360 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Population 



is not specialist in any, and that the house usually wants an exckisi\'e 

 agency for the principal and the granting of this monopoly may result 

 in limiting the market for the principal's goods. 



Increasingly during the period under study did the merchants of 

 Europe act mutually as factors for each other, until by 1774 it was 

 asserted to be "the universal custom of Merchants of the highest 

 credit, throughout Europe."^ The growth of this system depended 

 upon the development of an international reputation for honor, in- 

 tegrity and worth by the merchants. In the early part of the eight- 

 eenth century, note was taken of the great number of merchants in 

 London "who were solely maintained by Foreigners in Holland, 

 France and other Nations by Factorage" at 2| per cent.- And in 

 1747 Campbell^ said, "Most Merchants are Factors for one 

 another in this" consignment business. These references are indica- 

 tive of a progress toward confidence and credit among the merchants 

 of the several nations. It became the custom of commerce among 

 these merchants of established reputations to have current and com- 

 mission accounts constantly between one another, and they consigned 

 to, drew on, remitted to, and sent commissions to, one another by 

 letter. 



Thus during the century the foreign connections were developed and 

 extended. The merchants began to differentiate, some ser\'ing them- 

 selves only, others acted as factors and merchants and still others 

 pursued the pure commission house business. The increase of com- 

 munication and mutual understanding among the merchants, the 

 specialization of commission merchants, and the very variety of 

 merchants all tended to a larger commerce. 



A difference in the method of doing the American business developed 

 along this line, during the century, between London and the outports. 

 The generahty of the London merchants became consignees of the 

 American planters and sold their produce on commission; with the 

 proceeds they bought East India goods and English manufactures on 

 commission and shipped them as return cargo. In other words, the 

 Londoner became a pure commission house. But in the ports the 

 merchants continued to carry on their commerce with America on 

 their own accounts, and employed factors in the colonies to buy their 



' Postlethwaj-t, Diet., s. v. Factors. 



- "Letter to Maxwell on the Bank," 11; it was the opinion of the writer of the 

 "British Merchant," XXXVI-XXXVII, that the merchants of England, more 

 than of other nations, did business on their own capital and less as factors. 



3 Campbell, 288. 



