Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
August,  19 19.  J 
Commercial  Ethics. 
533 
in  the  transaction.  Or  having  chanced  a  trade  in  the  hope  of  finding 
profit  and  then  being  disappointed,  he  will  not  continue  to  trade  in 
that  particular  direction.  Repeat  indentures,  whether  between  indi- 
viduals or  between  nations,  depend  wholly  and  exclusively  upon  an 
equity  of  satisfaction  continuously  felt  and  frankly  acknowledged. 
Although  this  is  so  obvious  as  to  be  almost  trite,  yet  we  must  be 
ever  and  always  reminded  of  it  when  we  discuss  our  commercial 
relations  with  other  nations  of  the  great  Pan-American  Union,  be- 
cause traders  north  and  south  are  likely  to  be  thinking  of  orders 
only,  the  passage  of  merchandise  in  volume,  and  not  the  spirit  which 
creates  the  trade. 
Commercial  Trickery  Bad  Salesmanship — Repeat  Orders 
Essential  to  Success. 
There  is  a  belief  among  the  cynical  ones  of  commerce  that  the 
hungry  buyer  will  favor  with  his  orders  any  business  house  or 
nation  which  quotes  low  prices  regardless  of  the  seller's  lack  of 
known  reliability.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  in  the  Far  East,  par- 
ticularly, only  commercial  speculators,  adventurers,  or  pirates  can 
do  business,  because  they  expect  to  capture  from  each  buyer  one 
order  only  and  are  willing  to  quote  any  low  price  on  any  set  of  speci- 
fications desired,  knowing  perfectly  that  their  goods  are  inferior  and 
will  be  a  disappointment  on  arrival ;  in  other  words,  it  is  the  policy 
of  commercial  trickery.  The  cynic  who  thinks  such  methods  are 
necessary  in  any  part  of  the  world,  simply  because  its  people  want 
inexpensive  goods,  is  not  only  an  ignorant  economist  but  totally 
deficient  in  salesmanship.  As  for  his  morality,  he  might  just  as 
well  propose  to  commit  perjury  in  a  court  of  law;  one  lie  is  as  bad 
as  the  other. 
But,  of  course,  we  are  to  think  primarily  of  the  well-established 
business  man  or  his  concern  whose  object  is  to  build  up  and  maintain 
a  continuously  agreeable  and  profitable  trade.  He  knows  instinc- 
tively that  he  must  have  a  satisfied  customer  all  of  the  time.  The 
initial  expense  of  finding  the  reliable  customer,  whether  he  be  buyer 
or  seller,  frequently  adds  so  much  to  the  overhead  cost  of  the  first 
transaction  that  no  profit  remains,  and  yet  he  has  foreseen  tjiis  and 
is  prepared  to  accept  it  in  favor  of  repeat  business  free  from  con- 
tingency. Sometimes  adverse  conditions  govern  for  a  long  pre- 
liminary period ;  for  instance,  the  financial  state  of  a  foreign  coun- 
