In this paper we analyse the evolution of trade in Bessarabia during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Based on the research of published and unpublished sources we can ascertain that the Crimean War affected trade in the territory between the Prut and the Dniester in several ways. First of all, the state of war instituted in the province meant the issuance of provisions that limited the legal framework of trade, through various prohibitions on the export of certain goods, the fixing of the purchase price of products for the army, etc. Another aspect taken into account is the limitation of the mobility of traders, by suspending of the issuance of travel passports within the empire or abroad, the reinstatement of quarantines on the Dniester, etc. Finally, the negative impact of the war on trade in the province was determined by the decrease in agricultural production available to the market, as a result, on the one hand, of requisitions and, on the other hand, of extraordinary labour obligations for the benefit of the army, which kept away peasants from agricultural works. The decrease in the volume of foreign trade, as a result of the prohibitions, determined the decrease of the province’s income and the impoverishment of the traders. The measures adopted by the tsarist authorities to remedy the situation had limited effects and could not stop the exodus of commercial capital from the province.