Child auction

Child auction (, ) was a historical practice in Sweden and Finland during the 19th and early 20th centuries, in which orphan and poor children were boarded out in auctions. 
The children were handed over to the person asking least money from the authorities. The compensation was determined in descending English auctions, where the children were present. The lowest bidder became the child's foster-parent and was compensated with an annual amount equal to his bid. The foster-parents provided the child the housing, upbringing and education, but the children were often used as a child labour. Specially in the Finnish countryside the children sold in the auctions usually lived in a slavery-like conditions. They were also mistreated.
Child auctions were prohibited in Sweden in 1918 and in Finland in 1923. Although, auctions were still organized in Finland until the late 1930s. The last known child auction was held in 1935. Some of the children were still living with their foster-parents in the 1940s.
Among the notable people who were sold in the child auctions are the Swedish politician Fredrik Vilhelm Thorsson, who later became the Minister for Finance of Sweden, the Finnish politicians Eino Kujanpää and Jukka Lankila, and the Finnish author Joel Lehtonen.
Similar practices were also carried out in other European countries, like the "Verdingkinder" institution in Switzerland.