s, who perhaps have little or no business, at
least with him, lay hold of him, and they agree to go off Change to the
tavern together. By complying with this invitation, he omits speaking to
some of those merchants, as above, who, though he knew nothing of their
minds, yet it had been his business to have shown himself to them, and
have put himself in the way of their call; but omitting this, he goes
and drinks a bottle of wine, as above, and though he stays but an hour,
or, as we say, but a little while, yet unluckily, in that interim, the
merchant, not seeing him on the Exchange, calls at his warehouse as he
goes from the Exchange, but not finding him there either, he goes to
another warehouse, and gives his orders to the value of L300 or L400, to
a more diligent neighbour of the same business; by which he (the
warehouse-keeper) not only loses the profit of selling that parcel, or
serving that order, but the merchant is shown the way to his neighbour's
warehouse, who, being more diligent than himself, fails not to cultivate
his interest, obliges him with selling low, even to little or no gain,
for the first parcel; and so the unhappy tradesman loses not his selling
that parcel only, but loses the very customer, which was, as it were,
his peculiar property before.

All these things, and many more such, are the consequences of a
tradesman's absence from his business; and I therefore say, the expense
of time on such light occasions as these, is one of the worst sorts of
extravagance, and the most fatal to the tradesman, because really he
knows not what he loses.

Above all things, the tradesman should take care not to be absent in the
season of business, as I have mentioned above; for the warehouse-keeper
to be absent from 'Change, which is his market, or from his warehouse,
at the times when the merchants generally go about to buy, he had better
be absent all the rest of the day.

I know nothing is more frequent, than for the tradesman, when company
invites, or an excursion from business presses, to say, 'Well, come, I
have nothing to do; there is no business to hinder, there is nothing
neglected, I have no letters to write;' and the like; and away he goes
to take the air for the afternoon, or to sit and enjoy himself with a
friend--all of them things innocent and lawful in themselves; but here
is the crisis of a tradesman's prosperity. In that very moment business
presents, a valuable customer comes to buy, an unexpe