Pedlar trade in Finland: historiography of the issue

The stated topic was chosen due to the significance and relevance of studying the relationships between the populations of the border territories in different periods of history as a broad subject. The aim of the article is to identify the main trends in the development of the issue research. The article attempts to review domestic and foreign historiography on the topic of peddling carried out by the population of the border parishes of the White Sea Karelia in Finland during the second half of the XIX and the early XX centuries. The main research objective is to summarize the accumulated experience of previous generations of scholars, identifying controversial and insufficiently studied issues. The results of the study lead to the conclusion that the development of cross-border trade remains one of the least studied issues today. The main attention of the authors is paid to the state level of trade. However, it is not only interstate relations that determine the situation in each specific region of the country, therefore, the importance of trade relations at the regional level should not be underestimated. Often, the peddling trade of Karelian peasants in the neighboring territory was the only source for sustenance and paying the mandatory taxes.