Komi - Economy

The basis of economic life for the Komi-Ziryenes and the Komi-Permyaks is agriculture. Agriculture is also undertaken north of the Vyčegda, although hunting is of greater importance there. For hunting, traps and snares are used in addition to modern firearms. Fishing and forestry are important occupations in the entire area populated by the Komi. In the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries mercantile professions began to develop. In the course of the nineteenth century, itinerant merchants built up a far-reaching trade network (in western, southern, and central Siberia as far as Lake Baikal). This active mercantile life came to a complete stop after World War I.