386 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Popuhitioji 



got "20 dayes or a moneths respite" in their purchases abroad.^ The 

 EngHsh sugar merchants loaned to the planters at a lower rate than 

 could be procured in the West Indies, and thus gained such an eco- 

 nomic control over them as to force their trade to English ports.- 

 The EngUsh had a similar dominion over the Portugese trade by keep- 

 ing the merchants of that country constantly in debt to them to the 

 amount of 2,500,000 reis.^ 



Another common use of credit was to increase the stock of young 

 merchants and tradesman as they started in business. It was almost 

 impossible for a young man without capital to get a start except by 

 borrowing. In Scotland a system of "cash credits" was developed 

 for this purpose.-* The increase of stock by credit, or the doing of 

 business on borrowed funds, made business more speculative,^ but 

 was the basis for a great increase in the volume of trade done.*^ The 

 Bank of England did not accomodate the small tradesman as much as 

 was designed in this respect," and the business Avas done by priA'ate 

 bankers. 



Another and most important use of credit is the transmission of 

 money. To the merchant and trading class this service has become 

 a thing indispensable in their business activity. The development 

 of the transmission of money depended upon the amount of this kind 

 of business done. Exchange did not give rise to trade, but trade gave 

 rise to exchange; after trade was estabhshed, however, the introduc- 

 tion of exchange extended trade. To the degree that English com- 

 merce, foreign and domestic, increased in any period it may be as- 

 sumed that exchange, after it was originated, increased. 



Exchange is the most intricate part of commerce — "the greatest 

 and weightiest Mystery that is found in the whole Map of Trade. "'^ 

 Yet it was introduced into Enghsh foreign commerce in the early days 

 while its \-olvmie was small. Bills of exchange were apparently 

 introduced from abroad before the fifteenth century.^ The Merchant 



1 "Way for Enriching," 11-12. 



- "State of the Sugar Trade,'' 6, 14. 



^ Beawes, Lex Mer. Red., 624. 



* See advantages pointed out by Hume, Essays, I, 339. 



* "Vindication of the Bank," 85. 



« Defoe, Com. Eng. Tr., I, 267-8; H. M., Eng. Glory, 27, 65; "Credit of our 

 Government," 4. 



^ Defoe, Projects, 47; "Reasons of the Decay," 15-6. 



* Scarlett, Stile, preface. 



^ Cf. Lawson, 23-4. The various operations of the exchange business of the 

 ^Merchants of the Staple are illustrated in the Cely Letters between 1475-88. 



