This open access book uncovers one important yet forgotten form of itinerant livelihoods
namely petty trade more specifically how it was practiced in Northern Europe during the period
1820-1960. It investigates how traders and customers interacted in different spaces and
approaches ambulatory trade as an arena of encounters by looking at everyday social practices.
Petty traders often belonged to subjugated social groups like ethnic minorities and migrants
whereas their customers belonged to the resident population. How were these mobile traders
perceived and described? What goods did they peddle? How did these commodities enable and shape
trading encounters? What kind of narratives can be found and whose? These questions pertaining
to daily practices on a grass-root level have not been addressed in previous research.
Encounters and Practices embarks on hidden histories of survival vulnerability and conflict
but also discloses reciprocal relations even friendships.
