ys himself,
that is, buys faster than he can sell, buying upon credit, the payments
perhaps become due too soon for him; the goods not being sold, he must
answer the bills upon the strength of his proper stock--that is, pay for
them out of his own cash; if that should not hold out, he is obliged to
put off his bills after they are due, or suffer the impertinence of
being dunned by the creditor, and perhaps by servants and apprentices,
and that with the usual indecencies of such kind of people.

This impairs his credit, and if he comes to deal with the same merchant,
or clothier, or other tradesman again, he is treated like one that is
but an indifferent paymaster; and though they may give him credit as
before, yet depending that if he bargains for six months, he will take
eight or nine in the payment, they consider it in the price, and use him
accordingly; and this impairs his gain, so that loss of credit is indeed
loss of money, and this weakens him both ways.

A tradesman, therefore, especially at his beginning, ought to be very
wary of taking too much credit; he had much better slip the occasion of
buying now and then a bargain to his advantage, for that is usually the
temptation, than buying a greater quantity of goods than he can pay for,
run into debt, and be insulted, and at last ruined. Merchants, and
wholesale dealers, to put off their goods, are very apt to prompt young
shopkeepers and young tradesmen to buy great quantities of goods, and
take large credit at first; but it is a snare that many a young beginner
has fallen into, and been ruined in the very bud; for if the young
beginner does not find a vent for the quantity, he is undone; for at the
time of payment the merchant expects his money, whether the goods are
sold or not; and if he cannot pay, he is gone at once.

The tradesman that buys warily, always pays surely, and every young
beginner ought to buy cautiously; if he has money to pay, he need never
fear goods to be had; the merchants' warehouses are always open, and he
may supply himself upon all occasions, as he wants, and as his customers
call.

It may pass for a kind of an objection here, that there are some goods
which a tradesman may deal in, which are to be bought at such and such
markets only, and at such and such fairs only, that is to say, are
chiefly bought there; as the cheesemongers buy their stocks of cheese
and of butter, the cheese at several fairs in Warwickshire, as at
Atherston