67. Different orders of merchants. They all have this in
common, that they purchase to sell again; and that their traffic
is supported by advances which are to revert with a profit, to be
engaged in new enterprizes.
From the green-woman who exposes her ware in a market, to the
merchants of Nantz or Cadiz, who traffic even to India and
America, the profession of a trader, or what is properly called
commerce, divides into an infinity of branches, and it may be
said of degrees. One trader confines himself to provide one or
several species of commodities which he sells in his shop to
those who chuse; another goes with certain commodities to a place
where they are in demand, to bring from thence in exchange, such
things as are produced there, and are wanted in the place from
whence he departed: one makes his exchanges in his own
neighbourhood, and by himself, another by means of
correspondents, and by the interposition of carriers, whom he
pays, employs, and sends from one province to another, from one
kingdom to another, from Europe to Asia, and from Asia back to
Europe. One sells his merchandize by retail to those who use
them, another only sells in large parcels at a time, to other
traders who retail them out to the consumers: but all have this
in common that they buy to sell again, and that their first
purchases are advances which are returned to them only in course
of time. They ought to be returned to them, like those of the
cultivators and manufacturers, not only within a certain time, to
be employed again in new purchases, but also, 1. with an equal
revenue to what they could acquire with their capital without any
labour; 2. with the value of their labour, of their risk, and of
their industry. Without being assured of this return, and of
these indispensable profits, no trader would enter into business,
nor could any one possibly continue therein: tis in this view he
governs himself in his purchases, on a calculation he makes of
the quantity and the price of the things, which he can hope to
dispose of in a certain time: the retailer learns from
experience, by the success of limited trials made with
precaution, what is nearly the wants of those consumers who deal
with him. The merchant learns from his correspondents, of the
plenty or scarcity, and of the price of merchandize in those
different countries to which his commerce extends; he directs his
speculations accordingly, he sends his goods from the country
where they bear a low price to those where they are sold dearer,
including the expence of transportation in the calculation of the
advances he ought to be reimbursed. Since trade is necessary, and
it is impossible to undertake any commerce without advances
proportionable to its extent; we here see another method of
employing personal property, a new use that the possessor of a
parcel of commodities reserved and accumulated, of a sum of
money, in a word, of a capital, may make of it to procure himself
subsistence, and to augment, his riches.
