CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



PRINCIPLES OF COMMERCE. 



The practice of commerce is in a great measure 

 dependent on mutual good faith, and the integrity 

 of seller and buyer, and can never permanently 

 flourish where these fundamental qualities are 

 wanting. The first or great leading quality, 

 therefore, in the character of a merchant ought 

 to be scrupulous honesty in word and deed. 

 The article which he proposes to dispose of must 

 be exactly what he declares it to be, not inferior, 

 nor in any respect unsound in its nature. If it 

 possess any blemishes, these must be announced 

 to the buyer before the bargain is concluded. 

 The merchant is not less called on to be faithful 

 in the fulfilment of all promises which he may 

 make, whether with respect to goods or their 

 payment ; because those to whom the promises 

 have been made, may on that account have made 

 similar promises to others, and therefore the 

 breaking of a single promise may prove injurious 

 in every link of a whole train of transactions. 

 Perfect honesty or integrity is a fundamental 

 principle of trade ; and the next most important 

 principles are strict regularity in all proceedings, 

 according to established usage, and steady per- 

 severance. The merchant must give regular 

 attendance during the hours of business ; be 

 regular in executing all orders and answering all 

 letters ; regular in the keeping of his books, and 

 in the reckoning of his stock and moneys : in 

 short, he must be methodic and careful in all 

 branches of his concerns, for without this atten- 

 tion, the best business must become confused, 

 and be ultimately ruined. What is true of indi- 

 viduals, holds true also when applied to a whole 

 nation. No people have ever attained opulence 

 and high mercantile consideration who have not 

 possessed a character for integrity and regularity 

 in all their dealings. 



Besides these indispensable qualities in the 

 character of a merchant or tradesman, there is 

 required a happy combination of enterprise and 

 prudence with the utmost coolness enterprise 

 to embrace favourable opportunities of buying 

 and selling, and prudence and coolness to restrain 

 from engaging in over-hazardous and ruinous 

 speculations. In all his transactions, the man of 

 business is understood to proceed upon a cool, 

 inflexible principle of doing that which is most 

 advantageous for himself, without fear or favour ; 

 because in commerce each party is supposed to 

 be governed by motives of self-interest always 

 within the rules of honesty and propriety and is 

 under no obligation to deal from mere personal 

 regard, or any kind of friendly consideration. 

 In commerce, there is, strictly speaking, no 

 friendship, in the ordinary acceptation of the 

 term. If there be friendship among the parties 

 concerned, it is aloof from business transactions 

 a matter of private arrangement and is only to 

 be regarded as so being. On this account, even 

 among the most intimate friends, there must be 

 an exact mode of dealing, and the most accurate 

 counting and reckoning. 



The British, for several centuries, seem to have 

 been endowed above all other nations with those 

 qualities of mind which are suitable for the con- 

 ducting of commerce on an enlarged and liberal 

 scale. Their integrity, persevering industry, 

 enterprise, prudence, and liberality of sentiment 



482 



have never been excelled, although not unfre- 

 quently, and more especially in times of com- 

 mercial excitement, a great want of integrity, and 

 a great degree of recklessness, have, in excep- 

 tional cases, manifested themselves. In patient 

 industry, they have been rivalled by the Dutch ; 

 but in point of enterprise and liberality, that 

 people have fallen far short of them, and their 

 trade has languished accordingly. The British 

 are pre-eminently a commercial as well as a 

 manufacturing people. Taking them generally, 

 they possess a spirit of restless industry, which 

 renders them actually unhappy unless when busily 

 engaged in some pursuit calculated to enrich them, 

 or at least to produce for their families the means 

 of a respectable subsistence. The Americans, 

 who are but a branch of the same British stock, 

 are equally remarkable for this fervent spirit of 

 industry ; and though only set up as a separate 

 nation within a comparatively recent period, and 

 less distinguished for their integrity and prudence 

 than the English, have already distanced many 

 of those dignified European principalities and 

 powers which first discovered and colonised their 

 country. The French, the Germans, the Spaniards, 

 the Portuguese, the Italians, and others, though 

 each possessing some extent of manufactures and 

 commerce, are obviously deficient in the eager 

 spirit of industry which is so characteristic of the 

 people of Great Britain. 



COMMERCIAL TERMS AND TRANSACTIONS. 



The following explanations of the principal 

 terms used in commerce will illustrate the mode 

 of conducting business transactions : 



Firm. Every business, whether private or 

 public, is conducted under a specified designation 

 or title, called the name of the firm. This name 

 may be that of an individual to whom the 

 business belongs, or of two or more individuals, 

 or any title which it may be found advisable to 

 adopt Sometimes the name of a firm remains 

 long after all who are indicated by it are dead, or, 

 if alive, have ceased to hold any interest in it 

 the new proprietor, or new partners, retaining the 

 old and well-known title of the firm, with the view 

 of preserving its business connections, or ' the 

 good-will of the business,' as the phrase is. A 

 particular firm or business concern is sometimes 

 personified in the term house as, Such a house 

 does a great deal of business, &c. 



Company. Two or more individuals engaged 

 in one business constitute a company or copart- 

 nery, each individual being called a partner. 

 Companies are of two kinds private and public. 



The following remarks upon companies are 

 more immediately applicable to those in Great 

 Britain than elsewhere; but they are in a great 

 degree, and generally speaking, also applicable to 

 those existing in other quarters of the commercial 

 world. 



A private company is organised by a private 

 arrangement among the partners, each having 

 certain duties to perform, and a certain share in 

 the concern. It is generally arranged, at starting 

 the company, that it shall subsist for a definite 

 period ; so that, at its expiry, if the parties do not 

 agree to continue it, the company is dissolved, 

 and its affairs wound up. 



The profits or losses of partnerships are divided 



