Middlemen in English Business 395 



rience of trade. "^ Another valued "die kaufmannishen Grund- 

 satzen der Ehrlichkeit, der Ordnung und der Sparsamkeit. " Burke 

 ascribed the success of traders to " sharp and vigorous understandings" 

 and "the virtues of diligence, order, constancy, and regularity" and 

 to having "cultivated an habitual regard to commutative justice."' 

 These quotations agree in assigning the merchant special qualities 

 of mind and temperament and broad experience with the world. It 

 was then a contemporary opinion that the English merchants were 

 more educated and cultivated than foreign merchants.^ Defoe, in 

 explaining why banks, stocks, insurance, etc., were originated by the 

 merchant class, held the "true-bred merchant the most intelligent 

 man in the world, and consequently the most capable when urged by 

 necessity to contrive new ways to live."^ This vigor of mind and dar- 

 ing spirit was evident in the fact that "the richest, most active, indus- 

 trious, thriving part of the Tradesmen" were of the non-conformist 

 type in the seventeenth century.^ Travel, experience with men, 

 and ventures in commerce, stimulated "sharp and vigorous under- 

 standings." Mercantile Ufe required broad learning, acute judgment 

 and reflective mind.^ The subjects in which proficiency of knowledge 

 and use was essential were many.' He had to be able to use commer- 

 cial papers, as bills of exchange, bills receivable and payable, policies 

 of insurance, letters of attorney, receipts, protests, charter-parties, 

 contracts of partnership, charters corporate. Bookkeeping and 

 accountancy and accessory branches of mathematics; local and for- 

 eign weights, measures and coins; commercial law and customs; 

 technical knowledge of commerce and banking facilities; physical and 

 commercial geography; processes, methods and materials of produc- 

 tion; statistics; knowledge of public affairs and public law; sound 

 knowledge of English and commercial correspondence; accjuaintance 

 with the best markets for particular goods ; factorage and commission ; 

 navigation; etc., etc., — all these but intimate how comprehensive 

 must be the learning and interests of the "Universal Merchant" and 

 "Complete Tradesman." 



1 Child, Brief Observations, I. 



2 Burke, Works, VI, 218. 



3 Br. Mer., XXXVII-XXXVIII. 

 ^ Defoe, Projects, 3i. 



5 "Et a dracone," 9; Petty, Pol. Arith., 26 (I, 263, Hull ed.). 



''- See Richard, II, 441-2, for the merchant's mental outfit. 



^ The fullest discussions of the proper education of a merchant are given in 

 Postlethwayt, Diet., s. v. Mercantile College; Roberts, Map, 17-18; Levi, Educa- 

 tion of the Merchant; Defoe, Com. Eng. Tr., I, 3. 



