Skladnichestvo

in Rus’, from the 13th to 17th centuries, an association for the conduct of agriculture, crafts, and home trade in common. Thirteenth-century sources mention skladnichestvo among merchants engaged in foreign trade. Merchants thus associated (skladniki), who were often kinsmen, functioned as a single mercantile enterprise, but they divided the income pro rata, according to the shares (merchandise) that each had originally contributed. They took turns leading trips, each bearing material responsibility for the goods that the others had entrusted to him. The agreement among skladniki could be for an extended period or for a single trading journey. [23–1513–]