Sotni, Kupecheskie

(Merchant Hundreds), medieval corporate organizations of Russian merchants of the period from the 12th to the early 18th century (the membership of each sotnia did not necessarily equal 100; it could be higher at one time or lower at another).

From the 12th to 15th centuries, there were kupecheskie sotni in Kiev, Novgorod, Polotsk, and other cities. In Novgorod the Ivanskoe Sto (Ivan Hundred) was a large merchants’ association. In Moscow, kupecheskie sotni are known from as early as the 14th century—for example, the Surozhane (merchants who traded through the port of Surozh in the Crimea) and the cloth merchants. In the second half of the 16th century and in the 17th century, the merchant elite in Russia was joined together into three statewide corporations—the gosti, gostinaia sotnia, and sukonnaia sotnia—which held a de facto monopoly over foreign trade and performed official functions in the collection of taxes and in the conduct of state trade. These merchants were joined together by tsarist ukases, and their rights and privileges were set forth in charters. The kupecheskie sotni were abolished in the 1720’s.