Анотація

The subject of Chumak (traditional Ukrainian wagoners) customary law is an important yet methodologically complex topic within the history of the Ukrainian state and law. It allows us to trace how the economic practices of trade and transport, the perils of steppe routes, traditions of communal self-governance, and the need for mutual trust among participants in the trade gave rise to unwritten rules of conduct. At the same time, a caveat must be noted at the outset: the internal order of the Chumak caravan has not survived in the form of a formal code or statute. Information regarding it is largely reconstructed indirectly–from ethnographic accounts, folklore, archival complaints, commercial documents, and later historical-legal analyses.