Market as a historical research subject

The interpretation of the term market and the methodology of its research in the 20th century have changed with time. Historians usethis term but they dont have common understanding. And the question about the purposes and methods of historical and economic researchstays debatable. The modern debate is to find the subject of science and optimal research model. According to some authors economictheory must prevail over the historical facts. The opponents insist that the historical facts are primary, and only serve a basis fortheoretical generalization. If some incline to the empirically oriented version, they need to pay attention to historical facts and descriptionof historical process, using economic concepts for occurring processes interpretation. It is important to begin with formulating adefinition for market and methodological bases of its exploration. The category market should become an analytical model to systematizeand explain the facts of historical reality. Considering market as a form of commercial exchange and focusing on specific historicalfacts we can formulate the following definition of the term: the market is the sphere of commodity exchange embodied in thefunctioning network forms of trade organizations (retail chain), that are included in exchange activity of commodity relations and regulatedby law and cultural standards. Thereby, the market may be represented as the interconnection of three elements: retail chain, asthe embodiment of the market structural organization, consisting of organizational forms and economic connections between them. Thestudy of this element requires consideration of: organizational forms in trade, goods movement routes, economic specialization of individualareas of the region; subjects of market relations which are the direct participants in trade relations, that create the market withtheir actions; the normative component consisting of formal and informal rules governing the market participants conduct. It appearsthat this definition would allow the historical research of specific market category and help to summarize and systematize the lessons inthe regional historiography research experience.

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