The article scrutinizes the evolution of permanent and seasonal form of commerce in Bessarabia in the period between the annexation of the province to the Russian Empire in 1812, until the epoch of the Great reforms, namely the Regulation of January 1st, 1863, regarding the system of commercial taxes. The author provides statistical and documentary data on problems that tempered the progress of permanent forms of commerce. A comparative analysis of seasonal (fair trade) and permanent trade (shops, markets, pubs, etc.) allows us to ascertain that in the 1840s the share of permanent commerce started to grow rapidly in Bessarabia, determining an important fall in the seasonal trade in the 1850s. The circuit of distribution of goods in Bessarabia shifted to a new qualitative level.