126 Introduction 



industries; in each group that product in the handling of which the 

 middlemen organization reached the highest development is selected 

 for most consideration, and the other products of the group are 

 briefly summarized. Throughout the work considerable attention 

 is paid to the accessories of commerce which were originated, devel- 

 oped and employed by the middlemen in performing their business. 

 The technique of commerce is not intelligible wdthout knowledge of 

 the various accessories which facilitated it and by means of which the 

 middlemen agents performed their operations. The middleman was 

 the correlating factor in a group of organically and genetically re- 

 lated businesses constituting the mechanism of commerce. To under- 

 stand his position requires an interpretation embracing his relations 

 to the transmission of wares, persons and intelligence; his relations 

 to and employment of capital and credit; his situation geograph- 

 ically and socially. Chapter VII treats in a more general way the 

 merchant and tradesman class as an economic, social and political 

 element of the population. The writer realizes only too well that 

 Chapter VII has less merit than the previous Chapters. Many of 

 the topics are too general for definite and full treatment in the com- 

 pass of this book; many lack the precision which makes detailed 

 history possible; many are so mingled with social and political affairs 

 that the economic phase can scarcely be extricated; many, as im- 

 portant topics as those given, are necessarily left untreated. Many 

 generalizations are drawn for which comprehensive substantiating 

 data are not given or cannot be had; the consequence is that they 

 are more disputable. Writers are devoting much attention to social 

 and economic correlations of political history, and this field will 

 undoubtedly be quite fully developed in the near future. With a 

 realization of these and many other shortcomings the seventh chap- 

 ter is given more as a supplement than as an integral part of the 

 book. 



As will be shown in the last chapter the mercantile and trading 

 class has been subject to much opposition from both the producers 

 and consumers. National and municipal legislation joined with 

 social usage to make the way of the middleman undesirable. The 

 church and gild presumed to do his functions in a collective man- 

 ner and render him unnecessary. Writers on social and economic 

 questions were usually adverse to his interposition between pro- 

 ducer and consumer. This was more particularly true of the medi- 

 eval and Continental writers. The theory that middlemen were 

 an unproductive and therefore an undesirable class did not gain 



