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

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The duties of life, I say, must not interfere with one another, must not
jostle one another out of the place, or so break in as to be prejudicial
to one another. It is certainly the duty of every Christian to worship
God, to pay his homage morning and evening to his Maker, and at all
other proper seasons to behave as becomes a sincere worshipper of God;
nor must any avocation, either of business or nature, however necessary,
interfere with this duty, either in public or in private. This is
plainly asserting the necessity of the duty, so no man can pretend to
evade that.

But the duties of nature and religion also have such particular seasons,
and those seasons so proper to themselves, and so stated, as not to
break in or trench upon one another, that we are really without excuse,
if we let any one be pleaded for the neglect of the other. Food, sleep,
rest, and the necessities of nature, are either reserved for the night,
which is appointed for man to rest, or take up so little room in the
day, that they can never be pleaded in bar of either religion or
employment.

He, indeed, who will sleep when he should work, and perhaps drink when
he should sleep, turns nature bottom upwards, inverts the appointment of
providence, and must account to himself, and afterwards to a higher
judge, for the neglect.

The devil--if it be the devil that tempts, for I would not wrong Satan
himself--plays our duties often one against another; and to bring us, if
possible, into confusion in our conduct, subtly throws religion out of
its place, to put it in our way, and to urge us to a breach of what we
ought to do: besides this subtle tempter--for, as above, I won't charge
it all upon the devil--we have a great hand in it ourselves; but let it
be who it will, I say, this subtle tempter hurries the well-meaning
tradesman to act in all manner of irregularity, that he may confound
religion and business, and in the end may destroy both.

When the tradesman well inclined rises early in the morning, and is
moved, as in duty to his Maker he ought, to pay his morning vows to him
either in his closet, or at the church, where he hears the six o'clock
bell ring to call his neighbours to the same duty--then the secret hint
comes across his happy intention, that he must go to such or such a
place, that he may be back time enough for such other business as has
been appointed over-night, and both perhaps may be both lawful and
necessary; so his diligence oppresses his religion, and away he runs to
transact his business, and neglects his morning sacrifice to his Maker.

On the other hand, and at another time, being in his shop, or his
counting-house, or warehouse, a vast throng of business upon his hands,
and the world in his head, when it is highly his duty to attend it, and
shall be to his prejudice to absent himself--then the same deceiver
presses him earnestly to go to his closet, or to the church to prayers,
during which time his customer goes to another place, the neighbours
miss him in his shop, his business is lost, his reputation suffers; and
by this turned into a practice, the man may say his prayers so long and
so unseasonably till he is undone, and not a creditor he has (I may give
it him from experience) will use him the better, or show him the more
favour, when a commission of bankrupt comes out against him.

Thus, I knew once a zealous, pious, religious tradesman, who would
almost shut up his shop every day about nine or ten o'clock to call all
his family together to prayers; and yet he was no presbyterian, I assure
you; I say, he would almost shut up his shop, for he would suffer none
of his servants to be absent from his family worship.

This man had certainly been right, had he made all his family get up by
six o'clock in the morning, and called them to prayers before he had
opened his shop; but instead of that, he first suffered sleep to
interfere with religion, and lying a-bed to postpone and jostle out his
prayers--and then, to make God Almighty amends upon himself, wounds his
family by making his prayers interfere with his trade, and shuts his
customers out of his shop; the end of which was, the poor good man
deceived himself, and lost his business.

Another tradesman, whom I knew personally well, was raised in the
morning very early, by the outcries of his wife, to go and fetch a
midwife. It was necessary, in his way, to go by a church, where there
was always, on that day of the week, a morning sermon early, for the
supplying the devotion of such early Christians as he; so the honest
man, seeing the door open, steps in, and seeing the minister just gone
up into the pulpit, sits down, joins in the prayers, hears the sermon,
and goes very gravely home again; in short, his earnestness in the
worship, and attention to what he had heard, quite put the errand he was
sent about out of his head; and the poor woman in travail, after having
waited long for the return of her husband with the midwife, was obliged
(having run an extreme hazard by depending on his expedition) to
dispatch other messengers, who fetched the midwife, and she was come,
and the work over, long before the sermon was done, or that any body
heard of the husband: at last, he was met coming gravely home from the
church, when being upbraided with his negligence, in a dreadful surprise
he struck his hands together, and cried out, 'How is my wife? I profess
I forgot it!'

What shall we say now to this ill-timed devotion, and who must tempt the
poor man to this neglect? Certainly, had he gone for the midwife, it had
been much more his duty, than to go to hear a sermon at that time.

I knew also another tradesman, who was such a sermon-hunter, and, as
there are lectures and sermons preached in London, either in the
churches or meeting-houses, almost every day in the week, used so
assiduously to hunt out these occasions, that whether it was in a church
or meeting-house, or both, he was always abroad to hear a sermon, at
least once every day, and sometimes more; and the consequence was, that
the man lost his trade, his shop was entirely neglected, the time which
was proper for him to apply to his business was misapplied, his trade
fell off, and the man broke.

Now it is true, and I ought to take notice of it also, that, though
these things happen, and may wrong a tradesman, yet it is oftener, ten
times for once, that tradesmen neglect their shop and business to follow
the track of their vices and extravagence--some by taverns, others to
the gaming-houses, others to balls and masquerades, plays, harlequins,
and operas, very few by too much religion.

But my inference is still sound, and the more effectually so as to that
part; for if our business and trades are not to be neglected, no, not
for the extraordinary excursions of religion, and religious duties, much
less are they to be neglected for vices and extravagances.

This is an age of gallantry and gaiety, and never was the city
transposed to the court as it is now; the play-houses and balls are now
filled with citizens and young tradesmen, instead of gentlemen and
families of distinction; the shopkeepers wear a differing garb now, and
are seen with their long wigs and swords, rather than with aprons on, as
was formerly the figure they made.

But what is the difference in the consequences? You did not see in those
days acts of grace for the relief of insolvent debtors almost every
session of parliament, and yet the jails filled with insolvents before
the next year, though ten or twelve thousand have been released at a
time by those acts.

Nor did you hear of so many commissions of bankrupt every week in the
Gazette, as is now the case; in a word, whether you take the lower sort
of tradesman, or the higher, where there were twenty that failed in
those days, I believe I speak within compass if I say that five hundred
turn insolvent now; it is, as I said above, an age of pleasure, and as
the wise man said long ago, 'He that loves pleasure shall be a poor
man'--so it is now; it is an age of drunkenness and extravagance, and
thousands ruin themselves by that; it is an age of luxurious and
expensive living, and thousands more undo themselves by that; but, among
all our vices, nothing ruins a tradesman so effectually as the neglect
of his business: it is true, all those things prompt men to neglect
their business, but the more seasonable is the advice; either enter upon
no trade, undertake no business, or, having undertaken it, pursue it
diligently: drive your trade, that the world may not drive you out of
trade, and ruin and undo you. Without diligence a man can never
thoroughly understand his business and how should a man thrive, when he
does not perfectly know what he is doing, or how to do it? Application
to his trade teaches him how to carry it on, as much as his going
apprentice taught him how to set it up. Certainly, that man shall never
improve in his trading knowledge, that does not know his business, or
how to carry it on: the diligent tradesman is always the knowing and
complete tradesman.

Now, in order to have a man apply heartily, and pursue earnestly, the
business he is engaged in, there is yet another thing necessary, namely,
that he should delight in it: to follow a trade, and not to love and
delight in it, is a slavery, a bondage, not a business: the shop is a
bridewell, and the warehouse a house of correction to the tradesman, if
he does not delight in his trade. While he is bound, as we say, to keep
his shop, he is like the galley-slave chained down to the oar; he tugs
and labours indeed, and exerts the utmost of his strength, for fear of
the strapado, and because he is obliged to do it; but when he is on
shore, and is out from the bank, he abhors the labour, and hates to come
to it again.

To delight in business is making business pleasant and agreeable; and
such a tradesman cannot but be diligent in it, which, according to
Solomon, makes him certainly rich, and in time raises him above the
world and able to instruct and encourage those who come after him.

CHAPTER VI

OVER-TRADING

It is an observation, indeed, of my own, but I believe it will hold true
almost in all the chief trading towns in England, that there are more
tradesmen undone by having too much trade, than for want of trade.
Over-trading is among tradesmen as over-lifting is among strong men:
such people, vain of the strengh, and their pride prompting them to put
it to the utmost trial, at last lift at something too heavy for them,
over-strain their sinews, break some of nature's bands, and are cripples
ever after.

I take over-trading to be to a shopkeeper as ambition is to a prince.
The late king of France, the great king Louis, ambition led him to
invade the dominions of his neighbours; and while upon the empire here,
or the states-general there, or the Spanish Netherlands on another
quarter, he was an over-match for every one, and, in their single
capacity, he gained from them all; but at last pride made him think
himself a match for them all together, and he entered into a declared
war against the emperor and the empire, the kings of Spain and Great
Britain, and the states of Holland, all at once. And what was the
consequence? They reduced him to the utmost distress, he lost all his
conquests, was obliged, by a dishonourable peace, to quit what he had
got by encroachment, to demolish his invincible towns, such as Pignerol,
Dunkirk, &c., the two strongest fortresses in Europe; and, in a word,
like a bankrupt monarch, he may, in many cases, be said to have died a
beggar.

Thus the strong man in the fable, who by main strength used to rive a
tree, undertook one at last which was too strong for him, and it closed
upon his fingers, and held him till the wild beasts came and devoured
him. Though the story is a fable, the moral is good to my present
purpose, and is not at all above my subject; I mean that of a tradesman,
who should be warned against over-trading, as earnestly, and with as
much passion, as I would warn a dealer in gunpowder to be wary of fire,
or a distiller or rectifier of spirits to moderate his furnace, lest the
heads of his stills fly off, and he should be scalded to death.

For a young tradesman to over-trade himself, is like a young swimmer
going out of his depth, when, if help does not come immediately, it is a
thousand to one but he sinks, and is drowned. All rash adventures are
condemned by the prudent part of mankind; but it is as hard to restrain
youth in trade, as it is in any other thing, where the advantage stands
in view, and the danger out of sight; the profits of trade are baits to
the avaricious shopkeeper, and he is forward to reckon them up to
himself, but does not perhaps cast up the difficulty which there may be
to compass it, or the unhappy consequences of a miscarriage.

For want of this consideration, the tradesman oftentimes drowns, as I
may call it, even within his depth--that is, he sinks when he has really
the substance at bottom to keep him up--and this is all owing to an
adventurous bold spirit in trade, joined with too great a gust of gain.
Avarice is the ruin of many people besides tradesmen; and I might give
the late South Sea calamity for an example in which the longest heads
were most overreached, not so much by the wit or cunning of those they
had to deal with as by the secret promptings of their own avarice;
wherein they abundantly verified an old proverbial speech or saying,
namely, 'All covet, all lose;' so it was there indeed, and the
cunningest, wisest, sharpest, men lost the most money.

There are two things which may be properly called over-trading, in a
young beginner; and by both which tradesmen are often overthrown.

1. Trading beyond their stock.

2. Giving too large credit.

A tradesman ought to consider and measure well the extent of his own
strengh; his stock of money, and credit, is properly his beginning; for
credit is a stock as well as money. He that takes too much credit is
really in as much danger as he that gives too much credit; and the
danger lies particularly in this, if the tradesman over-buys himself,
that is, buys faster than he can sell, buying upon credit, the payments
perhaps become due too soon for him; the goods not being sold, he must
answer the bills upon the strength of his proper stock--that is, pay for
them out of his own cash; if that should not hold out, he is obliged to
put off his bills after they are due, or suffer the impertinence of
being dunned by the creditor, and perhaps by servants and apprentices,
and that with the usual indecencies of such kind of people.

This impairs his credit, and if he comes to deal with the same merchant,
or clothier, or other tradesman again, he is treated like one that is
but an indifferent paymaster; and though they may give him credit as
before, yet depending that if he bargains for six months, he will take
eight or nine in the payment, they consider it in the price, and use him
accordingly; and this impairs his gain, so that loss of credit is indeed
loss of money, and this weakens him both ways.

A tradesman, therefore, especially at his beginning, ought to be very
wary of taking too much credit; he had much better slip the occasion of
buying now and then a bargain to his advantage, for that is usually the
temptation, than buying a greater quantity of goods than he can pay for,
run into debt, and be insulted, and at last ruined. Merchants, and
wholesale dealers, to put off their goods, are very apt to prompt young
shopkeepers and young tradesmen to buy great quantities of goods, and
take large credit at first; but it is a snare that many a young beginner
has fallen into, and been ruined in the very bud; for if the young
beginner does not find a vent for the quantity, he is undone; for at the
time of payment the merchant expects his money, whether the goods are
sold or not; and if he cannot pay, he is gone at once.

The tradesman that buys warily, always pays surely, and every young
beginner ought to buy cautiously; if he has money to pay, he need never
fear goods to be had; the merchants' warehouses are always open, and he
may supply himself upon all occasions, as he wants, and as his customers
call.

It may pass for a kind of an objection here, that there are some goods
which a tradesman may deal in, which are to be bought at such and such
markets only, and at such and such fairs only, that is to say, are
chiefly bought there; as the cheesemongers buy their stocks of cheese
and of butter, the cheese at several fairs in Warwickshire, as at
Atherston fair in particular, or at fair in Gloucestershire, and at
Sturbridge fair, near Cambridge; and their butter at Ipswich fair, in
Suffolk; and so of many other things; but the answer is plain: those
things which are generally bought thus, are ready money goods, and the
tradesman has a sure rule for buying, namely, his cash. But as I am
speaking of taking credit, so I must be necessarily supposed to speak of
such goods as are bought upon credit, as the linen-draper buys of the
Hamburgh and Dutch merchants, the woollen-draper of the Blackwell-hall
men, the haberdasher of the thread merchants, the mercer of the weavers
and Italian merchants, the silk-man of the Turkey merchants, and the
like; here they are under no necessity of running deep into debt, but
may buy sparingly, and recruit again as they sell off.

I know some tradesmen are very fond of seeing their shops well-stocked,
and their warehouses full of goods, and this is a snare to them, and
brings them to buy in more goods than they want; but this is a great
error, either in their judgment or their vanity; for, except in
retailers' shops, and that in some trades where they must have a great
choice of goods, or else may want a trade, otherwise a well-experienced
tradesman had rather see his warehouse too empty than too full: if it be
too empty, he can fill it when he pleases, if his credit be good, or his
cash strong; but a thronged warehouse is a sign of a want of customers,
and of a bad market; whereas, an empty warehouse is a sign of a nimble
demand.[12]

Let no young tradesman value himself upon having a very great throng of
goods in hand, having just a necessary supply to produce a choice of new
and fashionable goods--nay, though he be a mercer, for they are the most
under the necessity of a large stock of goods; but I say, supposing even
the mercer to have a tolerable show and choice of fashionable goods,
that gives his shop a reputation, he derives no credit at all from a
throng of old shopkeepers, as they call them, namely, out-of-fashion
things: but in other trades it is much more a needful caution; a few
goods, and a quick sale, is the beauty of a tradesman's warehouse, or
shop either; and it is his wisdom to keep himself in that posture that
his payments may come in on his front as fast as they go out in his
rear; that he may be able to answer the demands of his merchants or
dealers, and, if possible, let no man come twice for his money.

The reason of this is plain, and leads me back to where I began; credit
is stock, and, if well supported, is as good as a stock, and will be as
durable. A tradesman whose credit is good, untouched, unspotted, and
who, as above, has maintained it with care, shall in many cases buy his
goods as cheap at three or four months' time of payment, as another man
shall with ready money--I say in some cases, and in goods which are
ordinarily sold for time, as all our manufactures, the bay trade
excepted, generally are.

He, then, that keeps his credit unshaken, has a double stock--I mean, it
is an addition to his real stock, and often superior to it: nay, I have
known several considerable tradesmen in this city who have traded with
great success, and to a very considerable degree, and yet have not had
at bottom one shilling real stock; but by the strength of their
reputation, being sober and diligent, and having with care preserved the
character of honest men, and the credit of their business, by cautious
dealing and punctual payments, they have gone on till the gain of their
trade has effectually established them, and they have raised estates out
of nothing.

But to return to the dark side, namely, over-trading; the second danger
is the giving too much credit. He that takes credit may give credit, but
he must be exceedingly watchful; for it is the most dangerous state of
life that a tradesman can live in, for he is in as much jeopardy as a
seaman upon a lee-shore.

If the people he trusts fail, or fail but of a punctual compliance with
him, he can never support his own credit, unless by the caution I am now
giving; that is, to be very sure not to give so much credit as he takes.

By the word _so much_, I must be understood thus--either he must sell
for shorter time than he takes, or in less quantity; the last is the
safest, namely, that he should be sure not to trust out so much as he is
trusted with. If he has a real stock, indeed, besides the credit he
takes, that, indeed, makes the case differ; and a man that can pay his
own debts, whether other people pay him or no, that man is out of the
question--he is past danger, and cannot be hurt; but if he trusts beyond
the extent of his stock and credit, even _he_ may be overthrown too.

There were many sad examples of this in the time of the late war,[13]
and in the days when the public credit was in a more precarious
condition that it has been since--I say, sad examples, namely, when
tradesmen in flourishing circumstances, and who had indeed good estates
at bottom, and were in full credit themselves, trusted the public with
too great sums; which, not coming in at the time expected, either by the
deficiency of the funds given by parliament, and the parliament
themselves not soon making good those deficiencies, or by other
disasters of those times; I say, their money not coming in to answer
their demands, they were ruined, at least their credit wounded, and some
quite undone, who yet, had they been paid, could have paid all their own
debts, and had good sums of money left.

Others, who had ability to afford it, were obliged to sell their tallies
and orders at forty or fifty per cent. loss; from whence proceeded that
black trade of buying and selling navy and victualling bills and
transport debts, by which the brokers and usurers got estates, and many
thousands of tradesmen were brought to nothing; even those that stood
it, lost great sums of money by selling their tallies: but credit cannot
be bought too dear; and the throwing away one half to save the other,
was much better than sinking under the burden; like sailors in a storm,
who, to lighten the ship wallowing in the trough of the sea, will throw
the choicest goods overboard, even to half the cargo, in order to keep
the ship above water, and save their lives.

These were terrible examples of over-trading indeed; the men were
tempted by the high price which the government gave for their goods, and
which they were obliged to give, because of the badness of the public
credit at that time; but this was not sufficient to make good the loss
sustained in the sale of the tallies, so that even they that sold and
were able to stand without ruin, were yet great sufferers, and had
enough to do to keep up their credit.

This was the effect of giving over-much credit; for though it was the
government itself which they trusted, yet neither could the government
itself keep up the sinking credit of those whom it was indebted to; and,
indeed, how should it, when it was not able to support its own credit?
But that by the way. I return to the young tradesman, whom we are now
speaking about.

It is his greatest prudence, therefore, after he has considered his own
fund, and the stock he has to rest upon--I say, his next business is to
take care of his credit, and, next to limiting his buying-liberty, let
him be sure to limit his selling. Could the tradesman buy all upon
credit, and sell all for ready money, he might turn usurer, and put his
own stock out to interest, or buy land with it, for he would have no
occasion for one shilling of it; but since that is not expected, nor can
be done, it is his business to act with prudence in both parts--I mean
of taking and giving credit--and the best rule to be given him for it
is, never to give so much credit as he takes, by at least one-third
part.

By giving credit, I do not mean, that even all the goods which he buys
upon credit, may not be sold upon credit; perhaps they are goods which
are usually sold so, and no otherwise; but the alternative is before him
thus--either he must not give so much credit in quantity of goods, or
not so long credit in relation to time--for example:

Suppose the young tradesman buys ten thousand pounds' value of goods on
credit, and this ten thousand pounds are sold for eleven thousand pounds
likewise on credit; if the time given be the same, the man is in a state
of apparent destruction, and it is a hundred to one but he is blown up:
perhaps he owes the ten thousand pounds to twenty men, perhaps the
eleven thousand pounds is owing to him by two hundred men--it is scarce
possible that these two hundred petty customers of his, should all so
punctually comply with their payments as to enable him to comply with
his; and if two or three thousand pounds fall short, the poor tradesman,
unless he has a fund to support the deficiency, must be undone.

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