Advertisements of trading houses and shops in the Bessarabian press (the late 19th - early 20th centuries)

Among the many advertisements in Bessarabian periodicals the messages with socio-economic content occupied a special place. This paper offers its readers a wide range of advertising messages related to trade. It aims to identify and evaluate the content and form of “commercial” advertisements, to define their role and place on the pages of newspapers and other periodicals in the historical period under review. Due to the wide distribution and wide range of readers periodicals ranked first among other means of advertising. Advertising is a good way to inform and persuade consumers in order to create a preference or to motivate them to consume a particular product. Bessarabian merchants who posted their advertisements in newspapers, magazines, and other publications were also convinced in this. The number of such advertising messages is impressive. Their classification by content allows us to determine the level of trade in Bessarabia where at that time there was a large network of stores specializing in the sale of goods and products of Russian and foreign factories. At the same time, we find that in the Bessarabian trade there were operated such commercial structures as trading houses established under contract to carry out a successful trade.