332 Tradesman atid Merchant — Commercial Population 



of the Isle. The execution of this inland circulation of trade did not 

 fall mthin the proper province of the merchant who did the maritime 

 branch of wholesale purchases and sales. It was the particular em- 

 ployment of the tradesman to distribute imports from the metropolis 

 and outports throughout the Kingdom and to collect and convey 

 thither the surplus products for exportation to other distributing 

 points. During the period under study, this distinction between 

 "merchant" and "tradesman" was (except in Scotland and Northern 

 dialect) well understood.^ 



The merchant's business consisted in four branches — ^(a) buying 

 and selling for himself or for others on commission, (b) speculating 

 in time and place on merchandise, (c) dealing in money and credit, 

 and (d) insuring goods and ships in transit.- Originally the merchants 

 —the Merchant Adventurers — performed all four. By 1760 the 

 merchant might do one, two, three, or four, of these businesses at the 

 same time, as might suit his interests. 



The tradesmen embraced the wholesalers and retailers of the inland 

 trade. One set assembled and another dispersed the wares: the 

 movement was toward the merchant and wholesaler on the one hand 

 and toward the consumer on the other. The collectors were the 

 buyers, jobbers, clothiers, carriers, etc.; the distributors were the 

 warehousekeepers, the shopkeepers, wholesalers and retailers, factors 

 and carriers, etc. The lines of cleavage for classification of trades- 

 men were (a) the commodity handled, (b) the manner of sale, (c) the 

 residence of the tradesman, and (d) agency. For example, there 

 were (a) grocers, mercers, linen and woolen drapers, tobacconists, 

 hosiers, booksellers, etc.; (b) there were wholesalers and retailers; 

 (c) there were London tradesmen, West-of-England clothiers, Man- 

 chester Men, Leeds factors, etc. ; and (d) there were factors and prin- 

 cipals. Some of the tradesmen were interested in the manufacture 

 of their wares. Some kept shop, some were itinerant; some were 

 exclusive wholesalers, some mingled wholesaling and retailing; some 

 were carriers of their wares, some depended on others for carriage; 



1 Compare the definitions given by Postletiiwayt, Diet., I, in the Dedication 

 (1774) and Defoe, Com. Eng. Tr., I, 2 (1745); II, 207-12, with Roberts, Map of 

 Com., 3 (1638). In Scotland retail shopkeepers were called merchants. In 1733 

 ("Interest of Scotland," 122), "The Business of a retaihng shopkeeper, whom we 

 call a Merchant, is to buy Goods in large Quantities from the Merchant, or the 

 Manufacturer, or, by Commission, from their Factors, and to sell them out in small 

 Quantities to the Use for Home-consumpt." See also Burt, Lett. N. Scotl.. 

 (17.iO), I, 66, and (1798) Monthly Mag., VI, 437 (cited in New Diet.). 



- Ricard, II. 443; MoUoy, De Jure, 419; Defof , Plan of Eng. Com. (preface), IV. 



