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

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If the youth slips this occasion, and, not minding what is before him,
goes out of his time without obtaining such a skill as this in the goods
he is to deal in, he enters into trade without his most useful tools,
and must use spectacles before his time.

For want of this knowledge of the goods, he is at a loss in the buying
part, and is liable to be cheated and imposed upon in the most notorious
manner by the sharp-sighted world, for his want of judgment is a thing
that cannot be hid; the merchants or manufacturers of whom he buys,
presently discover him; the very boys in the wholesalemen's warehouses,
and in merchant's warehouses, will play upon him, sell him one thing for
another, show him a worse sort when he calls for a better, and, asking a
higher price for it, persuade him it is better; and when they have thus
bubbled him, they triumph over his ignorance when he is gone, and expose
him to the last degree.

Besides, for want of judgment in the goods he is to buy, he often runs a
hazard of being cheated to a very great degree, and perhaps some time or
other a tradesman may be ruined by it, or at least ruin his reputation.

When I lived abroad, I had once a commission sent me from a merchant in
London, to buy a large parcel of brandy: the goods were something out of
my way, having never bought any in that country before. However, it
happened that I had frequently bought and imported brandies in England,
and had some judgment in them, so much that I ventured to buy without
taking a cooper with me, which was not usual in that place. The first
parcel of brandy I saw was very good, and I bought freely to the value
of about L600, and shipped them for England, where they gave very good
satisfaction to my employer. But I could not complete my commission to
my mind in that parcel. Some days after, some merchants, who had seen me
buy the other, and thought me a novice in the business, and that I took
no cooper to taste the brandy, laid a plot for me, which indeed was such
a plot as I was not in the least aware of; and had not the little
judgment which I had in the commodity prevented, I had been notoriously
abused. The case was thus:--They gave me notice by the same person who
helped me to the sight of the first brandy, that there was a cellar of
extraordinary good brandy at such a place, and invited me to see it.
Accordingly I went in an afternoon, and tasted the brandy, being a large
parcel, amounting to about L460.

I liked the goods very well; but the merchant, as they called him, that
is to say, the knave appointed to cheat the poor stranger, was cunningly
out of the way, so that no bargain was to be made that night. But as I
had said that I liked the brandy, the same person who brought me an
account of them, comes to my lodgings to treat with me about the price.
We did not make many words: I bade him the current price which I had
bought for some days before, and after a few struggles for five crowns
a-tun more, he came to my price, and his next word was to let me know
the gage of the cask; and as I had seen the goods already, he thought
there was nothing to do but to make a bargain, and order the goods to be
delivered.

But young as I was, I was too old for that too; and told him, I could
not tell positively how many I should take, but that I would come in the
afternoon, and taste them again, and mark out what I wanted. He seemed
uneasy at that, and pretended he had two merchants waiting to see them,
and he could sell them immediately, and I might do him a prejudice if I
made him wait and put them off, who perhaps might buy in the mean time.

I answered him coldly, I would not hinder him selling them by any means
if he could have a better chapman, that I could not come sooner, and
that I would not be obliged to take the whole parcel, nor would I buy
any of them without tasting them again: he argued much to have me buy
them, seeing, as he said, I had tasted them before, and liked them very
well.

'I did so,' said I, 'but I love to have my palate confirm one day what
it approved the day before.' 'Perhaps,' says he, 'you would have some
other person's judgment of them, and you are welcome to do so, sir, with
all my heart; send any body you please:' but still he urged for a
bargain, when the person sent should make his report; and then he had
his agents ready, I understood afterwards, to manage the persons I
should send.

I answered him frankly, I had no great judgment, but that, such as it
was, I ventured to trust to it; I thought I had honest men to deal with,
and that I should bring nobody to taste them for me but myself.

This pleased him, and was what he secretly wished; and now, instead of
desiring me to come immediately, he told me, that seeing I would not buy
without seeing the goods again, and would not go just then, he could not
be in the way in the afternoon, and so desired I would defer it till
next morning, which I readily agreed to.

In the morning I went, but not so soon as I had appointed; upon which,
when I came, he seemed offended, and said I had hindered him--that he
could have sold the whole parcel, &c. I told him I could not have
hindered him, for that I had told him he should not wait for me, but
sell them to the first good customer he found. He told me he had indeed
sold two or three casks, but he would not disoblige me so much as to
sell the whole parcel before I came. This I mention, because he made it
a kind of a bite upon me, that I should not be alarmed at seeing the
casks displaced in the cellar.

When I came to taste the brandy, I began to be surprised. I saw the very
same casks which I had touched with the marking-iron when I was there
before, but I did not like the brandy by any means, but did not yet
suspect the least foul play.

I went round the whole cellar, and I could not mark above three casks
which I durst venture to buy; the rest apparently showed themselves to
be mixed, at least I thought so. I marked out the three casks, and told
him my palate had deceived me, that the rest of the brandy was not for
my turn.

I saw the man surprised, and turn pale, and at first seemed to be very
angry, that I should, as he called it, disparage the goods--that sure I
did not understand brandy, and the like--and that I should have brought
somebody with me that did understand it. I answered coldly, that if I
ventured my money upon my own judgment, the hazard was not to the
seller, but to the buyer, and nobody had to do with that; if I did not
like his goods, another, whose judgment was better, might like them, and
so there was no harm done: in a word, he would not let me have the three
casks I had marked, unless I took more, and I would take no more--so we
parted, but with no satisfaction on his side; and I afterwards came to
hear that he had sat up all the night with his coopers, mixing spirits
in every cask, whence he drew off a quantity of the right brandy, and
corrupted it, concluding, that as I had no judgment to choose by but my
own, I could not discover it; and it came out by his quarrelling with
the person who brought me to him, for telling him I did not understand
the goods, upon which presumption he ventured to spoil the whole parcel.

I give you this story as a just caution to a young tradesman, and to
show how necessary it is that a tradesman should have judgment in the
goods he buys, and how easily he may be imposed upon and abused, if he
offers to buy upon his own judgment, when really it is defective. I
could enlarge this article with many like examples, but I think this may
suffice.

The next thing I recommend to an apprentice at the conclusion of his
time, is to acquaint himself with his master's chapmen;[6] I mean of
both kinds, as well those he sells to, as those he buys of, and, if he
is a factor, with his master's employers. But what I aim at now is the
chapmen and customers whom his master chiefly sells to. I need not
explain myself not to mean by this the chance customers of a retailer's
shop, for there can be no acquaintance, or very little, made with them;
I mean the country shopkeepers, or others, who buy in parcels, and who
buy to sell again, or export as merchants. If the young man comes from
his master, and has formed no acquaintance or interest among the
customers whom his master dealt with, he has, in short, slipt or lost
one of the principal ends and reasons of his being an apprentice, in
which he has spent seven years, and perhaps his friends given a
considerable sum of money.

For a young man coming out of his time to have his shop or warehouse
stocked with goods, and his customers all to seek, will make his
beginning infinitely more difficult to him than it would otherwise be;
and he not only has new customers to seek, but has their characters to
seek also, and knows not who is good and who not, till he buys that
knowledge by his experience, and perhaps sometimes pays too dear for it.

It was an odd circumstance of a tradesman in this city a few years ago,
who, being out of his time, and going to solicit one of his master's
customers to trade with him, the chapman did not so much as know him, or
remember that he had ever heard his name, except as he had heard his
master call his apprentice Jacob. I know some masters diligently watch
to prevent their apprentices speaking to their customers, and to keep
them from acquainting themselves with the buyers, that when they come
out of their times they may not carry the trade away with them.

To hinder an apprentice from an acquaintance with the dealers of both
sorts, is somewhat like Laban's usage of Jacob, namely, keeping back the
beloved Rachel, whom he served his seven years' time for, and putting
him off with a blear-eyed Leah in her stead; it is, indeed, a kind of
robbing him, taking from him the advantage which he served his time for,
and sending him into the world like a man out of a ship set on shore
among savages, who, instead of feeding him, are indeed more ready to eat
him up and devour him.[7]

An apprentice who has served out his time faithfully and diligently,
ought to claim it as a debt to his indentures, that his master should
let him into an open acquaintance with his customers; he does not else
perform his promise to teach him the art and mystery of his trade; he
does not make him master of his business, or enable him as he ought to
set up in the world; for, as buying is indeed the first, so selling is
the last end of trade, and the faithful apprentice ought to be fully
made acquainted with them both.

Next to being acquainted with his master's customers and chapmen, the
apprentice, when his time is near expiring, ought to acquaint himself
with the books, that is to say, to see and learn his master's method of
book-keeping, that he may follow it, if the method is good, and may
learn a better method in time, if it is not.

The tradesman should not be at a loss how to keep his books, when he is
to begin his trade; that would be to put him to school when he is just
come from school; his apprenticeship is, and ought in justice to be, a
school to him, where he ought to learn every thing that should qualify
him for his business, at least every thing that his master can teach
him; and if he finds his master either backward or unwilling to teach
him, he should complain in time to his own friends, that they may some
how or other supply the defect.

A tradesman's books are his repeating clock, which upon all occasions
are to tell him how he goes on, and how things stand with him in the
world: there he will know when it is time to go on, or when it is time
to give over; and upon his regular keeping, and fully acquainting
himself with his books, depends at least the comfort of his trade, if
not the very trade itself. If they are not duly posted, and if every
thing is not carefully entered in them, the debtor's accounts kept even,
the cash constantly balanced, and the credits all stated, the tradesman
is like a ship at sea, steered without a helm; he is all in confusion,
and knows not what he does, or where he is; he may be a rich man, or a
bankrupt--for, in a word, he can give no account of himself to himself,
much less to any body else.

His books being so essential to his trade, he that comes out of his time
without a perfect knowledge of the method of book-keeping, like a bride
undrest, is not fit to be married; he knows not what to do, or what step
to take; he may indeed have served his time, but he has not learned his
trade, nor is he fit to set up; and be the fault in himself for not
learning, or in his master for not teaching him, he ought not to set up
till he has gotten some skilful person to put him in a way to do it, and
make him fully to understand it.

It is true, there is not a great deal of difficulty in keeping a
tradesman's books, especially if he be a retailer only; but yet, even in
the meanest trades, they ought to know how to keep books. But the advice
is directed to those who are above the retailer, as well as to them; if
the book-keeping be small, it is the sooner learned, and the apprentice
is the more to blame if he neglects it. Besides, the objection is much
more trifling than the advice. The tradesman cannot carry on any
considerable trade without books; and he must, during his
apprenticeship, prepare himself for business by acquainting himself with
every thing needful for his going on with his trade, among which that of
book-keeping is absolutely necessary.

The last article, and in itself essential to a young tradesman, is to
know how to buy; if his master is kind and generous, he will consider
the justice of this part, and let him into the secret of it of his own
free will, and that before his time is fully expired; but if that should
not happen, as often it does not, let the apprentice know, that it is
one of the most needful things to him that can belong to his
apprenticeship, and that he ought not to let his time run over his head,
without getting as much insight into it as possible; that therefore he
ought to lose no opportunity to get into it, even whether his master
approves of it or no; for as it is a debt due to him from his master to
instruct him in it, it is highly just he should use all proper means to
come at it.

Indeed, the affair in this age between masters and their apprentices,
stands in a different view from what the same thing was a few years
past; the state of our apprenticeship is not a state of servitude now,
and hardly of subjection, and their behaviour is accordingly more like
gentlemen than tradesmen; more like companions to their masters, than
like servants. On the other hand, the masters seem to have made over
their authority to their apprentices for a sum of money, the money taken
now with apprentices being most exorbitantly great, compared to what it
was in former times.

Now, though this does not at all exempt the servant or apprentice from
taking care of himself, and to qualify himself for business while he is
an apprentice, yet it is evident that it is no furtherance to
apprentices; the liberties they take towards the conclusion of their
time, are so much employed to worse purposes, that apprentices do not
come out of their times better finished for business and trade than they
did formerly, but much the worse: and though it is not the proper
business and design of this work to enlarge on the injustice done both
to master and servant by this change of custom, yet to bring it to my
present purpose, it carries this force with it, namely, that the advice
to apprentices to endeavour to finish themselves for business during the
time of the indenture, is so much the more needful and seasonable.

Nor is this advice for the service of the master, but of the apprentice;
for if the apprentice neglects this advice, if he omits to qualify
himself for business as above, if he neither will acquaint himself with
the customers, nor the books, nor with the buying part, nor gain
judgment in the wares he is to deal in, the loss is his own, not his
master's--and, indeed, he may be said to have served not himself, but
his master--and both his money and his seven years are all thrown away.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] [Individuals dealt with.]

[7] [It would be hard to doubt that Defore was sincere in this pleading
of the rights of the apprentice; but its morality is certainly far from
clear. The master may have gained customers with difficulty, by the
exercise of much ingenuity, patience, and industry, or through some
peculiar merit of his own. Indeed, it is always to be presumed that a
tradesman's customers are attached to him from some of these causes. Of
course, it would be hard if his apprentices, instead of collecting
customers for themselves by the same means, seduced away those of his
master. The true and direct object of an apprenticeship is to acquire a
trade, not to acquire customers.]

CHAPTER II

THE TRADESMAN'S WRITING LETTERS

As plainness, and a free unconstrained way of speaking, is the beauty
and excellence of speech, so an easy free concise way of writing is the
best style for a tradesman. He that affects a rumbling and bombast
style, and fills his letters with long harangues, compliments, and
flourishes, should turn poet instead of tradesman, and set up for a wit,
not a shopkeeper. Hark how such a young tradesman writes, out of the
country, to his wholesale-man in London, upon his first setting up.

'SIR--The destinies having so appointed it, and my dark stars
concurring, that I, who by nature was framed for better things, should
be put out to a trade, and the gods having been so propitious to me in
the time of my servitude, that at length the days are expired, and I am
launched forth into the great ocean of business, I thought fit to
acquaint you, that last month I received my fortune, which, by my
father's will, had been my due two years past, at which time I arrived
to man's estate, and became major, whereupon I have taken a house in one
of the principal streets of the town of----, where I am entered upon my
business, and hereby let you know that I shall have occasion for the
goods hereafter mentioned, which you may send to me by the carrier.'

This fine flourish, and which, no doubt, the young fellow dressed up
with much application, and thought was very well done, put his
correspondent in London into a fit of laughter, and instead of sending
him the goods he wrote for, put him either first upon writing down into
the country to inquire after his character, and whether he was worth
dealing with, or else it obtained to be filed up among such letters as
deserved no answer.

The same tradesman in London received by the post another letter, from a
young shopkeeper in the country, to the purpose following:--

'Being obliged, Sir, by my late master's decease, to enter immediately
upon his business, and consequently open my shop without coming up to
London to furnish myself with such goods as at present I want, I have
here sent you a small order, as underwritten. I hope you will think
yourself obliged to use me well, and particularly that the goods may be
good of the sorts, though I cannot be at London to look them out myself.
I have enclosed a bill of exchange for L75, on Messrs A.B. and Company,
payable to you, or your order, at one-and-twenty days' sight; be pleased
to get it accepted, and if the goods amount to more than that sum, I
shall, when I have your bill of parcels, send you the remainder. I
repeat my desire, that you will send me the goods well sorted, and well
chosen, and as cheap as possible, that I may be encouraged to a further
correspondence. I am, your humble servant,

C.K.'

This was writing like a man that understood what he was doing; and his
correspondent in London would presently say--'This young man writes like
a man of business; pray let us take care to use him well, for in all
probability he will be a very good chapman.'

The sum of the matter is this: a tradesman's letters should be plain,
concise, and to the purpose; no quaint expressions, no book-phrases, no
flourishes, and yet they must be full and sufficient to express what he
means, so as not to be doubtful, much less unintelligible. I can by no
means approve of studied abbreviations, and leaving out the needful
copulatives of speech in trading letters; they are to an extreme
affected; no beauty to the style, but, on the contrary, a deformity of
the grossest nature. They are affected to the last degree, and with this
aggravation, that it is an affectation of the grossest nature; for, in a
word, it is affecting to be thought a man of more than ordinary sense by
writing extraordinary nonsense; and affecting to be a man of business,
by giving orders and expressing your meaning in terms which a man of
business may not think himself bound by. For example, a tradesman at
Hull writes to his correspondent at London the following letter:--

'SIR, yours received, have at present little to reply. Last post you had
bills of loading, with invoice of what had loaden for your account in
Hamburgh factor bound for said port. What have farther orders for, shall
be dispatched with expedition. Markets slacken much on this side; cannot
sell the iron for more than 37s. Wish had your orders if shall part with
it at that rate. No ships since the 11th. London fleet may be in the
roads before the late storm, so hope they are safe: if have not insured,
please omit the same till hear farther; the weather proving good, hope
the danger is over.

My last transmitted three bills exchange, import L315; please signify if
are come to hand, and accepted, and give credit in account current to
your humble servant.'

I pretend to say there is nothing in all this letter, though appearing
to have the face of a considerable dealer, but what may be taken any
way, _pro_ or _con_. The Hamburgh factor may be a ship, or a horse--be
bound to Hamburgh or London. What shall be dispatched may be one thing,
or any thing, or every thing, in a former letter. No ships since the
11th, may be no ships come in, or no ships gone out. The London fleet
being in the roads, it may be the London fleet from Hull to London, or
from London to Hull, both being often at sea together. The roads may be
Yarmouth roads, or Grimsby, or, indeed, any where.

By such a way of writing, no orders can be binding to him that gives
them, or to him they are given to. A merchant writes to his factor at
Lisbon:--

'Please to send, per first ship, 150 chests best Seville, and 200 pipes
best Lisbon white. May value yourself per exchange L1250 sterling, for
the account of above orders. Suppose you can send the sloop to Seville
for the ordered chests, &c. I am.'

Here is the order to send a cargo, with a _please to send_; so the
factor may let it alone if he does not please.[8] The order is 150
chests Seville; it is supposed he means oranges, but it may be 150
chests orange-trees as well, or chests of oil, or any thing. Lisbon
white, may be wine or any thing else, though it is supposed to be wine.
He may draw L1250, but he may refuse to accept it if he pleases, for any
thing such an order as that obliges him.

On the contrary, orders ought to be plain and explicit; and he ought to
have assured him, that on his drawing on him, his bills should be
honoured--that is, accepted and paid.

I know this affectation of style is accounted very grand, looks modish,
and has a kind of majestic greatness in it; but the best merchants in
the world are come off from it, and now choose to write plain and
intelligibly: much less should country tradesmen, citizens, and
shopkeepers, whose business is plainness and mere trade, make use of it.

I have mentioned this in the beginning of this work, because, indeed, it
is the beginning of a tradesman's business. When a tradesman takes an
apprentice, the first thing he does for him, after he takes him from
behind his counter, after he lets him into his counting-house and his
books, and after trusting him with his more private business--I say, the
first thing is to let him write letters to his dealers, and correspond
with his friends; and this he does in his master's name, subscribing his
letters thus:--

I am, for my master, A.B. and Company, your
humble servant, C.D.
And beginning thus:--Sir,

I am ordered by my master A.B. to advise you that--

Or thus:--

Sir, By my master's order, I am to signify to you that

Orders for goods ought to be very explicit and particular, that the
dealer may not mistake, especially if it be orders from a tradesman to a
manufacturer to make goods, or to buy goods, either of such a quality,
or to such a pattern; in which, if the goods are made to the colours,
and of a marketable goodness, and within the time limited, the person
ordering them cannot refuse to receive them, and make himself debtor to
the maker. On the contrary, if the goods are not of a marketable
goodness, or not to the patterns, or are not sent within the time, the
maker ought not to expect they should be received. For example--

The tradesman, or warehouseman, or what else we may call him, writes to
his correspondent at Devizes, in Wiltshire, thus:--

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