Abstract
Claims to be the oldest profession in the world have been made by a number of disciplines, and the merchant is no exception. The merchant, some would claim, was the medieval fount of the Industrial Revolution, maker of kings and princes, exploiter of commodity movements, shaper of empires and the mainspring of a colonial system that covered the world. His function is generally described as commerce, and its effect is to allow the manufacturer to communicate with distant markets. This, as Adam Smith1 pointed out, allowed the manufacturer to benefit from the division of labour, or, in today’s terms, large-scale operations.
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Notes and references
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© 1983 Michael J. Baker and The Macmillan Press Ltd
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Baker, M.J. et al. (1983). The distributive trades. In: Marketing. Macmillan Studies in Marketing Management. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06853-1_9
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