Middlemen in English Business 399 



these marks.' The merchants of any considerable value in commerce 

 were known internationally by their "Marks." Dudley North, 

 though he exercised some of the most indirect practices, always gave 

 the most careful consideration to prevent frauds and cheats. "No 

 solicitation or means whatsoever could prevail with him to cover or 

 connive."- 



However, alreadv in the sixteenth century the merchant and trades- 

 man had acquired a notorious name for fraudulent business habits, 

 Piers Ploughman assigned his seUing powers to "the grace of guile 

 gone among" his wares.^ "To play the Merchant with" was synon- 

 ymous with cheating, and "to have Merchant's ears" meant to affect 

 not to hear when the terms of bargains proved disadvantageous.-" 

 That such reputation should attach to the tradesman class is not 

 strange when the whole medieval theory of life and pubUc opinion 

 were adverse to their business. The frauds of the worse elements of 

 the class were sufificient cause to perpetuate the epithet long after the 

 maxim of honor and honesty had come to prevail among the better. 



The merchants aided their fellows and descendants by their practical 

 and theoretical writings on trade and commerce. It is impossible 

 and not desirable to make an inclusive list of the valuable publica- 

 tions of English merchants: a few illustrations only are to be men- 

 tioned. In 1638 Lewis Roberts, a merchant of wide experience and 

 secretary of the Levant Company dedicated his "Map of Commerce" 

 to the Harveys, five of the seven Harveys being merchants and his 

 patrons in his early life. The tributes paid to Roberts by his con- 

 temporary merchants and men of the world signify the great use of 

 his "Map." It was replete with the most useful data, giving the 

 detail of the technique of commerce, the products and wares, and maps 

 of a high degree of excellence. Thereafter the geographical contour 

 of the world of trade was pretty well determined. John Scarlett, a 

 Merchant of the Eastland Company, in 1682 published his "Stile oi 

 Exchanges, containing both their Law and Custom as Practiced now 

 in the most considerable places of Exchange in Europe," especially 

 written for the direction and convenience of the merchant classes. 



1 MoUoy, De Jure, 420. 



2 North, Lives, II, 147, 150. 



^ Langland, Piers Ploughman, Pass. VII, 213-14. (Citation given in the New 

 Dictionary.) Much of the fortune of such renowned and philanthropic merchants 

 as Sir Thomas Gresham was gained by fraud, usury and high finance. His busi- 

 ness methods were none too honorable. Hall, Eliz. Soc, 58, 63-7. 



^ For these uses see Nash, Christ's Tears, 83; Rowley, New Wonder, IV, I, 51 ; 

 Lyly, I, I., 169; Rojas, II, 7. (Citations given in the New Dictionary.) 



