Large fairs have been held in Bryansk region since the 16th century. The Magdeburg Law (about independence and self-government), which was granted to the town of Pogar by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, led to the trade developing there faster than in other Russian cities. By 1780, there were 355 shops. At the same time, almost a third of the shops, that is 109, was located in Pogar alone.

Large fairs were held three times a year in Pogar: on both of the Saint Nicholas Days also known as “Nikola Letny” (May 22) and “Nikola Zimny” (December 19), as well as on the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God (August 15). According to the Rumyantsev revision of 1765-1769,

The preparatory days before the fairs were called “podtorzha”: the merchants brought their goods and built wooden stalls, and the locals dressed up and sang songs. Fairs lasted from two to three weeks. They sold hemp oil, wheat, rye, salo (cured slabs of fatback, rarely pork belly), honey and other agricultural products, as well as glassware.

The number of fairs began to increase in the last quarter of the 18th century. Pogar traders also bought and grew hemp, which they then exported to Kyiv, Glukhov and other cities. They used different weights when selling.

The pounder was the simplest lever scale. In contrast to the large “kantyr” (scales with a fixed point and one movable weight) and the steelyard (straight-beam scale with arms of unequal length), the pounder scales showed the weight not by means of levers but by a steel spring-loaded shackle with an arrow. It indicated the weight in pounds. One pound was equal to approximately 450 grams. This scale looks like an arc-shaped flexible plate with a metric scale and an arrow. At the top was a ring by which the pounder was held in the hands or hanged on something. In the lower part and on the side there were hooks. The pounder is the prototype of modern household spring scales.

The pounder presented in the museum was found in Pogar in an old mansion, which belonged to the famous merchant of the second guild, Lev Silich. Silich owned large plantations of tobacco and hemp, traded these products in Russia and exported them abroad.