This publication examines the initial legislative consolidation of the activities of merchants, intermediaries, agents, brokers as the initial types of commercial intermediaries.
 We covered the most significant periods of Kievan Rus, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, the first decade of Ukraine as an independent state, as well as explored the scope of regulatory consolidation of the institution of mediation in domestic law at present.
 To achieve this purpose, the author analyzed the works of famous historians and lawyers, as well as developed regulations of the period of the Russian Empire, the USSR and Ukraine. Based on the analysis of the latter, it was determined that the legislation on commercial intermediation is moderately developed in our country, which is absolutely consistent, because in private law relations in the field of business only practice can show their sufficient or insufficient level of regulation. Also to achieve this purpose, the authors used methods typical of legal science. The study itself was conducted primarily on the application of historical and legal, system-structural methods and the dialectical method of cognition of legal reality.
 The study allows us to conclude that commercial intermediation, arising as a completely natural phenomenon designed to regulate trade relations between individuals, the legislative regulation of commercial intermediation in the field of management has developed gradually. The need for it was due to the fact that the need for professionalism of intermediaries allowed the latter to ignore the usual human virtues, which put at a disadvantage financial and economic position of the principals. This institution received a certain stagnation during the existence of the USSR, which was a logical continuation on the one hand of the policy of nationalization of fixed assets, and on the other - the equality proclaimed by communism, which did not fit private commercial mediation as a form of chrematism and “art of enrichment”.