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