Анотація:
The article discusses the key aspects of the merchant guilds development in Ukraine
that created economic, social and legal conditions for transformation of the merchants
into an independent class and promoted the further national economy development.
There are analyzed the factors which determined organization moments of this trans
formation in the legal field of Russian empire and its contradictory consequences for
Ukrainian entrepreneurship. The author presents the specific distribution of guilds
and its differences from the European one, tells about historical development of
merchant guilds and causes of their decline. He stresses their significant role in the
rapid national entrepreneur class development in Ukraine.