AUXILIARY DISTRIBUTION. 379 



good (which it generally does not), he may extend this 

 process so greatly that he becomes mainly a distributor of 

 others produce. Whence the step to one wholly occupied in 

 distribution is easy. 



750. A clue to the rise of shopkeeping in an analogous 

 way, is furnished by some facts from Africa. Negro peoples 

 are in high degrees mercantile, and in sundry cases their 

 assemblings for buying and selling have passed from the 

 periodic stage into the continuous stage. A daily market is 

 held in Loango, which begins at 10 o clock; and in Tim- 

 buctoo &quot; there are no particular market days; the public 

 market for provisions is an open place fifty feet square, and 

 is surrounded by shops.&quot; This last fact implies a ready 

 transition from daily attending market to keeping a perma 

 nent store. For the basket which a Negress brings from a 

 neighbouring village, or the stall which a larger dealer sets 

 up for the day s transactions, differs from the adjacent shop 

 only in the fact that it is removed daily : the shop is a perma 

 nent stall, which in early stages is but half inclosed, as 

 butchers shops are still. Moreover we may see how the 

 shopkeeper becomes differentiated into one who, not selling 

 exclusively his own products, sells the products of others. 

 Among ourselves dealers in perishable articles are often 

 obliged at the close of the day to sell at a sacrifice. Fish 

 mongers, for example, offer remnants to their poorer cus 

 tomers in the evening at low rates. Obviously, then, women 

 who have brought produce to market will at a late hour 

 reduce their prices rather than carry it home and have it 

 spoilt. What occasionally happens? Here around them 

 are persons permanently stationed of w T hom some deal in 

 the same articles; and there must arise the thought that it 

 will be best to part with their surplus at a low rate to one 

 of these stationary dealers. If the bargain is made the 

 dealer becomes a distributor of another s goods. Such an 

 example is sure to be followed, and the process once com- 



