derstanding of the meanest people, and speak of frauds used in the
most ordinary trades; but it is the like in almost all the goods a
tradesman can deal in. If you go to Warwickshire to buy cheese, you
demand the cheese 'of the first make,' because that is the best. If you
go to Suffolk to buy butter, you refuse the butter of the first make,
because that is not the best, but you bargain for 'the right rowing
butter,' which is the butter that is made when the cows are turned into
the grounds where the grass has been mowed, and the hay carried off, and
grown again: and so in many other cases. These things demonstrate
the advantages there are to a tradesman, in his being thoroughly
informed of the terms of art, and the peculiarities belonging to every
particular business, which, therefore, I call the language of trade.

As a merchant should understand all languages, at least the languages of
those countries which he trades to, or corresponds with, and the customs
and usages of those countries as to their commerce, so an English
tradesman ought to understand all the languages of trade, within the
circumference of his own country, at least, and particularly of such as
he may, by any of the consequences of his commerce, come to be any way
concerned with.

Especially, it is his business to acquaint himself with the terms and
trading style, as I call it, of those trades which he buys of, as to
those he sells to; supposing he sells to those who sell again, it is
their business to understand him, not his to understand them: and if he
finds they do not understand him, he will not fail to make their
ignorance be his advantage, unless he is honester and more conscientious
in his dealings than most of the tradesmen of this age seem to be.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] [_Sammel_ is a term of art the brickmakers use for those bricks
which are not well burnt, and which generally look of a pale red colour,
and as fair as the other, but are soft.]

CHAPTER IV

OF THE TRADESMAN ACQUAINTING HIMSELF WITH ALL BUSINESS IN GENERAL

It is the judgment of some experienced tradesmen, that no man ought to
go from one business to another, and launch out of the trade or
employment he was bred to: _Tractent fabrilia fabri_--'Every man to his
own business;' and, they tell us, men never thrive when they do so.

I will not enter into that dispute here. I know some good and
encouraging examples of the contrary, and which stand as remarkable
instances,