What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I consider a merchant someone who has a certain intuition and instinct, and - very important - knows how to run a business, knows the numbers.
For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.
We buy and sell goods. We buy low and sell higher - that's what we all do to make a profit. But I consider a merchant someone who has a certain intuition and instinct, and - very important - knows how to run a business, knows the numbers.
Each is under the most sacred obligation not to squander the material committed to him, not to sap his strength in folly and vice, and to see at the least that he delivers a product worthy the labor and cost which have been expended on him.
A merchant is someone who figures out how to select, how to smell, how to identify, how to feel, how to time, how to buy, how to sell, and how to hopefully have two plus two equal six.
To guard and to deal with others' goods as one's own is considered as the mark of proper trade among merchants.
The thought in my mind was that I must be a good merchant. If I were a good merchant, the rest would probably take care of itself.
But if anyone supposes that there was no commercial fraud in the Middle Ages, let him study the commercial legislation of England for that period, and his mind will be satisfied, if he has a mind to be satisfied and not only a fancy to run away with him.
And if these be unprincipled agents who scruple at nothing, he will be a bold man who will deny that there are always to be found men at the bar who lend their services most cordially to back and support these agents in their most desperate cases.
There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.