A \ B \ C \ D \ E \ F \ G \ H \ I \ J \ K \ L \ M \ N \ O \ P \ R \ S \ T \ U \ V \ W \Z

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

D >> Daniel Defoe >> The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.)




This has been controverted, I know, in some cases, but I have always
found, that by the most experienced merchants, and especially in places
of the greatest business abroad, it was always given in favour of the
remitter, namely, that the right of guiding the payment is in him, all
the time the bill is running; and no bill can or ought to be paid before
it is due, without the declared assent of the remitter, signified under
his hand, and attested by a public notary. There are, I say, abundance
of niceties in the matter of foreign exchanges, and in the manner of
drawing, accepting, and protesting bills; but as I am now speaking with,
and have confined my discourse in this work to, the inland tradesmen of
England, I think it would be as unprofitable to them to meddle with
this, as it would be difficult to them to understand it.[48]

I return, therefore, to the subject in hand, as well as to the people to
whom I have all along directed my discourse.

Though the inland tradesmen do not, and need not, acquaint themselves
with the manner of foreign exchanges, yet there is a great deal of
business done by exchange among ourselves, and at home, and in which our
inland trade is chiefly concerned; and as this is the reason why I speak
so much, and repeat it so often to the tradesman for whose instruction I
am writing, that he should maintain the credit of his bills, so it may
not be amiss to give the tradesman some directions concerning such
bills.

He is to consider, that, in general, bills pass through a number of
hands, by indorsation from one to another, and that if the bill comes
to be protested afterwards and returned, it goes back again through all
those hands with this mark of the tradesman's disgrace upon it, namely,
that it has been accepted, but that the man who accepted it is not able
to pay it, than which nothing can expose the tradesman more.

He is to consider that the grand characteristic of a tradesman, and by
which his credit is rated, is this of paying his bills well or ill. If
any man goes to the neighbours or dealers of a tradesman to inquire of
his credit, or his fame in business, which is often done upon almost
every extraordinary occasion, the first question is, 'How does he pay
his bills?' As when we go to a master or mistress to inquire the
character of a maid-servant, one of the first questions generally is of
her probity, 'Is she honest?' so here, if you would be able to judge of
the man, your first question is, 'What for a paymaster is he? How does
he pay his bills?'--strongly intimating, and, indeed, very reasonably,
that if he has any credit, or any regard to his credit, he will be sure
to pay his bills well; and if he does not pay his bills well, he cannot
be sound at bottom, because he would never suffer a slur there, if it
were possible for him to avoid it. On the other hand, if a tradesman
pays his bills punctually, let whatever other slur be upon his
reputation, his credit will hold good. I knew a man in the city, who
upon all occasions of business issued promissory notes, or notes under
his hand, at such or such time, and it was for an immense sum of money
that he gave out such notes; so that they became frequent in trade, and
at length people began to carry them about to discount, which lessened
the gentleman so much, though he was really a man of substance, that his
bills went at last at twenty per cent, discount or more; and yet this
man maintained his credit by this, that though he would always take as
much time as he could get in these notes, yet when they came due they
were always punctually paid to a day; no man came twice for his money.

This was a trying case, for though upon the multitude of his notes that
were out, and by reason of the large discount given upon them, his
credit at first suffered exceedingly, and men began to talk very
dubiously of him, yet upon the punctual discharge of them when due, it
began presently to be taken notice of, and said openly how well he paid
his notes; upon which presently the rate of his discount fell, and in a
short time all his notes were at _par_; so that punctual payment, in
spite of rumour, and of a rumour not so ill grounded as rumours
generally are, prevailed and established the credit of the person, who
was indeed rich at bottom, but might have found it hard enough to have
stood it, if, as his bills had a high discount upon them, they had been
ill paid too. All which confirms what I have hitherto alleged, namely,
of how much concern it is for a tradesman to pay his bills and
promissory notes very punctually.

I might argue here how much it is his interest to do so, and how it
enables him to coin as many bills as he pleases--in short, a man whose
notes are currently paid, and the credit of whose bills is established
by their being punctually paid, has an infinite advantage in trade; he
is a bank to himself; he can buy what bargains he pleases; no advantage
in business offers but he can grasp at it, for his notes are current as
another man's cash; if he buys at time in the country, he has nothing to
do but to order them to draw for the money when it is due, and he gains
all the time given in the bills into the bargain.

If he knows what he buys, and how to put it off, he buys a thousand
pounds' worth of goods at once, sells them for less time than he buys
at, and pays them with their own money. I might swell this discourse to
a volume by itself, to set out the particular profit that such a man may
make of his credit, and how he can raise what sums he will, by buying
goods, and by ordering the people whom he is to pay in the country, to
draw bills on him. Nor is it any loss to those he buys of, for as all
the remitters of money know his bills, and they are currently paid, they
never scruple delivering their money upon his bills, so that the
countryman or manufacturer is effectually supplied, and the time given
in the bill is the property of the current dealer on whom they are
drawn.

But, then, let me add a caution here for the best of tradesmen not to
neglect--namely, as the tradesman should take care to pay his bills and
notes currently, so, that he may do it, he must be careful what notes he
issues out, and how he suffers others to draw on him. He that is careful
of his reputation in business, will also be cautious not to let any man
he deals with over draw him, or draw upon him before the money drawn for
his due. And as to notes promissory, or under his hand, he is careful
not to give out such notes but on good occasions, and where he has the
effects in his hand to answer them; this keeps his cash whole, and
preserves his ability of performing and punctually paying when the notes
become due; and the want of this caution has ruined the reputation of a
tradesman many times, when he might otherwise have preserved himself in
as good credit and condition as other men.

All these cautions are made thus needful on account of that one useful
maxim, that the tradesman's _all_ depends upon his punctual complying
with the payment of his bills.

FOOTNOTES:

[46] [By factors, Defoe seems to mean the class of persons whom we now
name commission-agents.]

[47] [All bills and promissory notes, inland or foreign, payable in this
country, are allowed three days of grace beyond the actual period
expressed upon them; thus, a bill drawn at thirty days after date, is
payable only on the thirty-third day. If bills be not presented for
payment on the last day of grace, they cannot be protested, and
consitute only an evidence of the debt for legal recovery. If the last
day of grace be a Sunday, the bill is presentible on the Saturday
previous.]

[48] [In consequence of the great extension of commerce since the time
of Defoe, a short explanation of the principle and practice of drawing
foreign bills of exchange now seems necessary. Foreign bills of exchange
are used, in order to avoid the necessity of transmitting actual money
from one country to another. A merchant, for instance, in Nova Scotia,
is owing L100 to a manufacturer in Glasgow: he seeks out some one who is
a creditor to that amount to some person in Britain; we shall say he
finds a captain in the army who wishes to draw L100 from his agent in
London. To this captain the Nova Scotia merchant pays L100, and gets his
order or bill on the London agent, which bill he sends to the
manufacturer in Glasgow, and the manufacturer transmits the bill to
London for payment; any banker, indeed, will give him the money for it,
deducting a small commission. Thus two debts are liquidated, without the
transmission of a farthing in money. The demand for bills in foreign
countries to send to Great Britain, has the effect of raising them to a
premium, which is called the rate of exchange, and is a burden which
falls on the purchaser of the bill. Foreign bills of exchange drawn on
parties in Great Britain, have expressed upon them the number of days
after sight at which they are to be payable. Thus, a merchant on
receiving a foreign bill drawn at 'thirty days after sight,' hastens to
get it 'sighted,' or shown to the party on whom it is drawn, and that
party accepts it, at the same time marking the date of doing so. The
bill is then complete and negociable, and is presented for payment to
the acceptor at the end of the time specified, allowing the usual three
days of grace. Should the bill not be accepted on being 'sighted,' it is
a dishonoured bill, and is returned with a legal protest to the foreign
correspondent. To avert, as far as possible, the loss of foreign bills
by shipwreck, a set of three bills is drawn for each transaction, called
first, second, and third, of the same tenor. For example: 'Thirty days
after sight pay this my first bill of exchange, for the sum of L100
sterling; second and third of the same tenor being unpaid.' This first
bill is first sent, and by next conveyance the second is sent. Should
the first arrive safely, the second, on making its appearance, is
destroyed. The third is retained by the foreign correspondent till he
hear whether the former two have arrived at their destination, and is
sent only if they have been lost. On receiving whichever comes first, it
is the duty of the receiver to communicate intelligence of the fact to
the sender.]

Copyright (c) 2007. bestextbooks.com. All rights reserved.

Amerel - "The Summer Holidays"

Various - "The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 47, September 30, 1897"

Various - "St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 2, December, 1877"

Isaac G. Briggs - "Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Neurasthenia"

Despite red faces over its fictional content, the Holocaust memoir that impressed Oprah Winfrey is still to be published
Articles published by guardian.co.uk Books

Obituary: Donald Westlake

The disputed Holocaust memoir which was dropped from Penguin Group's publication schedule at the end of December is set to appear as a work of fiction.

Herman Rosenblat's memoir - which Oprah Winfrey called "the single greatest love story" she had heard in two decades in television - recounted how as a teenage boy in a Nazi concentration camp, he was kept alive by the food which was thrown to him by a young girl, Roma Radzicky. Penguin's US imprint Berkley Books had planned to publish the story, which sees Rosenblat reunited with Radzicky on a blind date years later, as Angel at the Fence: the True Story of a Love That Survived, next month.

But a Holocaust historian said it would have been impossible to approach the fence in the Schlieben concentration camp to throw food over it, concluding that this part of the story was made-up. Berkley initially defended the book, saying it was a work of memory, but then decided to cancel its planned publication, and demanded the return of the advance it had made to Rosenblat. A $25m film based on the book, to be called The Flower of the Fence, is still going ahead, with production due to start this year.

Publisher York House Press based in White Plains, New York, has entered into a tentative agreement with the film production company to publish a novel based on the film script early this spring. It said the book would be "grounded in fact", and would rise "to the proper levels of artistic value, ethical conduct and social responsibility".

A spokesperson for York House Press condemned the attacks which were made on the 80-year-old Rosenblat after the veracity of his story was questioned, describing them as a "savage" response to what was otherwise "a credible, heart-wrenching, and verifiable account" of his time in the concentration camp.

"No deliberate untruth is permissible, but beneath any fabrication is motivation and intent. We believe Mr. Rosenblat's motivations were very human, understandable and forgivable," the spokesperson said. "It is beyond our expertise to know how Holocaust survivors cope with their trauma. Do they deny, try to forget, rationalise or fantasise and promote fiction along with truth? Perhaps the coping mechanisms are as individual as the survivors themselves."

The president of the company producing the film, Harris Salomon from Atlantic Overseas Productions, said the book, "regardless of its shortcomings", would "challenge, educate and enlighten" readers about the horrors of the Holocaust. "The documented fact, acknowledged by his critics, is that Herman is a survivor of concentration camps," he said.

But Rosenblat's agent, Andrea Hurst, said that neither she nor Rosenblat were involved with this version of his story. "Usually book rights from films come out after the movie is released," she told guardian.co.uk. "I think the timing on this is very insensitive."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Theatre review: Three Women / Jermyn Street, London
Obituary: Prolific crime novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and man of many pseudonyms