400 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Population 



This was the most elaborate work on Exchanges in English to date, and 

 has been quoted by all subsequent treatises. International exchange 

 had come to play increasingly a prominent role in business, and this 

 book did invaluable service. Alexander Justice in 1707 seconded 

 this "Stile" by a "General Treatise on Monies and Exchanges:" 

 he had had "Yeares Experience ... in that way of Business." 



Another kindred class of books was pubhshed by such writers as 

 Hatton,^ Hayes,- Webb,^ Fisher,^ and others. These were every-day 

 business guides more serviceable to the tradesman than the merchant. 

 They contained systems of bookkeeping and accounting, forms of 

 commercial paper, summaries of commercial law, examples of busi- 

 ness correspondence, etc. Another class of writers catering to the 

 tradesmen were the newspaper and magazine pubhshers, such as 

 John Houghton in his Husbandry and Trade, 1688-90, which con- 

 tained weekly reports of the custom house, of merchants and their 

 imports, of prices of stocks on the Exchange, etc. 



Such theoretical merchant writers as Mun, North, Child, Gary, 

 Gantillon, Postlethwayt, Defoe and numerous others created a na- 

 tional and international interest in commerce, raised the merchant 

 to a sphere of political importance, secured governmental cooperation, 

 and were the most influential agents in fixing international polic}-. 

 The theory and practice of Mercantilism took their finest touches 

 through these writers' pens and ships. 



SOCIAL POSITION. 



In the medieval period the landed interests predominated in wealth, 

 influence and respectability. The tradesmen's business, in this age 

 of direct exchange at public markets, was regarded in some cases as 

 parasitic and sinful.^ There was generally in pubUc opinion and 

 esteem a predisposition in favor of the agricultural folk and the 

 hereditary landed gentry and nobiUty. The merchant class were 

 generally outside the pale of the highest social recognition.^ From 



1 Hatton, Merchants' Magazine. 



- Hayes, Negociator's Magazine. 



^ Webb, The Complete Negociator. 



•* Fisher, The Instructor. 



^ See Ashley, Ec. Hist., I, 144, for an exposition of the public opinion of that day 

 with respect to the tradesman class. 



^ A curious but interesting remark by Pococke, about 17.S0 with respect to Pres- 

 ton brings out this prejudice: "This town subsists ... by many families of 

 middling fortune who live in it, and it is remarkable for old maids, because these 

 families will not ally with tradesmen, and ha\-e not sufficient fortunes for gentle- 

 men." Pococke, I, 12. 



