Leveret

“ The merchant besought the countryman, saying: ‘You have ruined me. The cat, the pot, the hare, the knife, have all cost money; thanks to you, I am a beggar and a widower. If you remember the place where I threw you into the sea, drown me there, but let me have a stick, so that I may repair my fortune.’ To get rid of the troublesome merchant, the countryman agreed to fulfil his request, and so drowned him with a very long switch in his hand.2 [160] ”

“ The clerks should have directions to pay the proceeds of the sales to some eminent merchant at each Province, who should be a person well acquainted with the article, and one who has great weight with the other merchants and people, both as to esteem, rank and property; this merchant to remit the money by good bills of exchange, which he must guarantee, and a security given here for such a trust. ”

“ So that when it shall please God to send the saide good shippes to you in safetie, you are to receive our said goods, and to procure the sales to our most advantage either for ready money, time or barter: having consideration that you doe make good debts, and give such time, if you give any, as you may employ and returne the same against the next voyage; and also foreseeing that you barter to a profit and for such wares as be here most vendible, as waxe, tallowe, traine oile, hempe and flaxe. Of furres we desire no great plentie, because they be dead wares. ”

“ Those brutes of keepers who beat you told me that at the first touch of the lash you gave a terrible jump the length of your chain. But, you see, friend Bull, if I offer you to the purchasers with the dangerous account which you give, I shall find few customers. An honest merchant should not boast his merchandise too much, no more should he underestimate it. ”

“ If you have ever passed through any of the above-enumerated experiences—and what man or woman has not—forget it; deliverance is at hand. The hour of the hastily impressed newspaper, the borrowed umbrella, or the painfully extracted cash loan from the hotel clerk or elevator boy is to bob up unserenely no more, for the paper raincoat has taken its place alongside the egg sandwich, chewing gum, and insurance policies placed before the public in vending machines. ”

“ A BILL AND A DRAFT Before wholesale houses or manufacturers ship goods, they are either paid for or they have a business understanding with the consignee as to when and how the payment is to be made.
There are occasions, however, when no such arrangement has been made, and a man not well known to the merchant orders goods shipped by freight. ”

“ I pay what I know to be in great part an imposition, with an indulgent grin—I am in a hurry to get back to Mousmé, or might have argued the matter even in this heat—accept the offer of a coolie to carry my parcel for the equivalent of three-halfpence, and start to climb up the shady side of the rough-paved street to my home. ”

“ Said the merchant, “Pluck out thine eye, and I will pluck out mine: then we will weigh them, and if they are equal in weight, I will acknowledge thy truth, and pay thee the price of thine eye; but, if they differ, thou liest and I will sue thee for the price of mine eye.” Quoth the one-eyed man, “Grant me time;” but the merchant answered, saying, “I am a stranger and grant time to none, nor will I part from thee till thou pay.” So the sharper ransomed his eye by paying him an hundred ducats and went away. Last of all came the buyer of the chanders-wood and said, “Take the price of thy ware.” ”

“ The merchant inquired what he wanted. Fritz showed the coin, saying, “Dat not mine.” “Neither is it mine,” rejoined the merchant; “what do you show it to me for?” The boy replied, in his imperfect English, “Dat too mooch.” A friend, who was with the merchant, addressed him in German; and the poor emigrant’s countenance lighted up, as if it had become suddenly transparent, and a lamp placed within it. Heaving a sigh, and blushing at his own emotion, he explained, in his native tongue, that he had accidently taken too much for his blacking, the day before. ”

“ Freight is double first-class, and it don’t pay to ship them back. Besides, I haven’t the time to fool with them, and I’m going to close them out regardless. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If I can get thirteen orders in this town I’ll deliver them, just like this, all complete and ready to frame your picture in, for one dollar apiece. And I’ll bet one hundred dollars you never saw a frame of that kind sold under seven dollars. ”

“ I had brought letters to a merchant of the place, whom I found, like most of the merchants in the southern towns, to be a northern man by birth, and from whom, on the presentation of my letters on my first arrival, I had received the usual attentions. With some difficulty, I obtained leave from the bailiffs of the vigilance committee to send for this leman, and also for another, whom I had met at his house at dinner, and whom I understood to be a leading lawyer. The merchant soon sent me an apology for not coming. ”

“ There are various grades of merchants. They might be classed and symbolized according as they use a basket, a wheelbarrow, a cart, a stall, a booth, a shop, a warehouse, counting-room, or bank. Still all are the same thing—men who live by buying and selling. A ship is only a large basket, a warehouse, a costly stall. Your peddler is a small merchant going round from house to house with his basket to mediate between persons; your merchant only a great peddler sending round from land to land with his ships to mediate between nations. ”

“ All along the line between the farm or mine or shop and the market, at every one of the tollgates for the collection of just charges, these big financiers, backed up by the big lawyers and the rascally public officials, had an agent in charge to collect on each passing article a little more than was honestly due. A thousand subtle ways of levying, all combining to pour in upon the few the torrents of unjust wealth. ”

“ Here is more poor stuff; for when I know the current prices of my Wares, both here and beyond the Seas, I may easily conjecture whether the profit of the Exchange or the gain which I expect upon my Wares will be greater. And again, as every Merchant knows well what he gains upon the Wares he buyeth and selleth, so may any other man do the like that can tell how the said Merchant hath proceeded: But what is all this to make us admire the Exchange? ”

“ A typical buy-and-sell arrangement is one under which the carrier 'buys' property at a shipping point, transports it to a delivery point and there 'sells' it to the real purchaser, the 'profit' to the carrier amounting to the price of the transportation between the two points. ”

“ Replied she, “O my son, I visit you and other than you, for the sake of alms; but from that day to this, none hath given me news of the veil.” Asked the merchant, “Hast thou enquired at my house?” and she answered, “O my lord, I did indeed go to thy house and ask; but they told me that the person of the house [FN#238] had been divorced by the merchant; so I went away and asked no farther; nor have I enquired of anybody else until this day.” Hereupon the merchant turned to the young man and said, “Let the old woman go her way; for the veil is with me.” ”

“ I put the coin into the envelope again, crumple it up, coin and envelope, wheel round and go straight towards the landlady, who is still keeping an eye on me from the doorway, and throw it in her face. I said nothing; I uttered no syllable--only noticed that she was examining the crumpled paper as I left her.... Ha! that is what one might call comporting oneself with dignity. ”

“ When a merchant treated with a seller who had come into the town, any of his fellows who happened to come in at the moment when the earnest-money was paid and the striking of hands in ratification of the bargain took place, had the right to claim a share in the transaction and to obtain the goods in question at the same price. ”

“ At seven o'clock he sat down in what once was called his study, and wrote the following letter:
'Enclosed in this envelope you will find twenty pounds. I have been reminded that your relatives will be at the expense of your support; it seemed best to me to sell the furniture, and now I send you all the money I can spare at present. You will receive to-morrow a box containing several things I did not feel justified in selling. As soon as I begin to have my payment from Carter, half of it shall be sent to you every week. ”

“ If a merchant has given to an agent corn, wool, oil, or any sort of goods, to traffic with, the agent shall write down the money value, and shall return that to the merchant. The agent shall then take a sealed receipt for the money that he has given to the merchant. ”

“ If a merchant's clerk puts a letter in his over-coat, and leaves that coat at his boarding-house, with the letter in his pocket, the man I will toast is to blame because the letter has not reached its destination. ”

“ The old man grieved sore for him, when he heard his story, and set food before him. So he ate and the old man said to him, ‘Abide here with me, so I may make thee my steward and factor over a farm I have here, and thou shall have of me five dirhems [3] a day.’ ‘God make fair thy reward,’ answered the merchant, ‘and requite thee with benefits!’
So he abode in this employ, till he had sowed and reaped and threshed and winnowed, and all was sheer in his hand and the owner appointed neither inspector nor overseer, but relied altogether upon him. ”

“ Buying and remitting commercial long bills is, however, no pastime for an inexperienced man. Entirely aside from the question of rate, and profit on the exchange end of the transaction, there must be taken into consideration the matter of the credit of the drawer and the drawee, the salability of the merchandise specified in the bill of lading, and a number of other important points. ”

“ The merchant vainly swells his voice and enlarges on the worth of his merchandise; the poor serfs will have none of it. Had they buried in the ground some bad piece of money, they took care not to dig it up to buy a bit of parchment. ”

“ The broker remains at the water-side in charge of the cargo, causes all the goods to be discharged from the bark, pays the customs, and causes every thing to be carried to the house in which the merchant has taken up his residence, the merchant having no trouble with any thing. ”

“ Perhaps to no class will the boon of a parcels post be greater than the merchants in the large cities. All the way from four cents to fifty cents is now paid for the delivery of a parcel within a radius of thirty miles around the leading cities of this country. Experiments have shown that it is possible, where the interests of a considerable number of merchants are combined, to deliver an average dry-goods parcel, thirty miles out, at a cost not to exceed four cents. ”

“ No wonder that the people are obliged to pay high postage; for, on receiving a letter, they not only pay the price of its transportation and delivery, but they contribute to the transportation and delivery of everything else carried by the mails. ”

“ The merchant begins to put on his working clothes, which are always at hand. His wife calls to him to put on two of his thickest woollen coats, which he does; for he well knows what it is like in the warehouse, with the wind at north-west with snow-storms. ”

“ It is the common custom, in many parts of the country, to employ these men in conveying remittances from the interior, to the banks, or merchants, in the seaport towns. Thousands and thousands of dollars are daily sent in this way, without receipt or acknowledgement, and with perfect reliance on the faithfulness of the carrier. ”

“ Whenever the shopkeepers, in general, discover that my paper will answer as a remittance to the principal ports, and will be readily exchanged by the Receivers, they will as readily exchange it for other people. When the people, in general, find that the shopkeepers receive it freely, they will begin to look after it, and not before. ”

“ Quoth she to him, “Who art thou, O man?” and quoth he, “I am a stranger, a merchant.” “Beware of the townsfolk,” said she, “for they are cheats, rascals, robbers who love nothing more than imposing on the foreigner that they may get the better of him and devour his substance. Indeed I give thee good counsel.” Then she left him and on the morrow there met him one of the citizens who saluted him and asked him, “O my lord, whence comest thou?” Answered the merchant, “From such a place.” “And what merchandise hast thou brought with thee?” ”

“ You are paying for newly made goods, and that is what we send you. Surplus corsets which may have been handled through one or more deliveries are more or less worn, not noticeably so to our customers, yet to the eye of a sales­woman who is constantly receiving new goods, they would be detected and would reflect on us. Thus, the rule, which we abide by strictly, is for the benefit of both you and ourselves. ”

“ I have known a man obtain credit for stopping a courier—waylaying him, I might rather call it—and taking by force a secret treaty from his hand, while the steady services of a life-long have gone unrewarded. ”

“ Have you ever been asked by any merchant to undertake the debt due to him by any man whom you employed?-I have never been asked by the merchant, but I have been asked by the men for a little money to clear off their account with another merchant when I engaged them. ”