Includes bibliographical references and index.

Front Matter -- Copyright / Jukka Korpela -- Preface / Jukka Korpela -- Maps and Tables / Jukka Korpela -- Introduction / Jukka Korpela -- Eastern European Slave Trade / Jukka Korpela -- Late Medieval Lords and Warlords / Jukka Korpela -- The Northern Forests / Jukka Korpela -- The State and Its Wealth / Jukka Korpela -- Conclusions: Finns, Karelians and Human Trafficking / Jukka Korpela -- Back Matter -- Sources and Literature / Jukka Korpela -- Index of Place Names and Personalnames and Key Concepts / Jukka Korpela.

In this book Jukka Korpela offers an analysis of the trade in kidnapped Finns and Karelians into slavery in Eastern Europe. Blond slaves from the north of Europe were rare luxury items in Black Sea and Caspian markets, and the high prices they commanded stimulated and sustained a long-distance trade based on kidnapping in special robbery missions and war expeditions. Captives were sold into the Volga slave trade and transported through market webs further south. This business differed and was separate from the large-scale raids carried out on Crimeans for enslavement in Eastern Europe, or the mass kidnappings characteristic of Mediterranean slavery. The trade in Finns and Karelians provides new perspectives on the formation of the Russian state as well as the economic networks of official and unofficial markets in Eastern Europe.