trade took place probably before the Greek or Phoenician merchant appeared in central Italy. Cattle, slaves, and later metal (copper) in weight ingots served as an instrument of exchange.
The favorable geographical position of Rome soon made it a depot for the whole of Latium. The initial modest exchange revived when Greek settlements appeared in Italy, and Etruscan merchants entered into close relations with the Greeks. The settlements of the eastern coast of Italy began to enter into direct contact with Greece; Latium exchanged its raw materials for manufactory with the South Italian and Sicilian Greeks. This state of affairs continued until Rome began to extend her dominion to the natural frontiers of Italy. The Roman denarii, says Mommsen, were not one step behind the Roman legions. And the overseas wars of Rome were partly due to the commercial interests of the republic. Rome did not become an industrial center capable of competing with the East and Carthage; only trade on a large scale could become a real source of wealth for him. The Punic Wars, which crushed Carthage, and the campaign in Greece, which ended Corinth, gave the Roman merchants the opportunity to put their capital into circulation.
The first step after the Roman conquest was usually the introduction of the Roman monetary system. Silver coins came into use from the 3rd century, and gold (mainly in bullion) during the Punic Wars. Port dues have become an important financial item. The countries of the East joined the circle of countries with which the Romans were in relations. But even now, as until the end of her days, Rome exclusively imported, paying for overseas products with the gold that was collected in the conquered countries by the state and tax-farmers. The empire brought calm to the world, which first of all responded to the ordering and regulation of trade. Customs barriers no longer hampered trade, the roads were safe from robbers, the seas were not teeming with pirates.
Of the institutions of the times of the empire, “horrea” deserve attention - state warehouses, mainly granaries, where African and Egyptian bread arrived. The second place among the imported items was occupied by meat. Entire herds were brought to Rome from abroad; dairy products came from Gaul and Britain. The most diverse varieties of fish were consumed both fresh and salted and pickled. Vegetables and fruits also came in huge quantities from abroad; Carthage and Cordoba were famous for artichokes, Germany for asparagus, Egypt for lentils; apples came from Africa, Syria and Numidia, plums from Syria and Armenia, cherries from Pontus, peaches from Persia, apricots from Armenia, pomegranates from Carthage. In general, Italy produced a lot of wine, but even in the era of the empire there was not enough of it; wine was brought from Greece, Asia Minor, the islands, and later from Gaul and Rhaetia. Oil, consumed in large quantities in the baths, was brought from Africa. Salt was also a major trade item. For Roman houses and villas, valuable wood furniture, silver-decorated sofas, marble, and precious statues were brought from afar. Phoenicia, Africa and Syria delivered purple fabrics, China - silk and silk fabrics; dressed leather came from Phoenicia, Babylonia, Parthia, sandals - from Lycia (the famous factory in Patara), bronze and copper - from Greece and Etruria, swords, daggers, armor - from Spain. In the I-III centuries. AD
The Roman Empire was the greatest area of free trade in history. The unity of coins, measures and weights, the free navigation of everyone everywhere, the flourishing state of industry in Spain, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Northern Italy, partly Greece, the high level of agriculture in Africa and on the Black Sea coast - all this contributed to the prosperity of trade. The accidental discovery of Ceylon under Claudius indicated a new route to India. But this prosperity did not last long. Under Diocletian, a terrible economic crisis set in, from which Roman trade could no longer recover. In vain did the emperors try to improve matters by establishing close guardianship over all spheres of economic life, regulating agriculture, crafts, and trade. Everything was in vain, since the state pursued not economic, but fiscal goals. International relations dwindled, and then the barbarians appeared, and a terrible decline in culture ended the history of the Roman Empire.
Byzantium and Levant trade before the advent of the Arabs
Monetary collapse of the end of the III century. for the eastern half of the empire was less disastrous than for the western. As soon as the ferment caused by the barbarians had more or less subsided or swept to the West, the eastern empire began to settle down again, its military prestige was restored, relations with the East began to be renewed. Since the time of Justinian (527-565), Byzantium has become a mediator between East and West and retains its role until the bourgeoisie of the Italian and southern French cities wrested this position from it. In the Middle Ages was the main goal of European trade. What later became abundantly obtained from America - for example, cotton and sugar - now came from Syria, Asia Minor, Cyprus; Indian incense and spices could also be obtained only in the East; silk was produced at first only in China.
The favorable trading position of Byzantium was determined primarily by geographical conditions. Only with China it could not communicate directly; The Chinese did not travel further than Ceylon by sea, and their caravans reached only as far as Turkestan. In the further movement to Byzantium, Chinese silk inevitably had to pass through Persia. Justinian tried in vain to arrange for its delivery by sea to Ethiopia in order to avoid hostile Persia. Indian goods on native or Persian ships were also delivered to the shores of the Persian Gulf, but trade with India also went directly through the Greek harbor on the Red Sea, Klysma (near modern Suez). Trade with Ethiopia, extremely profitable (smoking, precious stones, ivory), went partly through Alexandria, partly by sea; the inhabitants of Ethiopia were also engaged in the transportation of Greek merchants to India and the transit of Indian goods. Toward the end of Justinian's reign, missionaries stole the secret of silk production from the East. Under Justin II, the Byzantine Empire already had a silk industry, concentrated mainly in Syria. The Syrians began to look for markets in the West as well. In the Merovingian era, we meet them not only in Naroonne and Bordeaux, but even in Orleans and Tours; their ships brought not only silk, but also wine, dressed leather, expensive materials for decorating temples. The Syrian merchants were followed by the Egyptian ones, with local works (papyrus, etc.). In Italy, while it belonged to Byzantium, there were even more eastern merchants. In Germany, they were met only in romanized areas - along the Rhine and Danube.
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron
The emergence of external trade relations of the Eastern Slavs with other peoples goes back centuries. On the territory of the Dnieper region, Poilmenye and the Oka-Volga basin, there was a lively exchange with the Caucasus - V - IV centuries. BC e. and Greek Black Sea colonies in the 5th - 4th centuries. BC e., in the I - III centuries. BC e.-- with the Romans; in III - VI centuries. n. e.-- with the Goths. Around the 8th century n. e. trade with the peoples of the Arab Caliphate began to develop intensively and continued until about the 10th century. In the ninth century trade with Byzantium begins. First, barter is conducted, and then money. The spread of exchange was determined by the internal processes that took place in the primitive communal system: the growth of labor productivity, its division. John of Ephesus spoke of the Slavs of the 6th century that they "became rich"; that they owned not only gold, silver and weapons, but also herds of horses. Livestock, like salt and other commodities, was the subject of internal and foreign trade. In the view of the Arabs, the Russians were a trading people who sold furs, honey, wax, weapons, swords, arrows, lead, etc. However, the Slavs exported not only these products, but also handicrafts, and sometimes slaves. Part of the products of Russian masters was exported to neighboring states. Russian things were found in the Volga Bulgaria, in Chersonese, the Czech Republic and Moravia, in Poland, among the Baltic Slavs, in Sweden. Russian craft also influenced some areas inhabited by Western Slavs. Ibn-Khordadbakh, an Arab geographer and writer, wrote in the middle of the 9th century: “As for the Russian merchants - they are the essence of a tribe from the Slavs, they take out otter furs, black fox furs and swords from the further ends of Slavonia to the Rum Sea, and the king of Rum takes a tithe from them.” Arab merchants, in turn, went to Kyiv, bringing with them luxury items, gold and silver jewelry, beads, beads; Russian merchants often acted as intermediaries in trade between East and West. In the ninth century trade intensifies Ancient Russia with Byzantium, Chersonese and Constantinople. Of great importance for foreign trade, for the growth of such cities as Kyiv and Novgorod, was the famous route "from the Varangians to the Greeks." Novgorod merchants, in addition to trade, conducted extensive usurious operations. If in other cities representatives of the ruling class themselves were engaged in foreign trade, then in Novgorod it was in the hands of professional merchants. Merchants amassed large fortunes from commercial exploitation. Part of the Novgorod artisans who worked for the market turned into small commodity producers. Novgorod held in its hands a very important transit trade of Russia with the West. The Novgorod merchants had great economic and political power in the feudal republic. At first, representatives of the ruling class, feudal princes, were engaged in foreign trade, but then, approximately from the middle of the 11th century, professional merchants appeared. This time can be dated to the beginning of the development of merchant capital in the foreign trade of Kievan Rus. Merchant capital penetrates into internal trade later. The appearance of merchants, which marked the emergence of the third social division of labor, the introduction of metallic money, the formation of private ownership of land and mortgages are important steps in the development of commodity production. Starting from the XI century. foreign trade largely passes from the hands of the feudal nobility to the merchants. In the economy of Kievan Rus, trade, in particular foreign trade with Arabs, Greeks, Transcaucasia, peoples Central Asia, Western Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Scandinavia, etc.), played a significant role.
The creation of a centralized state turned Moscow into the main center of foreign and domestic trade. The Russian government, interested in the development of foreign trade, at the same time, pursuing commercial goals, went, especially at first, to significant concessions to foreign merchants. The Muscovite state began to conduct wider trade with the Dutch, French, Poles, Swedes, and others. Foreign merchants tried to gain the right to travel along the Volga to Persia. On this occasion, the Moscow merchants told the tsar that the collection of duties from the British gives the treasury a profit, and takes away trades from merchants. Moscow merchants were also opposed to Dutch requests to trade with the Persians in Russia. Russian market of the 16th and 17th centuries. was an arena of struggle between domestic and foreign merchant capital. The Russian merchant class, being economically less powerful than the West European, could not always compete with English, Dutch and German merchants. Due to the weakness of domestic merchant capital, Russia's foreign trade was largely monopolized by the state. The state, patronizing its merchants, took restrictive measures against foreigners: it established higher duties, prohibitions, etc. In this respect, the Charter of Trade (1654) and the New Trade Charter (1667) played a special role. Ensuring the interests of Russian merchants, limiting the trade of foreigners, attracting foreign currency into the country, etc. - the main paragraphs of the charter. As a result of the protectionist principles of the New Trade Charter, the Russian merchants in the second half of the 17th century. strongly pressed foreign trading capital from the domestic market of Russia. But the lack of own merchant ships and the lack of access to the Baltic Sea made it impossible to expand direct trade relations with Western European states. Foreign trade continued to be predominantly in the hands of the British and Dutch. The situation changed significantly under Peter I, under which access to the sea was recaptured. Peter considered foreign trade as one of the most important sources of state revenue, because customs duties constituted a significant part of the Russian budget. Since the 18th century foreign trade and merchant capital began to play important role in the Russian economy.
The term "commerce" is traditionally understood as a special type of organization of economic, industrial or any other activity that generates income. The concept of commerce is very relevant today. However, it is by no means recent. The history of entrepreneurial activity is rooted in the deep past.
Facts from history
The emergence and development of commerce are complex and multifaceted processes that have gone through a difficult and long path of change. When exactly commercial relations between people were first established is not known for certain.
Historical sources indicate that analogues modern trade and entrepreneurship existed at the dawn of human development, in the Stone Age. The essence of commerce in those days was reduced to the exchange of any valuable items, bringing benefits to both participants in the exchange. Initially, trade was of a natural nature (that is, it was carried out without the presence of money, which appeared much later in everyday life).
Such relationships were quite profitable, but often very inconvenient - in order to get the desired item, a person sometimes had to make a long and complex chain of exchanges in order to ultimately find what he needed.
To solve this problem, merchants began to look for a way out. At first, they organized special fair days, at which the owners of various goods gathered. Then they realized that the process of trading could be greatly simplified if, when estimating the value of the goods, they used separate, unique and meaningless items (for example, leaves, shells, etc.).
Precious metals (silver and gold) turned out to be especially convenient for the needs of trade. They were easy to divide, weigh and measure, so they became an important monetary material. The use of gold and silver made a real revolution in the field of commercial relations and led to the emergence of a new concept - profit.
The first real money (although they were then made not from paper, but from leather) can be considered the money that appeared during the reign of Chin-Giz Khan. It was real (non-commodity) money, which gave a significant impetus to the development of production.
In those days, trade was no longer only between representatives of one people, but also between entire states. For example, Arabs were considered noble and experienced merchants who traveled the world and sold exotic spices, incense, luxurious fabrics, gold items and other goods to residents of other countries. Sea trade was also carried out by Chinese and Indian merchants. Particularly successful in commercial activities the Scandinavians, who brought goods rare for those places to the southern lands - furs, wool, whalebone, etc.
In the era of the Crusades there was a major upheaval in the history of trade. European knights experienced first hand the luxury of Byzantium and the East, and this significantly increased the demand for oriental goods. European merchants began to explore the depths of Asia, and also traveled to Africa.
The era of great geographical discoveries gave a significant impetus to the development of trade. Portuguese navigators, setting off on distant wanderings, returned, bringing with them never before seen goods. This is how Europe first discovered coffee, cotton, sugar, vanilla, cocoa, tobacco. In the meantime, the money economy was becoming stronger and stronger. Numerous banks were opened all over the world and large trading capital was born.
In the industrial era, with the development of production, trade between countries became even more active. It was then that the words "export" and "import" first sounded. The rapid flourishing of trade occurred in those countries that turned from landowners into industrial ones (England, France, Germany, the Netherlands). And to this day, these states are among the leaders in the list of countries leading international trade.
The emergence and development of commerce in Russia
In our country, trade and money relations arose somewhat later than in many other states - only in the 9th century. Initially, they also had a natural character. Markets were the centers of Russian cities. In the 10th-11th centuries, a large merchant class appeared in Russia, engaged in trade. During the period of feudal fragmentation, trade went between the principalities of Russia, and then it became international.
Development market relations and social division of labor objectively formed commercial entrepreneurship.
In Russia, trade appeared in the VIII - IX centuries.
The first trade agreements were signed with Byzantium in 911 and 971. They established significant privileges for Russian merchants - up to the right to duty-free trade.
The first mentions of merchants and trade, contained in the ancient Russian chronicles, date back to the 10th century. At that time, the townspeople engaged in trade were called merchants. However, trade in Russia was carried out not only by “merchants”, but also by “guests” (foreign merchants). By the end of the 12th century, merchants - "guests" and "merchants" - are gradually separating themselves into a privileged group of the urban population, distinguished by their property status and enjoying the support of princely power. It was at this time that the first merchant societies appeared in large cities. For example, the charter of the Novgorod trading corporation, which united large wax merchants (“waxers”), has been preserved.
For many years in Russia there were mainly markets where goods were not sold for money, but were exchanged for each other, i.e. carried out barter deals. For example, in Kyiv - the capital of Russia - in the X-XII centuries. there were 8 markets, each of which specialized in the exchange of certain goods. In different regions there were different goods that served as a universal equivalent. Only in the XIV milestone did the first coins appear, that is, money for servicing trade transactions.
The beginning of the intensive development of entrepreneurship in Russia was the period of the VIII-XIII centuries, when the bulk of the Russian population concentrated on the Middle and Upper Dnieper. These areas were profitable for trade. The great trade route of the Northeast Plain was the waterway from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The most important trading centers of Russia of this period were the cities located at the two ends of this path, namely Novgorod (“warehouse of northern goods”) and Kyiv (“warehouse of southern goods”).
This is how economic and trade relations developed between different regions of Russia and a single all-Russian market was born.
Active development in the described period was received by foreign trade associated with hunting and bartism (forest beekeeping)
Russian merchants traded in various countries of the Black, Baltic and Caspian Seas, visited the Bulgarian kingdom and Byzantium, went with caravans to Baghdad and Balkh in Afghanistan.
The first Russian document that regulated entrepreneurial activity in trade and other areas, as well as the relationship of entrepreneurs with society, was Russkaya Pravda, one of the most developed codes of law of its time, compiled by Prince Yaroslav and later supplemented by Yaroslav's successors. All significance this document appreciated by the domestic historian V. Klyuchevsky, who succinctly called "Russian Truth" the "Code of Capital".
In this code, the “integrity” and security of capital were valued more and cared for more than the personal freedom of a person. Acts against property were punished more severely under this law than violations of personal safety.
Entrepreneurship, incl. and trade, in Kievan Rus was largely based on slavery, and therefore the Russian merchant, merchant of that era often traded in "living" goods.
After the devastating Tatar-Mongol yoke, much has changed in the trade and business sphere of Russia. Firstly, the centers of trade changed, since in the 13th-15th centuries (up to the 17th century) the bulk of the Russian people, previously concentrated in the Upper Volga region, settled to the south, north and east. The coverage of territories by Russian entrepreneurship became more significant, and as a result, Great Russian entrepreneurship arose.
During the described period, an active role in trade residents of the Moscow state began to play. As historians noted, all the amount of resin and wax that was then consumed in Europe, as well as expensive furs, were brought from Moscow possessions. Timber, the best flax, hemp, and cowhide were also exported from the Moscow state. Leather, furs, walrus teeth were exported to Lithuania and Turkey. Saddles, bridles, cloth, linen, leather, axes, arrows, mirrors, purses were brought to the Tatars.
In the second half of the 14th century, Moscow became a major trading center, where daily markets were the main form of trade. Trade was conducted, as a rule, by the producers themselves, without intermediaries. Heralds and barkers, inviting buyers to hosiery, shoe, mittens, sash, fur and craft ranks. Pedlars and small merchants were engaged in the sale of haberdashery goods, chintz and popular prints.
And the pedlars roamed the streets of the city, offering simple goods - kvass, tea, pancakes, muffins.
Basic outlet in Russia there was a shop. Their owners, shopkeepers, adhered to one single principle - to advertise and sell their goods with maximum profit.
At the end of the 17th century, a stone building of shopping malls was built in Moscow where GUM currently stands. Each row had a special name. Merchants who traded with foreign countries, called surozhans, so a number of imported products were called Surozhsky.
Haberdashery was sold in the women's and stringer rows, in rags - junk, in iron and silver - metal products.
Great value for development commercial entrepreneurship in the Muscovite state at that time they had trade fairs. So, since 1524, the Nizhny Novgorod fairs began to be organized, later they became the largest trade in Russia, and in terms of a number of indicators - both in Europe and the world.
By the end of the 17th century, several types of entrepreneurs in the trade sector were formed:
1. Foreign merchants and industrialists.
2. Russian merchants.
3. State "palace" entrepreneurs.
4. Monasteries.
The largest entrepreneur of the XVII century. in Russia there was a merchant class, which came out mainly from the townspeople, who became rich in bidding and crafts. The higher merchant class consisted of "guests" and "trading people" of the living room and the cloth hundreds.
The 17th century became, to some extent, a crisis period in the history of Russian commercial entrepreneurship: there was a reduction in the number of merchants (by the end of the 16th century, the Living Hundred numbered 358 people, and in 1649 - only 171), the number of the Cloth Hundred decreased (at the end of the 16th century it consisted of 250 people, and in 1649 - only 116 people). This reduction was explained a large number duties performed by the merchants in favor of the state. The "government service" was of a complex and burdensome nature, and therefore the townspeople did not seek to become members of the Living Hundred
In all Russian cities there were gostiny yards, where clerks stood behind the counters, who provided customers with various information about the quality and properties of the goods, about intricate names.
The central place in Russian trade was occupied by the merchant. The merchant class was divided into guilds and was engaged in delivery and peddling trade. Merchants traveled around the country to buy and sell goods. The main sources of replenishment of the ranks of the large merchants were the urban population and the peasantry, who often began their trading activities as buyers.
The fortress village also put forward new groups of entrepreneurs. It is worth mentioning, for example, the "trading" peasants who remained in serf captivity.
Trade during this period actively developed both in the domestic and foreign markets. However, foreign trade was still the most important source of enrichment for the Russian merchant class. The development of foreign trade and entrepreneurship in the northern regions of Russia was facilitated by the foundation of Arkhangelsk (1584): the city appeared on a new trade route from Europe to Asia and was shopping center linking Russia with the Western world. 30-40 English, Dutch, Bremen and Hamburg ships came to Arkhangelsk in the middle of the 17th century.
On a smaller scale, foreign trade was conducted through Novgorod, Pskov and Smolensk. Large quantities of hemp, flax, leather, linen, cloth, etc. were exported from these cities, and metals (iron, copper, tin, lead), as well as industrial products, were imported.
Especially rapid development of trade was in the era of Peter the Great. Entrepreneur and economist I. Pososhkov put forward the idea of "free bargaining" for the Russian merchants, proclaiming: "And bargaining is a great thing!"
Modern forms The market began to emerge at the turn of the 7th-18th centuries. Their rapid development was associated with the policy pursued in Russia by Peter I. Some fragments of this policy speak volumes today. For example, Peter 1 introduced a state monopoly on "the most profitable merchandise." This is evidenced by the Decree of January 1, 1705, according to which the sale of salt, tobacco, tar, soap, fish oil, vodka, furs, bristles was assigned to the treasury (state). As a result, revenues to the treasury fell, since with an increase in prices twice or more, the consumption of these goods decreased.
Then a decision is made to reduce state-owned trade and give free rein to "every person to trade and trade in all kinds of goods with the payment of an appropriate fee." And trade boomed again. Moreover, in St. Petersburg, for example, the first Russian commodity exchange was opened and fair activities were organized. Companions of Peter in every possible way urged the sovereign to grant freedom to merchants and entrepreneurs
The transformations of the economic life of the Russian Empire under Peter I made changes in trade as well. A state monopoly was introduced on the trade in tobacco, salt, on the export of caviar, hemp, bread, resin, etc. The merchant class was losing its former economic power and was actually forced out by a new layer of entrepreneurs - guild merchants. Individual capitals were involved in the "company" form of entrepreneurship.
In an independent class, the merchants finally took shape in 1785, according to the "Charter of the Cities".
To protect their interests, traders (merchants) were forced to unite in the so-called guilds (class associations). Depending on the amount of capital, merchants were divided into 3 guilds. Merchants registered in the guild enjoyed serious benefits. According to the city situation from 1785 . (“Letters on the rights and benefits to the cities of the Russian Empire” ), everyone could join the guild if he had a capital of more than 1000 rubles. (1st guild - from - 10 to 50 thousand rubles; 2nd - from 5 to 10 thousand: 3rd - from 1 to 5 thousand rubles). Merchants of all three guilds were exempted from natural recruitment (military) service, and the 1st and 2nd guilds - from corporal punishment. Merchants of the 1st guild had the right to internal and external . Availability sea vessels. Members of the 2nd guild were allowed only internal trade and river boats. For merchants of the 3rd guild, petty bargaining was allowed (taverns, baths, inns, etc.).
The Russian legislation of that time determined the activities of two types of business associations - a joint-stock company and trading house(on faith or complete).
Fairs reached their greatest development in the first half of the 19th century. During this period, there were more than 4.5 thousand of them. And they settled in cities, villages, at factories and factories.
At large fairs, certain goods were traded, which reflected economic specialization and the isolation of areas of industry and agriculture. So, on the Lena and Volga rivers they traded timber, in Yakutsk - furs, in Ukraine - cattle. At that time, there were 64 fairs in Russia, where goods were sold and bought for more than a million rubles. Since 1817, the Nizhny Novgorod Fair with a trade turnover of 139 million rubles has acquired all-Russian significance, playing the role of not only all-Russian trading, but also determining its importance in international trade. Chinese merchants brought tea, Persian merchants brought silks and other goods that spread to all corners of Russia. Buyers at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair were divided into the rich and the poor. The services of the first, in addition to the shopping arcade, included a theater, a bank, taverns and comedian booths, i.e. all the lure of fashion and luxury.
After the Nizhny Novgorod summer fair, the Irbit fair, which took place in February in the Perm province, came in terms of importance. And then came Serochinsky in Poltava, Kreshchenskaya in Kharkov, Korennaya in Kursk, Afanasievskaya in Verkhneudinsk. The abundance of goods and the festive atmosphere attracted a huge number of people to the fairs.
The first half of the 19th century is characterized by the renewal of the business world Russian Empire and strengthening the positions of capitalism; Fairs are gradually losing their exclusive significance. The leading place is occupied by shop and store trade, the so-called storehouses (from the Tatar "lapas" - a canopy) are becoming very popular. This institution was a shop or a barn, where a variety of goods were stored and sold at the same time.
But with the development of the economy and production, shops and storehouses become crowded, trade smoothly moves from these establishments to the store. “Shop” in Arabic means warehouse. The French expanded the meaning of this word in the following sense: where goods are stored, they trade there. The word store entered the Russian language in the meaning of "trading enterprise".
In the 60s of the XIX century, entrepreneurship is formed on the basis of the economic freedom of market entities and the market work force.
According to the Regulations “On duties for the right to trade and other crafts” of January 8, 1863, two merchant guilds were approved instead of three, and the category of trading peasants was abolished. Wholesalers operating throughout the Russian Empire received Guild certificates of the first category. Within the limits of the city or county, the sphere of activity of merchants of the second guild spread.
Stationary trading establishments were divided into five rows. Big restaurants, warehouses, wholesale stores and pharmacies belonged to the I category. Taverns, shops and wholesale warehouses of medium turnover had II category, tea, drinking and small shops - III, tents, stalls - IV, peddling and delivery trade - V category.
According to official data, in 1885 1027 thousand people were engaged in trade. In 1910, the number of people employed in the trade sector doubled, amounting to more than two million people. 345 thousand carriers and peddlers were engaged in mobile trade. They almost did not bear the costs of circulation, they managed to hide their turnover and avoid taxation or pay them in an insignificant amount, which contributed to the growth of mobile trade. Share of stores in the structure trading network accounted for only 13%, since the store trade required higher operating costs compared to the shop, and even more so the tent-trading network. Trading in stores required a larger amount of working capital, determined not only by the corresponding value of turnover, but also by a slower turnover of capital. Therefore, shop trade was mainly carried out by joint-stock companies. In 1910, the rate of return was 261% for the tent and stall network, 108% for the shop network, and 45.5% for the shop network.
The evolution of market relations of trade is especially clearly seen at various stages of the development of the Soviet economy.
In 1917-1920. The development of trade is characterized by the creation of a trade sector under strict regulation of commodity circulation, when commodity-money relations were replaced by direct exchange in kind. Under the conditions of war communism (1918-1920) V.I. Lenin is pursuing a policy of not only curtailing, but also eliminating market relations.
In the post-October period, the Russian economy was characterized by the emergence of anti-market natural tendencies. Private trade was banned, a state monopoly was introduced on the vast majority of industrial goods, as well as a grain monopoly. However, already four years after the October Revolution, V.I. Lenin recognized the complete closure of the local market and the excessive monopolization of trade as erroneous.
A short revival of trade was observed during the NEP period. This period is characterized by the introduction of equivalent market relations in the economic construction of the country, the activation and development of non-state trade, and the saturation of the market with consumer goods. The main part of consumer goods during this period was sold through the private sector of trade, whose share in the country's retail trade turnover reached 70%. Since 1924 The economic policy of the Soviet state was aimed at ousting private trade and replacing it with state monopolized trade in the city and cooperative trade in the countryside. private trade was driven out to the collective farm markets, where it was under strict state control. Its share in the turnover in different periods of time (1950-1980) fluctuated from 3 to 5%. The consolidation of the state monopoly on the commodity market, the restriction of commodity-money exchange completely blocked the development of trade in 1929-1935. By 1931, the displacement of private trade from the sphere of circulation was accompanied by the introduction of a card system for the sale of basic consumer goods.
The predominant position in trade during this period was occupied by consumer cooperatives. This form of trade organization arose in Russia in the 60s. 19th century and held a leading position until the mid-30s. 20th century.
A special government decree of September 8, 1935 delimited the areas of activity of state trade and consumer cooperation- cities and countryside. Thus, the disproportion that had arisen was eliminated, when state ownership prevailed in industrial production, and cooperative ownership in the sphere of trade circulation.
The development of trade was suspended during the Great Patriotic War. Trade was curtailed and replaced by rationed distribution. Meanwhile, along with cards and coupons, there was a free collective farm, and since 1944, a state commercial trade. Private trade was pushed out to the collective farm markets. Its share in the retail turnover in different periods of time (1950-1980) ranged from 3% to 5%.
In subsequent years, the positions of monopolized trade on the basis of state monopoly in all spheres of the economy and command management of commodity resources were strengthened.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, an attempt was made to find new forms of economic management, to get away from excessive centralization, and to develop commodity-money relations. So in the organization of trade, and, above all, wholesale, there have been significant changes.
Firstly, in 1953 the sales wholesale apparatus was transferred to the jurisdiction of the USSR Ministry of Trade. Until that time, wholesale trade was carried out by the marketing bodies of industry, which worked in isolation from retail and were not interested in improving the quality and range of goods.
Secondly, most of the retail businesses were transferred to the system local authorities(bidding).
Thirdly, there has been an increase consumer societies. There was some recovery in the consumer market.
It was in the 50s. the main proportions and principal organizational schemes in the management of trade were formed, which existed until the beginning of the 90s, i.e. over 35 years.
Trade in consumer goods was carried out in three forms: state, cooperative and collective-farm-bazaar, which was due to the presence of three forms of ownership: state, collective-farm-cooperative and personal. Share of state trade in total volume retail trade accounted for about 70%, in addition, it included foreign trade, as well as 95% wholesale trade countries.
The separation of domestic trade into an independent industry was due to the existence of the command and control system for managing the national economy of the Soviet period, the state monopoly in the areas of production, distribution of commodity resources and trade. The distribution of commodity resources was entrusted to the ministries and departments that carried out trade in consumer goods in the republics, territories, and regions through subordinate structures. They were entrusted with control over the promotion of goods in the trading network.
Monopolized trade under planning and administrative state system management was the main object of state control. The allocation of trade as an independent branch of the national economy allowed the state to introduce a strict system for managing the flow of goods in the country, inter-economic relations between industries and regions, and trading systems.
Under the command-administrative system, trade was forced to sell products regardless of the real demand of the population. In accordance with the approved plans for the production of consumer goods, it was possible to sell such products only due to the absence of a competitive environment, a shortage of goods and centrally distributed financial and other resources for the planned volume of product sales.
Since the beginning of the reforms of the 1990s, Russia has been carrying out the processes of forming the mechanisms and infrastructure of a market economy. The activities of all sectors of the economy, as well as the sphere of services and commodity circulation, are radically changing. The final link in the economic activity of market entities is trade, since through trade the effective satisfaction of the needs of buyers is ensured.
Economic content and place of trade in a market economy
The market and trade in consumer goods are interconnected as a private and a whole. The formation and development of trade was carried out together with the development of commodity exchange processes and was due to the action of the same factors that led to the emergence of the market.
The essence of any economic category and the study of its formation and development objectively presuppose the disclosure of a conceptual apparatus that specifies the content of the category.
AT economic literature, dictionaries, normative documents There are different approaches to the content and essence of the concept of trade.
Most theorists argue that trade is a form of commodity exchange. Exchange is an economic relationship in which the product of labor is alienated with an equivalent compensation for it by another product of labor. Thus, trade, as a specific type of economic relations, arises where and when the products of labor are purposefully produced for exchange. In this case, the prerequisites for the emergence of trade relations are the social division of labor and the economic isolation of producers. And the essence of trade relations lies in the fact that each entity specializes in the production of a particular product, and the product of its labor satisfies some need for the whole variety of people's needs. In turn, the subject will satisfy his needs with the help of the products of labor of other producers.
In addition to satisfying human needs, which underlies the exchange, a prerequisite for the emergence of trade relations is the objective necessity of such a condition as the possibility for the producer to obtain a surplus product. These conditions presuppose the ability of an individual producer to obtain more products than he is able to consume.
The original simplest form of commodity exchange was direct exchange between producers (T - T"), where one use value (T) was exchanged for another (T"), the exchange had a one-act character and was carried out without intermediaries.
Further division of labor, the development of private property and the need for exchange led to the development of commodity exchange. It began to be carried out with the help of money, which turned it into a two-act process - commodity-money exchange C - D - C ", where one use value changes first to money, and then to another use value. The process of commodity exchange can now not coincide at any moment , nor at the place of sale.
The division of acts of exchange of goods into two, separated in time and space, objectively required intermediaries between commodity producers who exchange goods created for sale.
Trade becomes such an intermediary, representing a special type of commodity-money exchange D - C - D, serving all the economic ties of the market economy, the circulation of economic resources and money (Fig. 1).
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Rice. 1. Place of trade in the market
The movement of a social product, starting in production, goes through the stages of distribution, exchange, and ends in consumption. Production and consumption form a complex dialectical, contradictory relationship. Distribution and exchange mediate this connection, create a mechanism for resolving contradictions between production and consumption. All stages of social reproduction form a single integral process.
As a form of commodity exchange, trade is associated with every phase of social reproduction. On the one hand, each phase affects the development of trade, on the other hand, trade contributes to the development of all phases, the whole process of reproduction. Being a form of commodity exchange, trade carries out a change in the form of ownership, as a result of which social necessary costs total labor and a surplus product is formed.
The starting point at which the product itself arises and its movement begins, which determines initial moment of all social reproduction - production. Commodity production necessitates trade as a commodity form of exchange, directly influencing its development, affects it, determining the volume and structure of the commodity supply. In turn, trade itself influences the development of production: mediates its connection with other phases of social reproduction, ensures its continuity and consistency, makes it possible to most effectively use material resources, improve the range and quality of goods in accordance with the needs of various consumer groups. The final stage of product movement is consumption. The relationship of trade with personal consumption is manifested through the degree of satisfaction of the needs of the population. Personal consumption ensures the reproduction of the labor force, creates an incentive for the development of production.
The further development of the exchange of goods is connected with the isolation of an independent area of activity in which the purchase and sale of goods is carried out with the help of money and an intermediary. Instead of a secondary function of the producer, the function of exchange becomes the operation of a special kind of entrepreneur-traders in goods. For them, the purchase and sale of goods is a special process of increasing the value of the capital advanced by them.
In this way , trade is a special activity of people associated with the implementation of acts of sale and purchase and is a set of specific technological and economic operations aimed at servicing the exchange process.
GOST R 51303-99 “Trade. Terms and Definitions” gives the following definition: “Trade is a type of entrepreneurial activity related to the purchase and sale of goods and the provision of services to customers”.
AT economic theory trade is also considered as "the activity of people in the implementation of the exchange of goods and the act of buying and selling."
The Great Dictionary of Economics defines trade as follows: "Trade is an economic activity for the turnover, purchase and sale of goods." Trade in consumer goods - is a set of operations
purchase and sale of goods occurring in time and space, organized in a certain sequence with the aim of providing material goods to consumers in such a form, in such a place that would meet their requirements.
The essence of trade is fully revealed if it is considered not only as a form of commodity exchange, but also as a branch of the social economy. This approach is correct because each economic category should be considered as from the point of view of activity in the system of the general economic complex.
Public economy in Russian Federation represented by various industries. An industry is a separate area of activity, science, production. AT modern science and practice, the industry is considered as the totality of all business units that exist to meet a certain group of needs.
The division of a single act of sale into two separate ones in time and space, led to the presence of intermediaries between them. Exchange becomes the exclusive function of a group of economic entities, a special industry appears economic activity. In accordance with this provision, trade is a type of commodity-money exchange, which is characterized by the separation of purchase and sale into a special intermediary branch of activity. (D-T-D)
Trade as a branch of the public economy represents such an organization of the consumer goods market, in which the sale of goods to the population becomes the subject of economic activity of special enterprises - trading enterprises, and the current regulation of the consumer goods market is a function of the industry as a whole. The relationship between the market and the trading industry is schematically shown in Figure 1.
criteria
Rice. 1. The ratio of the market and the industry.
Domestic trade is a branch of the national economy, representing the main link in the system of the consumer market for goods and services, acting both as an integral part of the consumer market and as an active participant in it, the organizer of market relations.
With the help of trade there is an equivalent exchange of products of labor. Trade carries out the sale of goods as a result of its purchase from the manufacturer and sale to the consumer.
Acting as an organizer of the market and market relations, trade carries out commercial operations. Thanks to trade, the sale of goods to the population becomes the subject of economic activity of special trade organizations and other business entities. Trade provides goods and services for the personal needs of all members of society. It covers the area of relationships between enterprises various forms property, on the one hand, and population, on the other. Through a network of trade organizations and points of sale of goods, the population purchases goods with their cash income. These commodities may be in circulation for a certain period of time, but eventually they become private property. The sale of consumer goods to the population is the final and defining phase of their circulation.
Trading activity in the sphere of the consumer market ensures the process of commodity and monetary circulation, forms and satisfies the needs of the population in goods and services, reveals the volume of demand for consumer goods and production needs, activates labor processes in all spheres of activity, develops and improves inter-economic, inter-regional and international relations, allows expanding the market space.
Trade in the consumer goods market is an agent of commodity-money relations between the primary owners of goods who sell them and the secondary owners who buy the necessary goods in exchange for money.
The essence of the function and the role of trade in the consumer market are directly related, and they are not only impossible to oppose, but also clearly distinguish. The function is understood as "duty", "appointment", "circle of activity", "role". The functions of trade arise from its tasks, which are dynamic, changeable both in time and in space. With the development of production, competition in the market of goods, the tasks of trade are modified, complicated, filled with new content. In accordance with this, there are changes in the functions of trade, but always, at all economic stages, its functions act as an external manifestation of the internal essence of trade.
AT market conditions trade as a special activity and form of commodity exchange, in accordance with its essence, performs two main functions:
1. Bringing goods to consumers (realization of use value). In the process of bringing the goods to the consumer, trade carries out the first act of its actions M - C, exchanging money for goods of a certain type, with certain properties and in a certain quantity. Thus, trade forms a product offer on the consumer market in accordance with its requirements.
2. Realization of the value of goods (change of forms of value) by the end to consumers of goods procured by the trade and its own customer services. There is a second act of trade actions C - M, goods and services of trade are exchanged for buyers' money, there is a change in ownership. From private and state property, use-values pass into personal property. As a result, the value of the goods is realized and the purchasing demand is satisfied and formed.
Both functions of trading are inseparable, because A commodity is a unity of good and value. The product reflects both of these sides. They are dual, interdependent and manifest themselves fully in market conditions. The value of a commodity can be realized subject to the realization of use value - the good that is inherent in the commodity. If these conditions are not met, then the product of labor cannot be realized. Therefore, both functions of trade in consumer goods are inseparable.
All actions of trade are subordinated to a single goal - making a profit, which is possible only if it is effective work. Each of the functions of trade consists of many functional tasks that are solved in the field of economic and market activities. This is clearly seen in Fig. 2.
Functions of trade in consumer goods
Bringing Implementation
Goods to consumer cash
Costs
Organization Transportation Sale of goods
Household goods
Study Storage Implementation
Demand commodity money transactions
stock population
Formation Refinement, Formation
Trade packing, commodity and price
assortment labeling policy
Provision of services Provision of services Maintenance
Non-production production population at
military nature of the sale of goods
character
Service
Service
Advertising
Goods and services
So, before carrying out the function of bringing goods to the population in accordance with the volume and structure of demand, trade should:
Conduct a consumer market research in order to identify the most promising areas of its activity;
To study the market capacity, predict the volume and structure of consumer demand;
Search for the most profitable producers (suppliers) of goods both for themselves and for market consumers;
Create the necessary economic relations and conclude contracts for the supply of the necessary goods;
Ensure the transportation of goods from places of production to places of consumption;
Store in proper conditions inventory;
form trade assortment adequate commodity-group structure of demand;
Carry out sub-sorting, packaging, packaging of goods and their labeling;
Provide customers with production, informational services;
The realization of the monetary value of the goods is also ambiguous, and it includes a multifaceted action:
Formation of commodity and pricing policy;
Selling goods to consumers in exchange for their cash income;
Implementation of accounting and monetary transactions;
Customer service when buying goods;
Advertising goods and services to stimulate sales. All of the above tasks and functions are united by logic and expediency, each of them has its own content, specificity, but is not independent, but is of value only in the general complex.
Thus, in a general sense, trade in consumer goods is a process of commodity-money exchange taking place in time and space, organized in a certain sequence, reflecting the totality of economic relations regarding the exchange of labor products and meeting the needs of the population in goods and services and contributing to the development of the national economy.
The role of trade as a special branch of the public economy significant and with the development of market relations manifests itself more multifaceted.
Trade plays an important role in the implementation of intersectoral, interregional exchange, establishing links between the city and the countryside. between industry and agriculture there is a wide market exchange of means of production, raw materials and semi-finished products, in which trade actively participates. Trade is represented in this system as an organizer and regulator of the consumer market, performing the functions of bringing goods from the producer to the consumer.
It is in the process of selling goods that the most complete connection between production and consumption is manifested, the level of development of production is revealed. The influence of trade on its development in a market economy is quite noticeable. Trade provides continuity and increases the efficiency of the circulation of resources. Bringing the goods to the consumer, it realizes the interests of all participants in the commodity exchange. Through direct communication channels, goods are promoted from production to the consumer, and through channels feedback costs are reimbursed to the producer for the resources used, the producer receives a profit, and society - net income. It is trade with the help of the consumer that determines the place and role of each specific product, satisfying the needs for it. Trade reveals changes in the structure of consumption, therefore, stimulates production and sets a specific direction for it.
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Rice. 3. A single economic complex of a market state
Trade links with many sectors of the economy are diverse, in which finished goods from one sector are sent to others by
mutually beneficial exchange, help to strengthen and develop the entire economic complex. (rice.)
In a market economy, trade directly affects the positions of industries that bring consumer products.
It contributes to the development of competition, which leads not only to the expansion of the range, but also to an increase in the quality of goods and an increase in the volume of their production.
Big role internal trade of the country plays in the organization of monetary circulation. Since the majority of cash is held by the population, the trade in consumer goods takes an active part in their circulation. The amount of money in circulation directly depends on the mass of goods entering the consumer market, the price level and the speed of turnover of goods in trade. Fulfilling the tasks of organizing money circulation, trade involves the bulk of the population's income in the process of purchasing goods.
Domestic trade activities are directly related to financial system country, the filling of the state budget. Taxes from trading activities contribute to the financing of the entire economic complex.
Trade is directly involved in the establishment of market relations between the measure of labor and the measure of consumption. It affects the value of real incomes of the population, stimulates its economic activity.
By creating conditions to meet the population's demand for a variety of goods, the country's trade affects the volume and dynamics of consumption of certain socio-economic groups of the population, the structure of personal consumption of the country's citizens, and the amount of consumption costs.
Trade Services
The essence of trade is inextricably linked with services. The topic of "services of trade" in economic theory is not presented enough and is contradictory. Meanwhile, the service is the essence of trade and therefore requires a thorough study.
A trade service is a set of activities, actions or benefits that trade can offer the consumer, related or not related to the product, having certain properties (intangibility, inseparability from the manufacturer, perishability, variability of quality), which are the object of sale and are able to satisfy the needs of the consumer. . Each consumer product concentrates in itself beneficial features, target orientation, quality characteristics, which, in the appropriate combination, allow him to find his buyer on the market and turn into a product. In order to become a product, the product must be supplemented with an appropriate set of actions on the part of the trade, satisfying the needs and requirements of the buyer, providing him with the opportunity to choose and buy goods in comfortable conditions.
The difference between a service and a material product is due to the following factors:
the nature of the products;
The complexity of standardization and quality control;
The lack of the possibility of storage and warehousing;
The importance of the time factor;
The structure of distribution channels.
A characteristic feature of the socio-economic transformations that have taken place in Russia since the 1990s has been the accelerated development of the service sector.
Of course, in the economy of past years, certain attention was also paid to the provision of various services, however, at this stage, the scale and direction of the services provided, as well as their quality, were clearly insufficient.
Services as an economic activity have been around for a long time. In England, domestic servants were the largest class of the population until 1870. However, defining a service proved to be a difficult task. In the domestic literature, various interpretations of the concept of “services” are allowed, which are translated both as types of activities, and as a result of activities, and as the activity itself, i.e., the provision of a service, maintenance.
In the "Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language" V.I. Dahl - “a service, a service - the very thing is help, allowance or pleasing. To serve - to render a service, to please, to try to be useful, to help. one
The dictionary of the Russian language interprets as follows: “ service - work performed to satisfy someone's needs, needs.
In the Dictionary of Economics: "A service is any function or operation for which there is a demand." 2
In GOST R 50646-94 (1994) “Public services. Terms and definitions”, a service is defined as the result of direct interaction between the contractor and the consumer, as well as the contractor’s own activities to meet the needs of the consumer.
By expression American economist T.Hilla:
“A service is a change in the state of a person or a good belonging to a unit that occurs as a result of the activities of another economic unit with the prior consent of the first.” one
Giving a definition of a service, F. Kotler notes: “A service is any activity that one party can offer to another;
intangible action that does not result in ownership of anything. Its representation may be related to a material product.” 2
Services are sometimes referred to as activities that do not create an independent product, material object or material assets. It is often possible to meet the definition of a service as a useful action, actions or actions in general.
According to K. Grenroos: “A service is a process that includes a series (or several) intangible actions that, of necessity, occur during the interaction between buyers and service personnel, physical resources, systems of the service provider enterprise. This process is aimed at solving the problems of the buyer of services.
K. Marx defines a service as a use value embodied in a commodity, and in the form of "pure" services that do not receive independent existence in the form of a thing separately from the performer. The consumer buys services for consumption, i.e., as use values, objects, while for the producer of these services they are commodities that have both use and exchange values.
Often, researchers compare the properties of a service with the properties of a material product. Often, the specific properties of services are that they are an action or process, they are not material, they cannot be stored, their quality is more variable compared to a tangible good, and also that the production and consumption of services are simultaneous. V. Rakov describes the property of the service as follows:
Services represent a combination of the process of providing a service and consuming the result of a service;
Services, depending on the object and result, are divided into tangible and intangible;
In many cases, the subject (service provider) is individual entrepreneur or small business;
In many cases, the consumer (person) is the object of the service and (or) is directly involved in the process of its provision;
The provision and consumption of a service can be simultaneous;
As a rule, the service has an individual nature of provision and consumption;
In the service sector, the share of manual labor is high, the quality of which depends on the skill of the staff;
The provider of the service, as a rule, is not the owner of the result of the service;
services are local, non-transportable, may have a regional character;
Services may not be persistent.
Services are many and varied, as are the objects targeted by these activities.
It should be noted that for various kinds services, the importance of this or that factor is different,
With all the variety of trade and catering services, they have four main characteristics: intangibility, inseparability, variability and fragility (impossibility of storage).
intangible nature, intangibility of services trade means
that they cannot be demonstrated, packaged, or examined and evaluated prior to receiving these services. The service cannot be presented to the buyer in a material (tangible) form before the purchase is made.
Being intangible trade and public catering services also include tangible components. For example, the breadth of the range of goods or the level of preparation of dishes, the excellence of the commercial and production equipment etc.
The specificity of the provision of services lies in the fact that, unlike material goods, they cannot be produced for the future. Services are provided and consumed simultaneously, while buyers are direct participants in the service process and influence its final result.
At inseparable connection consumption of services from their production, the degree of contact between the seller and the buyer may be different, but trade services are inseparable from those who provide them, i.e. from labor resources industries.
Variability(variability) of services is due to the fact that the quality of services of the same type, both in different trade enterprises, and in the same one, varies widely depending on who, when and where they are presented. Most often, the variability in the quality of services is associated with qualifications of employees trade and their personal characteristics. In addition, the variability of services may be due to the level of competition, training of personnel, their experience, the presence or absence of communications and information exchange within the industry and its subjects, the degree of support by trade and catering managers for their employees.
An important distinguishing feature of the services - fragility, transience, impossibility of storage. In order to overcome this problem
possible fluctuations in demand in trade, special attention should be paid to forecasting demand and planning the supply of goods and services. Active measures to promote the products of their enterprises and a flexible pricing policy make it possible to achieve the optimal balance between supply and demand at the micro and macro levels.
Trade is a complex system, each element of which has its own goals, objectives, economic interests and range of services provided to customers. It is important to classify all trading services according to a number of fundamental features for management. It should be recognized that I.D. tried to solve this problem. Barchuk, V.N. Platonov, M. Lifits, V.P. Fedko and N.G. Fedko and others, however, to one degree or another, they all reduced it to the study of retail services. In addition, a number of classification features, in our opinion, are proposed unreasonably.
Having studied and summarized various approaches, it is advisable to propose the following classification of trade services:
7. By specifics technological process services of retail trade, wholesale trade, public catering, consumer services, and other sectors of the public economy are singled out.
2. By economic content trade services are heterogeneous and have a different target orientation. The following types can be distinguished:
Related services - sales promotion, acceptance and promotion of goods, services provided free of charge as an encouragement when purchasing goods, distribution, etc.
Services facilitating the purchase of other types of goods, such as the supply of goods, credit and information support, etc.
Services consumed with the product and complementing the product: corporate service, Maintenance and other actions for the installation, adjustment and bringing of commercial equipment to the stage of readiness to enter into commercial and technological processes.
3. According to the method of rendering:
- services provided by technical means;
Services related to living labor.
4. By the nature of consumption:
- mass, focused on any consumer;
Group, tailored to the needs target groups consumers;
Personalized, performed in accordance with the individual desires and capabilities of the consumer.
5. At the place of rendering:
- directly in trade;
In the field of personal consumption;
In the sphere of industrial consumption.
6. By the time of rendering:
- prior to the sale of goods;
Provided during the sale of goods;
Performed after the sale of goods.
7. By deadline:
- urgent, performed in the presence of the buyer;
With a regulated deadline, provided at the time agreed with the buyer.
8. By frequency of provision:
- permanent;
Periodic;
episodic.
Despite the specificity of the services of different subsystems and trade and public catering enterprises, they are all characterized by the quality of the service, which includes the concept of technical and functional qualities and depends on the image of the company.
Technical quality is provided by the package of services that the subjects of trade offer to a regular customer. To the buyer
could consume the service, it is necessary that it be technically available and provide the expected result.
However, for the buyer, not only the result from the consumption of the service is important, but also the very process of consumption during which he comes into contact with the personnel of the trade and its technical (material) resources -
mi. What happens in the process of consuming a service determines its functional quality.
Service quality - it is a measure of how the level of services provided meets the expectations of the buyer (consumer). In trade practice, a system of criteria used by the consumer to assess the quality of the service has been identified. In total, 10 such criteria can be distinguished: five of them are used in assessing the final result (technical quality), and five others - in assessing the process of providing services (functional quality).
The first group of criteria includes:
- reliability(determines the ability of the trade to perform the promised service accurately and accurately);
- availability(characterizes the possibility of obtaining the services of the industry by the buyer and client without a long wait);
- safety(evaluates whether it exposes this service the buyer's risk or risk, whether it is doubtful);
- confidence(shows how much you can trust the subjects of trade, workers providing services);
- customer insight(evaluates the efforts of the retailer to get to know their customers and understand their needs). The second group of criteria includes:
- responsiveness(characterizes the desire and desire of trade workers to help customers in resolving their problems);
- competence(determines the extent to which the staff has the skills and knowledge necessary for the qualified provision of services);
- reciprocity(shows how kind and courteous the trade workers are, how attentive they are to their customers);
- material environment(evaluates the tangible component of the service: interior, lighting, appearance personnel, etc.);
- communication(characterizes the information support system in the industry or firm).
Further development of services rendered by trade and intermediary organizations to buyers, supplying enterprises, is of an objective nature and is determined by a number of factors.
First, the need to expand trade services. It increases as the volume of commodity mass increases, due to an increase in turnover. working capital, obtaining additional profit and reducing distribution costs. All this creates those motives of behavior that generate the expansion of services.
Secondly, the development of services has become an objective need for citizens, as well as consumers and manufacturers of means of production. They give preference to those trade and public catering firms where they can not only buy goods, but also receive all known types of services that save their time and money, create comfort, ensure purchase reliability and guarantee the quality of goods and food consumed.
Thirdly, scientific and technological progress creates new prerequisites for expanding services in the sphere of commodity circulation. It generates the need for service development and at the same time ensures the development of services.
Based on these factors, as well as growth trends in the supply and consumption of services in our country and abroad, it can be argued that the need for services will outstrip the need for goods.
However, it should be noted that commercial prospects are an important, but far from the only reason for the development of the service sector. The implementation of many tasks of a socially oriented economy, in the direction of which our country is developing, is closely connected with the formation of this sphere.
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