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

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I must say, in the tradesman's behalf, that he is in such a case to be
esteemed a sacrifice to the worst and most hellish of all secret crimes,
I mean envy; which is made up of every hateful vice, a complication of
crimes which nothing but the worst of God's reasonable world can be
guilty of; and he will indeed merit and call for every honest man's pity
and concern. But what relief is this to him? for, in the meantime,
though the devil himself were the raiser of the scandal, yet it shall go
about; the blow shall take, and every man, though at the same time
expressing their horror and aversion at the thing, shall yet not be
able, no not themselves, to say they receive no impression from it.

Though I know the clamour or rumour was raised maliciously, and from a
secret envy at the prosperity of the man, yet if I deal with him, it
will in spite of all my abhorrence of the thing, in spite of all my
willingness to do justice, I say it will have some little impression
upon me, it will be some shock to my confidence in the man; and though I
know the devil is a liar, a slanderer, a calumniator, and that his name
_devil_ is derived from it; and that I knew, if that, as I said, were
possible, that the devil in his proper person raised and began, and
carried on, this scandal upon the tradesman, yet there is a secret
lurking doubt (about him), which hangs about me concerning him; the
devil is a liar, but he may happen to speak truth just then, he may
chance to be right, and I know not what there may be in it, and whether
there may be any thing or no, but I will have a little care, &c.

Thus, insensibly and involuntarily, nay, in spite of friendship, good
wishes, and even resolution to the contrary, it is almost impossible to
prevent our being shocked by rumour, and we receive an impression
whether we will or not, and that from the worst enemy; there is such a
powerful sympathy between our thoughts and our interest, that the first
being but touched, and that in the lightest manner imaginable, we cannot
help it, caution steps on in behalf of the last, and the man is jealous
and afraid, in spite of all the kindest and best intentions in the
world.

Nor is it only dangerous in case of false accusations and false charges,
for those indeed are to be expected fatal; but even just and true things
may be as fatal as false, for the truth is not always necessary to be
said of a tradesman: many things a tradesman may perhaps allow himself
to do, and may be lawfully done, but if they should be known to be part
of his character, it would sink deep into his trading fame, his credit
would suffer by it, and in the end it might be his ruin; so that he that
would not set his hand to his neighbour's ruin, should as carefully
avoid speaking some truths, as raising some forgeries upon him.

Of what fatal consequence, then, is the raising rumours and suspicions
upon the credit and characters of young tradesmen! and how little do
those who are forward to raise such suspicions, and spread such rumours,
consult conscience, or principle, or honour, in what they do! How little
do they consider that they are committing a trading murder, and that, in
respect to the justice of it, they may with much more equity break open
the tradesman's house, and rob his cash-chest, or his shop; and what
they can carry away thence will not do him half the injury that robbing
his character of what is due to it from an upright and diligent conduct,
would do. The loss of his money or goods is easily made up, and may be
sometimes repaired with advantage, but the loss of credit is never
repaired; the one is breaking open his house, but the other is burning
it down; the one carries away some goods, but the other shuts goods out
from coming in; one is hurting the tradesman, but the other is undoing
him.

Credit is the tradesman's life; it is, as the wise man says, 'marrow to
his bones;' it is by this that all his affairs go on prosperously and
pleasantly; if this be hurt, wounded, or weakened, the tradesman is
sick, hangs his head, is dejected and discouraged; and if he does go on,
it is heavily and with difficulty, as well as with disadvantage; he is
beholding to his fund of cash, not his friends; and he may be truly said
to stand upon his own legs, for nothing else can do it.

And therefore, on the other hand, if such a man is any way beholding to
his credit, if he stood before upon the foundation of his credit, if he
owes any thing considerable, it is a thousand to one but he sinks under
the oppression of it; that is to say, it brings every body upon him--I
mean, every one that has any demand upon him--for in pushing for their
own, especially in such cases, men have so little mercy, and are so
universally persuaded that he that comes first is first served, that I
did not at all wonder, that in the story of the tradesman who so
foolishly exposed himself in the coffee-house, as above, his friend whom
he said the words to, began with him that very night, and before he went
out of the coffee-house; it was rather a wonder to me he did not go out
and bring in half-a-dozen more upon him the same evening.

It is very rarely that men are wanting to their own interest; and the
jealousy of its being but in danger, is enough to make men forget, not
friendship only, and generosity, but good manners, civility, and even
justice itself, and fall upon the best friends they have in the world,
if they think they are in the least danger of suffering by them.

On these accounts it is, and many more, that a tradesman walks in
continual jeopardy, from the looseness and inadvertency of men's
tongues, ay, and women's too; for though I am all along very tender of
the ladies, and would do justice to the sex, by telling you, they were
not the dangerous people whom I had in view in my first writing upon
this subject, yet I must be allowed to say, that they are sometimes
fully even with the men, for ill usage, when they please to fall upon
them in this nice article, in revenge for any slight, or but pretended
slight, put upon them.

It was a terrible revenge a certain lady, who was affronted by a
tradesman in London, in a matter of love, took upon him in this very
article. It seems a tradesman had courted her some time, and it was
become public, as a thing in a manner concluded, when the tradesman left
the lady a little abruptly, without giving a good reason for it, and,
indeed, she afterwards discovered, that he had left her for the offer of
another with a little more money, and that, when he had done so, he
reported that it was for another reason, which reflected a little on the
person of the lady; and in this the tradesman did very unworthily
indeed, and deserved her resentment: but, as I said, it was a terrible
revenge she took, and what she ought not to have done.

First, she found out who it was that her former pretended lover had been
recommended to, and she found means to have it insinuated to her by a
woman-friend, that he was not only rakish and wicked, but, in short,
that he had a particular illness, and went so far as to produce letters
from him to a quack-doctor, for directions to him how to take his
medicines, and afterwards a receipt for money for the cure; though both
the letters and receipt also, as afterwards appeared, were forged, in
which she went a dismal length in her revenge, as you may see.

Then she set two or three female instruments to discourse her case in
all their gossips' companies, and at the tea-tables wherever they came,
and to magnify the lady's prudence in refusing such a man, and what an
escape she had had in being clear of him.

'Why,' says a lady to one of these emissaries, 'what was the matter? I
thought she was like to be very well married.'

'Oh no, Madam! by no means,' says the emissary.

'Why, Madam,' says another lady, 'we all know Mr H----; he is a very
pretty sort of a man.'

'Ay, Madam,' says the emissary again, 'but you know a pretty man is not
all that is required.'

'Nay,' says the lady again, 'I don't mean so; he is no beauty, no rarity
that way; but I mean a clever good sort of a man in his business, such
as we call a pretty tradesman.'

'Ay,' says the lady employed, 'but that is not all neither.'

'Why,' says the other lady, 'he has a very good trade too, and lives in
good credit.'

'Yes,' says malice, 'he has some of the first, but not too much of the
last, I suppose.'

'No!' says the lady; 'I thought his credit had been very good.'

'If it had, I suppose,' says the first, 'the match had not been broke
off.'

'Why,' says the lady, 'I understood it was broken off on his side.'

'And so did I,' says another.

'And so did I, indeed,' says a third.

'Oh, Madam!' says the tool, 'nothing like it, I assure you.'

'Indeed,' says another, I understood he had quitted Mrs----, because she
had not fortune enough for him, and that he courted another certain
lady, whom we all know.'

Then the ladies fell to talking of the circumstances of his leaving her,
and how he had broken from her abruptly and unmannerly, and had been too
free with her character; at which the first lady, that is to say, the
emissary, or tool, as I call her, took it up a little warmly, thus:--

1. _Lady_.--Well, you see, ladies, how easily a lady's reputation may be
injured; I hope you will not go away with it so.

2. _Lady_.--Nay, we have all of us a respect for Mrs----, and some of us
visit there sometimes; I believe none of us would be willing to injure
her.

1. _Lady_.--But indeed, ladies, she is very much injured in that story.

2. _Lady_.--Indeed, it is generally understood so, and every body
believes it.

1. _Lady_.--I can assure you it is quite otherwise in fact.

2. _Lady_.--I believe he reports it so himself, and that with some very
odd things about the lady too.

1. _Lady_.--The more base unworthy fellow he.

2. _Lady_.--Especially if he knows it to be otherwise.

1. _Lady_.--Especially if he knows the contrary to be true, Madam.

2. _Lady_.--Is that possible? Did he not refuse her, then?

1. _Lady_.--Nothing like it, Madam; but just the contrary.

2. _Lady_.--You surprise me!

3. _Lady_.--I am very glad to hear it, for her sake.

1. _Lady_.--I can assure you, Madam, she had refused him, and that he
knows well enough, which has been one of the reasons that has made him
abuse her as he has done.

2. _Lady_.--Indeed, she has been used very ill by him, or somebody for
him.

1. _Lady_.--Yes, he has reported strange things, but they are all lies.

2. _Lady_.--Well; but pray, Madam, what was the reason, if we may be so
free, that she turned him off after she had entertained him so long?

1. _Lady_.--Oh, Madam! reason enough; I wonder he should pretend, when
he knew his own circumstances too, to court a lady of her fortune.

2. _Lady_.--Why, are not his circumstances good, then?

1. _Lady_.--No, Madam. Good! alas, he has no bottom.

2. _Lady_.--No bottom! Why, you surprise me; we always looked upon him
to be a man of substance, and that he was very well in the world.

1. _Lady_.--It is all a cheat, Madam; there's nothing in it; when it
came to be made out, nothing at all in it.

2. _Lady_.--That cannot be, Madam; Mr ---- has lived always in good
reputation and good credit in his business.

1. _Lady_.--It is all sunk again then, if it was so; I don't know.

2. _Lady_.--Why did she entertain him so long, then?

1. _Lady_.--Alas! Madam, how could she know, poor lady, till her friends
inquired into things? But when they came to look a little narrowly into
it, they soon found reason to give her a caution, that he was not the
man she took him for.

2. _Lady_.--Well, it is very strange; I am sure he passed for another
man among us.

1. _Lady_.--It must be formerly, then, for they tell me his credit has
been sunk these three or four years; he had need enough indeed to try
for a greater fortune, he wants it enough.

2. _Lady_.--It is a sad thing when men look out for fortunes to heal
their trade-breaches with, and make the poor wife patch up their old
bankrupt credit.

1. _Lady_.--Especially, Madam, when they know themselves to be gone so
far, that even with the addition they can stand but a little while, and
must inevitably bring the lady to destruction with them.

2. _Lady_.--Well, I could never have thought Mr ---- was in such
circumstances.

3. _Lady_.--Nor I; we always took him for a ten thousand pound man.

1. _Lady_.--They say he was deep in the bubbles, Madam.

2. _Lady_.--Nay, if he was gotten into the South Sea, that might hurt
him indeed, as it has done many a gentleman of better estates than he.

1. _Lady_.--I don't know whether it was the South Sea, or some other
bubbles, but he was very near making a bubble of her, and L3000 into the
bargain.

2. _Lady_.--I am glad she has escaped him, if it be so; it is a sign her
friends took a great deal of care of her.

1. _Lady_.--He won't hold it long; he will have his desert, I hope; I
don't doubt but we shall see him in the Gazette quickly for a bankrupt.

2. _Lady_.--If he does not draw in some innocent young thing that has
her fortune in her own hands to patch him up.

1. _Lady_.--I hope not, Madam; I hear he is blown where he went since,
and there, they say, they have made another discovery of him, in a worse
circumstance than the other.

2. _Lady_.--How, pray?

1. _Lady_.--Nothing, Madam, but a particular kind of illness, &c. I need
say no more.

2. _Lady_.--You astonish me! Why, I always thought him a very civil,
honest, sober man.

1. _Lady_.--This is a sad world, Madam; men are seldom known now, till
it is too late; but sometimes murder comes out seasonably, and so I
understand it is here; for the lady had not gone so far with him, but
that she could go off again.

2. _Lady_.--Nay, it was time to go off again, if it were so.

1. _Lady_.--Nay, Madam, I do not tell this part of my own knowledge; I
only heard so, but I am afraid there is too much in it.

Thus ended this piece of hellish wildfire, upon the character and credit
of a tradesman, the truth of all which was no more than this--that the
tradesman, disliking his first lady, left her, and soon after, though
not presently, courted another of a superior fortune indeed, though not
for that reason; and the first lady, provoked at being cast off, and, as
she called it, slighted, raised all this clamour upon him, and
persecuted him with it, wherever she was able.

Such a discourse as this at a tea-table, it could not be expected would
be long a secret; it ran from one tittle-tattle society to another; and
in every company, snow-ball like, it was far from lessening, and it went
on, till at length it began to meet with some contradiction, and the
tradesman found himself obliged to trace it as far and as well as he
could.

But it was to no purpose to confront it; when one was asked, and another
was asked, they only answered they heard so, and they heard it in
company in such a place, and in such a place, and some could remember
where they had it, and some could not; and the poor tradesman, though he
was really a man of substance, sank under it prodigiously: his new
mistress, whom he courted, refused him, and would never hear any thing
in his favour, or trouble herself to examine whether it were true or
no--it was enough, she said, to her, that he was laden with such a
report; and, if it was unjust, she was sorry for it, but the misfortune
must be his, and he must place it to the account of his having made some
enemies, which she could not help.

As to his credit, the slander of the first lady's raising was spread
industriously, and with the utmost malice and bitterness, and did him an
inexpressible prejudice; every man he dealt with was shy of him; every
man he owed any thing to came for it, and, as he said, he was sure he
should see the last penny demanded; it was his happiness that he had
wherewith to pay, for had his circumstances been in the least perplexed,
the man had been undone; nay, as I have observed in another case, as his
affairs might have lain, he might have been able to have paid forty
shillings in the pound, and yet have been undone, and been obliged to
break, and shut up his shop.

It is true, he worked through it, and he carried it so far as to fix the
malice of all the reports pretty much upon the first lady, and
particularly so far as to discover that she was the great reason of his
being so positively rejected by the other; but he could never fix it so
upon her as to recover any damages of her, only to expose her a little,
and that she did not value, having, as she said wickedly, had her full
revenge of him, and so indeed she had.

The sum of the matter is, and it is for this reason I tell you the
story, that the reputation of a tradesman is too much at the mercy of
men's tongues or women's either; and a story raised upon a tradesman,
however malicious, however false, and however frivolous the occasion, is
not easily suppressed, but, if it touches his credit, as a flash of fire
it spreads over the whole air like a sheet; there is no stopping it.

My inference from all this shall be very brief; if the tongues of every
ill-disposed envious gossip, whether man-gossip or woman-gossip, for
there are of both sorts, may be thus mischievous to the tradesman, and
he is so much at the mercy of the tattling slandering part of the world,
how much more should tradesmen be cautious and wary how they touch or
wound the credit and character of one another. There are but a very few
tradesmen who can say they are out of the reach of slander, and that the
malice of enemies cannot hurt them with the tongue. Here and there one,
and those ancient and well established, may be able to defy the world;
but there are so many others, that I think I may warn all tradesmen
against making havoc of one another's reputation, as they would be
tenderly used in the same case.

And yet I cannot but say it is too much a tradesman's crime, I mean to
speak slightly and contemptibly of other tradesman, their neighbours, or
perhaps rivals in trade, and to run them down in the characters they
give of them, when inquiry may be made of them, as often is the case.
The reputation of tradesmen is too often put into the hands of their
fellow-tradesmen, when ignorant people think to inform themselves of
their circumstances, by going to those whose interest it is to defame
and run them down.

I know no case in the world in which there is more occasion for the
golden rule, Do as you would be done unto; and though you may be
established, as you may think, and be above the reach of the tongues of
others, yet the obligation of the rule is the same, for you are to do as
you would be done unto, supposing that you were in the same condition,
or on a level with the person.

It is confessed that tradesmen do not study this rule in the particular
case I am now speaking of. No men are apter to speak slightly and coldly
of a fellow-tradesman than his fellow-tradesmen, and to speak unjustly
so too; the reasons for which cannot be good, unless it can be pleaded
for upon the foundation of a just and impartial concern in the interest
of the inquirer; and even then nothing must be said but what is
consistent with strict justice and truth: all that is more than that, is
mere slander and envy, and has nothing of the Christian in it, much less
of the neighbour or friend. It is true that friendship may be due to the
inquirer, but still so much justice is due to the person inquired of,
that it is very hard to speak in such cases, and not be guilty of
raising dust, as they call it, upon your neighbour, and at least
hurting, if not injuring him.

It is, indeed, so difficult a thing, that I scarce know what stated rule
to lay down for the conduct of a tradesman in this case:--A tradesman at
a distance is going to deal with another tradesman, my neighbour; and
before he comes to bargain, or before he cares to trust him, he goes,
weakly enough perhaps, to inquire of him, and of his circumstances,
among his neighbours and fellow-tradesmen, perhaps of the same
profession or employment, and who, among other things, it may be, are
concerned by their interest, that this tradesman's credit should not
rise too fast. What must be done in this case?

If I am the person inquired of, what must I do? If I would have this man
sink in his reputation, or be discredited, and if it is for my interest
to have him cried down in the world, it is a sore temptation to me to
put in a few words to his disadvantage; and yet, if I do it in
gratification of my private views or interest, or upon the foot of
resentment of any kind whatever, and let it be from what occasion it
will, nay, however just and reasonable the resentment is, or may be, it
is utterly unjust and unlawful, and is not only unfair as a man, but
unchristian, and is neither less nor more than a secret revenge, which
is forbidden by the laws of God and man.

If, on the other hand, I give a good character of the man, or of his
reputation, I mean, of his credit in business, in order to have the
inquirer trust him, and at the same time know or believe that he is not
a sound and good man (that is, as to trade, for it is his character in
trade that I am speaking of), what am I doing then? It is plain I lay a
snare for the inquirer, and am at least instrumental to his loss,
without having really any design to hurt him; for it is to be supposed,
before he came to me to inquire, I had no view of acting any thing to
his prejudice.

Again, there is no medium, for to refuse or decline giving a character
of the man, is downright giving him the worst character I can--it is, in
short, shooting him through the head in his trade. A man comes to me for
a character of my neighbouring tradesman; I answer him with a repulse to
his inquiry thus--

_A_.--Good sir, do not ask me the character of my neighbours--I resolve
to meddle with nobody's character; pray, do not inquire of me.

_B_.--Well, but, sir, you know the gentleman; you live next door to him;
you can tell me, if you please, all that I desire to know, whether he is
a man in credit, and fit to be trusted, or no, in the way of his
business.

_A_.--I tell you, sir, I meddle with no man's business; I will not give
characters of my neighbours--it is an ill office--a man gets no thanks
for it, and perhaps deserves none.

_B_.--But, sir, you would be willing to be informed and advised, if it
were your own case.

_A_.--It may be so, but I cannot oblige people to inform me.

_B_.--But you would entreat it as a favour, and so I come to you.

_A_.--But you may go to any body else.

_B_.--But you are a man of integrity; I can depend upon what you say; I
know you will not deceive me; and, therefore, I beg of you to satisfy
me.

_A_.--But I desire you to excuse me, for it is what I never do--I cannot
do it.

_B_.--But, sir, I am in a great strait; I am just selling him a great
parcel of goods, and I am willing to sell them too, and yet I am willing
to be safe, as you would yourself, if you were in my case.

_A_.--I tell you, sir, I have always resolved to forbear meddling with
the characters of my neighbours--it is an ill office. Besides, I mind my
own business; I do not enter into the inquiries after other people's
affairs.

_B_.--Well, sir, I understand you, then; I know what I have to do.

_A_.--What do you mean by that?

_B_.--Nothing, sir, but what I suppose you would have me understand by
it.

_A_.--I would have you understand what I say--namely, that I will
meddle with nobody's business but my own.

_B_.--And I say I understand you; I know you are a good man, and a man
of charity, and loth to do your neighbours any prejudice, and that you
will speak the best of every man as near as you can.

_A_.--I tell you, I speak neither the best nor the worst--I speak
nothing.

_B_.--Well, sir, that is to say, that as charity directs you to speak
well of every man, so, when you cannot speak well, you refrain, and will
say nothing; and you do very well, to be sure; you are a very kind
neighbour.

_A_.--But that is a base construction of my words; for I tell you, I do
the like by every body.

_B_.--Yes, sir, I believe you do, and I think you are in the right of
it--am fully satisfied.

_A_.--You act more unjustly by me than by my neighbour; for you take my
silence, or declining to give a character, to be giving an ill
character.

_B_.--No, sir, not for an ill character.

_A_.--But I find you take it for a ground of suspicion.

_B_.--I take it, indeed, for a due caution to me, sir; but the man may
be a good man for all that, only--

_A_.--Only what? I understand you--only you won't trust him with your
goods.

_B_.--But another man may, sir, for all that, so that you have been kind
to your neighbours and to me too, sir--and you are very just. I wish all
men would act so one by another; I should feel the benefit of it myself
among others, for I have suffered deeply by ill tongues, I am sure.

_A_.--Well, however unjust you are to me, and to my neighbour too, I
will not undeceive you at present; I think you do not deserve it.

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