The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.) by Daniel Defoe

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THE COMPLETE ENGLISH TRADESMAN

BY

_DANIEL DEFOE_

[LONDON 1726, EDINBURGH 1839]

CONTENTS

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I
THE TRADESMAN IN HIS PREPARATIONS WHILE AN APPRENTICE

CHAPTER II
THE TRADESMAN'S WRITING LETTERS

CHAPTER III
THE TRADING STYLE

CHAPTER IV
OF THE TRADESMAN ACQUAINTING HIMSELF WITH ALL BUSINESS IN GENERAL

CHAPTER V
DILIGENCE AND APPLICATION IN BUSINESS

CHAPTER VI
OVER-TRADING

CHAPTER VII
OF THE TRADESMAN IN DISTRESS, AND BECOMING BANKRUPT

CHAPTER VIII
THE ORDINARY OCCASIONS OF THE RUIN OF TRADESMEN

CHAPTER IX
OF OTHER REASONS FOR THE TRADESMAN'S DISASTERS: AND, FIRST, OF INNOCENT
DIVERSIONS

CHAPTER X
OF EXTRAVAGANT AND EXPENSIVE LIVING; ANOTHER STEP TO A TRADESMAN'S
DISASTER

CHAPTER XI
OF THE TRADESMAN'S MARRYING TOO SOON

CHAPTER XII
OF THE TRADESMAN'S LEAVING HIS BUSINESS TO SERVANTS

CHAPTER XIII
OF TRADESMEN MAKING COMPOSITION WITH DEBTORS, OR WITH CREDITORS

CHAPTER XIV
OF THE UNFORTUNATE TRADESMAN COMPOUNDING WITH HIS CREDITORS

CHAPTER XV
OF TRADESMEN RUINING ONE ANOTHER BY RUMOUR AND CLAMOUR, BY SCANDAL AND
REPROACH

CHAPTER XVI
OF THE TRADESMAN'S ENTERING INTO PARTNERSHIP IN TRADE, AND THE MANY
DANGERS ATTENDING IT

CHAPTER XVII
OF HONESTY IN DEALING, AND LYING

CHAPTER XVIII
OF THE CUSTOMARY FRAUDS OF TRADE, WHICH HONEST MEN ALLOW THEMSELVES TO
PRACTISE, AND PRETEND TO JUSTIFY

CHAPTER XIX
OF FINE SHOPS, AND FINE SHOWS

CHAPTER XX
OF THE TRADESMAN'S KEEPING HIS BOOKS, AND CASTING UP HIS SHOP

CHAPTER XXI
OF THE TRADESMAN LETTING HIS WIFE BE ACQUAINTED WITH HIS BUSINESS

CHAPTER XXII
OF THE DIGNITY OF TRADE IN ENGLAND MORE THAN IN OTHER COUNTRIES

CHAPTER XXIII
OF THE INLAND TRADE OF ENGLAND, ITS MAGNITUDE, AND THE GREAT ADVANTAGE
IT IS TO THE NATION IN GENERAL

CHAPTER XXIV
OF CREDIT IN TRADE, AND HOW A TRADESMAN OUGHT TO VALUE AND IMPROVE IT:
HOW EASILY LOST, AND HOW HARD IT IS TO BE RECOVERED

CHAPTER XXV
OF THE TRADESMAN'S PUNCTUAL PAYING HIS BILLS AND PROMISSORY NOTES UNDER
HIS HAND, AND THE CREDIT HE GAINS BY IT

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

The title of this work is an index of the performance. It is a
collection of useful instructions for a young tradesman. The world is
grown so wise of late, or (if you will) fancy themselves so, are so
_opiniatre_, as the French well express it, so self-wise, that I expect
some will tell us beforehand they know every thing already, and want
none of my instructions; and to such, indeed, these instructions are not
written.

Had I not, in a few years' experience, seen many young tradesmen
miscarry, for want of those very cautions which are here given, I should
have thought this work needless, and I am sure had never gone about to
write it; but as the contrary is manifest, I thought, and think still,
the world greatly wanted it.

And be it that those unfortunate creatures that have thus blown
themselves up in trade, have miscarried for want of knowing, or for want
of practising, what is here offered for their direction, whether for
want of wit, or by too much wit, the thing is the same, and the
direction is equally needful to both.

An old experienced pilot sometimes loses a ship by his assurance and
over confidence of his knowledge, as effectually as a young pilot does
by his ignorance and want of experience--this very thing, as I have been
informed, was the occasion of the fatal disaster in which Sir Cloudesley
Shovel, and so many hundred brave fellows, lost their lives in a moment
upon the rocks of Scilly.[1]

He that is above informing himself when he is in danger, is above pity
when he miscarries--a young tradesman who sets up thus full of himself,
and scorning advice from those who have gone before him, like a horse
that rushes into the battle, is only fearless of danger because he does
not understand it.

If there is not something extraordinary in the temper and genius of the
tradesmen of this age, if there is not something very singular in their
customs and methods, their conduct and behaviour in business; also, if
there is not something different and more dangerous and fatal in the
common road of trading, and tradesmen's management now, than ever was
before, what is the reason that there are so many bankrupts and broken
tradesmen now among us, more than ever were known before? I make no
doubt but there is as much trade now, and as much gotten by trading, as
there ever was in this nation, at least in our memory; and if we will
allow other people to judge, they will tell us there is much more trade,
and trade is much more gainful; what, then, must be the reason that the
tradesmen cannot live on their trades, cannot keep open their shops,
cannot maintain themselves and families, as well now as they could
before? Something extraordinary must be the case.

There must be some failure in the tradesman--it can be nowhere
else--either he is less sober and less frugal, less cautious of what he
does, whom he trusts, how he lives, and how he behaves, than tradesmen
used to be, or he is less industrious, less diligent, and takes less
care and pains in his business, or something is the matter; it cannot be
but if he had the same gain, and but the same expense which the former
ages suffered tradesmen to thrive with, he would certainly thrive as
they did. There must be something out of order in the foundation; he
must fail in the essential part, or he would not fail in his trade. The
same causes would have the same effects in all ages; the same gain, and
but the same expense, would just leave him in the same place as it would
have left his predecessor in the same shop; and yet we see one grow
rich, and the other starve, under the very same circumstances.

The temper of the times explains the case to every body that pleases but
to look into it. The expenses of a family are quite different now from
what they have been. Tradesmen cannot live as tradesmen in the same
class used to live; custom, and the manner of all the tradesmen round
them, command a difference; and he that will not do as others do, is
esteemed as nobody among them, and the tradesman is doomed to ruin by
the fate of the times.

In short, there is a fate upon a tradesman; either he must yield to the
snare of the times, or be the jest of the times; the young tradesman
cannot resist it; he must live as others do, or lose the credit of
living, and be run down as if he were bankrupt. In a word, he must spend
more than he can afford to spend, and so be undone; or not spend it, and
so be undone.

If he lives as others do, he breaks, because he spends more than he
gets; if he does not, he breaks too, because he loses his credit, and
that is to lose his trade. What must he do?[2]

The following directions are calculated for this exigency, and to
prepare the young tradesman to stem the attacks of those fatal customs,
which otherwise, if he yields to them, will inevitably send him the way
of all the thoughtless tradesmen that have gone before him.

Here he will be effectually, we hope, encouraged to set out well; to
begin wisely and prudently; and to avoid all those rocks which the gay
race of tradesmen so frequently suffer shipwreck upon. And here he will
have a true plan of his own prosperity drawn out for him, by which, if
it be not his own fault, he may square his conduct in an unerring
manner, and fear neither bad fortune nor bad friends. I had purposed to
give a great many other cautions and directions in this work, but it
would have spun it out too far, and have made it tedious. I would indeed
have discoursed of some branches of home trade, which necessarily
embarks the inland tradesman in some parts of foreign business, and so
makes a merchant of the shopkeeper almost whether he will or no. For
example, almost all the shopkeepers and inland traders in seaport towns,
or even in the water-side part of London itself, are necessarily brought
in to be owners of ships, and concerned at least in the vessel, if not
in the voyage. Some of their trades, perhaps, relate to, or are employed
in, the building, or fitting, or furnishing out ships, as is the case at
Shoreham, at Ipswich, Yarmouth, Hull, Whitby, Newcastle, and the like.
Others are concerned in the cargoes, as in the herring fishery at
Yarmouth and the adjacent ports, the colliery at Newcastle, Sunderland,
&c., and the like in many other cases.

In this case, the shopkeeper is sometimes a merchant adventurer, whether
he will or not, and some of his business runs into sea-adventures, as in
the salt trade at Sheffield, in Northumberland, and Durham, and again at
Limington; and again in the coal trade, from Whitehaven in Cumberland to
Ireland, and the like.

These considerations urged me to direct due cautions to such tradesmen,
and such as would be particular to them, especially not to launch out in
adventures beyond the compass of their stocks,[3] and withal to manage
those things with due wariness. But this work had not room for those
things; and as that sort of amphibious tradesmen, for such they are,
trading both by water and by land, are not of the kind with those
particularly aimed at in these sheets, I thought it was better to leave
them quite out than to touch but lightly upon them.

I had also designed one chapter or letter to my inland tradesmen, upon
the most important subject of borrowing money upon interest, which is
one of the most dangerous things a tradesman is exposed to. It is a
pleasant thing to a tradesman to see his credit rise, and men offer him
money to trade with, upon so slender a consideration as five per cent.
interest, when he gets ten per cent. perhaps twice in the year; but it
is a snare of the most dangerous kind in the event, and has been the
ruin of so many tradesmen, that, though I had not room for it in the
work, I could not let it pass without this notice in the preface.

1. Interest-money eats deep into the tradesman's profits, because it is
a payment certain, whether the tradesman gets or loses, and as he may
often get double, so sometimes he loses, and then his interest is a
double payment; it is a partner with him under this unhappy
circumstance, namely, that it goes halves when he gains, but not when he
loses.

2. The lender calls for his money when he pleases, and often comes for
it when the borrower can ill spare it; and then, having launched out in
trade on the supposition of so much in stock, he is left to struggle
with the enlarged trade with a contracted stock, and thus he sinks under
the weight of it, cannot repay the money, is dishonoured, prosecuted,
and at last undone, by the very loan which he took in to help him.
Interest of money is a dead weight upon the tradesman, and as the
interest always keeps him low, the principal sinks him quite down, when
that comes to be paid out again. Payment of interest, to a tradesman, is
like Cicero bleeding to death in a warm bath;[4] the pleasing warmth of
the bath makes him die in a kind of dream, and not feel himself decay,
till at last he is exhausted, falls into convulsions, and expires.

A tradesman held up by money at interest, is sure to sink at last by the
weight of it, like a man thrown into the sea with a stone tied about his
neck, who though he could swim if he was loose, drowns in spite of all
his struggle.

Indeed, this article would require not a letter, but a book by itself;
and the tragical stories of tradesmen undone by usury are so many, and
the variety so great, that they would make a history by themselves. But
it must suffice to treat it here only in general, and give the tradesmen
a warning of it, as the Trinity-house pilots warn sailors of a sand, by
hanging a buoy upon it, or as the Eddystone light-house upon a sunk
rock, which, as the poet says, 'Bids men stand off, and live; come near,
and die.'

For a tradesman to borrow money upon interest, I take to be like a man
going into a house infected with the plague; it is not only likely that
he may be infected and die, but next to a miracle if he escapes.

This part being thus hinted at, I think I may say of the following
sheets, that they contain all the directions needful to make the
tradesman thrive; and if he pleases to listen to them with a temper of
mind willing to be directed, he must have some uncommon ill luck if he
miscarries.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] [October 22, 1707.--Admiral Shovel, with the confederate fleet from
the Mediterranean, as he was coming home, apprehended himself near the
rocks of Scilly about noon, and the weather being hazy, he brought to
and lay by till evening, when he made a signal for sailing. What induced
him to be more cautious in the day than in the night is not known; but
the fleet had not been long under sail before his own ship, the
_Association_, with the _Eagle_ and _Romney_, were dashed to pieces upon
the rocks called the _Bishop and his Clerks_, and all their men lost;
the _Ferdinand_ was also cast away, and but twenty-four of her men
saved. Admiral Byng, perceiving the misfortune, altered his course,
whereby he preserved himself and the rest of the fleet which sailed
after him.--_Salmon's Chronological Historian_. London, 1723.]

[2] [There is much reason for receiving all such complaints as the above
with caution. The extravagance of the present, in contrast with the
frugality of a past age, has always been a favourite topic of
declamation, and appears to have no other foundation than whim. Indeed,
it is next to impossible that any great body of men could exist in the
circumstances described in the text.]

[3] [Stock is in this book invariably used for what we express by the
term _capital_.]

[4] [Cicero is here given by mistake for Seneca, who thus suffered death
by order of the tyrant Nero.]

INTRODUCTION

Being to direct this discourse to the tradesmen of this nation, it is
needful, in order to make the substance of this work and the subject of
it agree together, that I should in a few words explain the terms, and
tell the reader who it is we understand by the word tradesman, and how
he is to be qualified in order to merit the title of _complete_.

This is necessary, because the said term tradesman is understood by
several people, and in several places, in a different manner: for
example, in the north of Britain, and likewise in Ireland, when you say
a tradesman, you are understood to mean a mechanic, such as a smith, a
carpenter, a shoemaker, and the like, such as here we call a
handicraftsman. In like manner, abroad they call a tradesman such only
as carry goods about from town to town, and from market to market, or
from house to house, to sell; these in England we call petty chapmen, in
the north pethers, and in our ordinary speech pedlars.

But in England, and especially in London, and the south parts of
Britain, we take it in another sense, and in general, all sorts of
warehouse-keepers, shopkeepers, whether wholesale dealers or retailers
of goods, are called tradesmen, or, to explain it by another word,
trading men: such are, whether wholesale or retail, our grocers,
mercers, linen and woollen drapers, Blackwell-hall factors,
tobacconists, haberdashers, whether of hats or small wares, glovers,
hosiers, milliners, booksellers, stationers, and all other shopkeepers,
who do not actually work upon, make, or manufacture, the goods they
sell.

On the other hand, those who make the goods they sell, though they do
keep shops to sell them, are not called tradesmen, but handicrafts, such
as smiths, shoemakers, founders, joiners, carpenters, carvers, turners,
and the like; others, who only make, or cause to be made, goods for
other people to sell, are called manufacturers and artists, &c. Thus
distinguished, I shall speak of them all as occasion requires, taking
this general explication to be sufficient; and I thus mention it to
prevent being obliged to frequent and further particular descriptions as
I go on.

As there are several degrees of people employed in trade below these,
such as workmen, labourers, and servants, so there is a degree of
traders above them, which we call merchants; where it is needful to
observe, that in other countries, and even in the north of Britain and
Ireland, as the handicraftsmen and artists are called tradesmen, so the
shopkeepers whom we here call tradesmen, are all called merchants; nay,
even the very pedlars are called travelling merchants.[5] But in England
the word merchant is understood of none but such as carry on foreign
correspondences, importing the goods and growth of other countries, and
exporting the growth and manufacture of England to other countries; or,
to use a vulgar expression, because I am speaking to and of those who
use that expression, such as trade beyond sea. These in England, and
these only, are called merchants, by way of honourable distinction;
these I am not concerned with in this work, nor is any part of it
directed to them.

As the tradesmen are thus distinguished, and their several occupations
divided into proper classes, so are the trades. The general commerce of
England, as it is the most considerable of any nation in the world, so
that part of it which we call the home or inland trade, is equal, if not
superior, to that of any other nation, though some of those nations are
infinitely greater than England, and more populous also, as France and
Germany in particular.

I insist that the trade of England is greater and more considerable than
that of any other nation, for these reasons: 1. Because England produces
more goods as well for home consumption as for foreign exportation, and
those goods all made of its own produce or manufactured by its own
inhabitants, than any other nation in the world. 2. Because England
consumes within itself more goods of foreign growth, imported from the
several countries where they are produced or wrought, than any other
nation in the world. And--3. Because for the doing this England employs
more shipping and more seamen than any other nation, and, some think,
than all the other nations, of Europe.

Hence, besides the great number of wealthy merchants who carry on this
great foreign _negoce_ [_negotium_ (Latin) business], and who, by their
corresponding with all parts of the world, import the growth of all
countries hither--I say, besides these, we have a very great number of
considerable dealers, whom we call tradesmen, who are properly called
warehouse-keepers, who supply the merchants with all the several kinds
of manufactures, and other goods of the produce of England, for
exportation; and also others who are called wholesalemen, who buy and
take off from the merchants all the foreign goods which they import;
these, by their corresponding with a like sort of tradesmen in the
country, convey and hand forward those goods, and our own also, among
those country tradesmen, into every corner of the kingdom, however
remote, and by them to the retailers, and by the retailer to the last
consumer, which is the last article of all trade. These are the
tradesmen understood in this work, and for whose service these sheets
are made public.

Having thus described the person whom I understand by the English
tradesman, it is then needful to inquire into his qualifications, and
what it is that renders him a finished or complete man in his business.

1. That he has a general knowledge of not his own particular trade and
business only--that part, indeed, well denominates a handicraftsman to
be a complete artist; but our complete tradesman ought to understand all
the inland trade of England, so as to be able to turn his hand to any
thing, or deal in any thing or every thing of the growth and product of
his own country, or the manufacture of the people, as his circumstances
in trade or other occasions may require; and may, if he sees occasion,
lay down one trade and take up another when he pleases, without serving
a new apprenticeship to learn it.

2. That he not only has a knowledge of the species or kinds of goods,
but of the places and peculiar countries where those goods, whether
product or manufacture, are to be found; that is to say, where produced
or where made, and how to come at them or deal in them, at the first
hand, and to his best advantage.

3. That he understands perfectly well all the methods of
correspondence, returning money or goods for goods, to and from every
county in England; in what manner to be done, and in what manner most to
advantage; what goods are generally bought by barter and exchange, and
what by payment of money; what for present money, and what for time;
what are sold by commission from the makers, what bought by factors, and
by giving commission to buyers in the country, and what bought by orders
to the maker, and the like; what markets are the most proper to buy
every thing at, and where and when; and what fairs are proper to go to
in order to buy or sell, or meet the country dealer at, such as
Sturbridge, Bristol, Chester, Exeter; or what marts, such as Beverly,
Lynn, Boston, Gainsborough, and the like.

In order to complete the English tradesman in this manner, the first
thing to be done is lay down such general maxims of trade as are fit for
his instruction, and then to describe the English or British product,
being the fund of its inland trade, whether we mean its produce as the
growth of the country, or its manufactures, as the labour of her people;
then to acquaint the tradesman with the manner of the circulation where
those things are found, how and by what methods all those goods are
brought to London, and from London again conveyed into the country;
where they are principally bought at best hand, and most to the
advantage of the buyer, and where the proper markets are to dispose of
them again when bought.

These are the degrees by which the complete tradesman is brought up, and
by which he is instructed in the principles and methods of his commerce,
by which he is made acquainted with business, and is capable of carrying
it on with success, after which there is not a man in the universe
deserves the title of a complete tradesman, like the English shopkeeper.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] [This misuse of the term _merchant_ continues to exist in Scotland
to the present day.]

CHAPTER I

THE TRADESMAN IN HIS PREPARATIONS WHILE AN APPRENTICE

The first part of a trader's beginning is ordinarily when he is very
young, I mean, when he goes as an apprentice, and the notions of trade
are scarcely got into his head; for boys go apprentices while they are
but boys; to talk to them in their first three or four years signifies
nothing; they are rather then to be taught submission to families, and
subjection to their masters, and dutiful attendance in their shops or
warehouses; and this is not our present business.

But after they have entered the fifth or sixth year, they may then be
entertained with discourses of another nature; and as they begin then to
look forward beyond the time of their servitude, and think of setting up
and being for themselves, I think then is the time to put them upon
useful preparations for the work, and to instruct them in such things as
may qualify them best to enter upon the world, and act for themselves
when they are so entered.

The first thing a youth in the latter part of his time is to do, is to
endeavour to gain a good judgment in the wares of all kinds that he is
likely to deal in--as, for example, if a draper, the quality of cloths;
if a stationer, the quality of papers; if a grocer, the quality of
sugars, teas, &c.; and so on with all other trades. During the first
years of a young man's time, he of course learns to weigh and measure
either liquids or solids, to pack up and make bales, trusses, packages,
&c., and to do the coarser and laborious part of business; but all that
gives him little knowledge in the species and quality of the goods, much
less a nice judgment in their value and sorts, which however is one of
the principal things that belong to trade.

It is supposed that, by this time, if his master is a man of
considerable business, his man is become the eldest apprentice, and is
taken from the counter, and from sweeping the warehouse, into the
counting-house, where he, among other things, sees the bills of parcels
of goods bought, and thereby knows what every thing costs at first hand,
what gain is made of them, and if a miscarriage happens, he knows what
loss too; by which he is led of course to look into the goodness of the
goods, and see the reason of things: if the goods are not to
expectation, and consequently do not answer the price, he sees the
reason of that loss, and he looks into the goods, and sees where and how
far they are deficient, and in what; this, if he be careful to make his
observations, brings him naturally to have a good judgment in the goods.

If a young man neglects this part, and passes over the season for such
improvement, he very rarely ever recovers it; for this part has its
season, and that more remarkable than in many other cases, and that
season lost, never comes again; a judgment in goods taken in early, is
never lost, and a judgment taken in late is seldom good.

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