a person who buys and sells commodities in gross, or deals in exchanges; or that traffics in the way of commerce, either by importation or exportation. Formerly every one who was a buyer or seller in the retail way was called a merchant, as they still are both in France and Holland; but here shopkeepers, or those who attend fairs or markets, have lost that appellation.

Previous to a person's engaging in a general trade, and becoming an universal dealer, he ought to treasure up such a fund of useful knowledge as will enable him to carry it on with ease to himself, and without risking such losses as great ill-concerted undertakings would naturally expose him to. A merchant should therefore be acquainted with the following parts of commercial learning: 1. He should write properly and correctly. 2. Understand all the rules of arithmetic that have any relation to commerce. 3. Know how to keep books of double and single entry, as journals, a leger, &c. 4. Be expert in the forms of invoices, accounts of sales, policies of insurances, charter-parties, bills of lading, and bills of exchange. 5. Know the agreement between the money, weights, and measures of all parts. 6. If he deal in silk, woollen, linen, or hair manufactures, he ought to know the places where these different sorts of merchandises are manufactured, in what manner they are made, what are the materials of which they are composed, and from whence they come, the preparations of these materials before working up, and the places to which they are sent after their fabrication. 7. He ought to know the lengths and breadths which silk, woollen, or hair stuffs, linen, cottons, fustians, &c. ought to have according to the several statutes and regulations of the places where they are manufactured, with their different prices, according to the times and seasons; and if he can add to his knowledge the different dyes and ingredients which form the various colours, it will not be useless. Merchant. 8. If he confines his trade to that of oils, wines, &c. he ought to inform himself particularly of the appearances of the succeeding erops, in order to regulate his disposing of what he has on hand; and to learn as exactly as he can what they have produced when got in, for his direction in making the necessary purchases and engagements. 9. He ought to be acquainted with the sorts of merchandise found more in one country than another, those which are scarce, their different species and qualities, and the properest method for bringing them to a good market either by land or sea. 10. To know which are the merchandises permitted or prohibited, as well on entering as going out of the kingdoms or states where they are made. 11. To be acquainted with the price of exchange, according to the course of different places, and what is the cause of its rise and fall. 12. To know the customs due on importation or exportation of merchandises, according to the usage, the tariffs, and regulations, of the places to which he trades. 13. To know the best manner of folding up, embaling, or tinning, the merchandises for their preservation. 14. To understand the price and condition of freighting and insuring ships and merchandise. 15. To be acquainted with the goodness and value of all necessaries for the construction and repairs of shipping, the different manner of their building; what the wood, the masts, cordage, cannons, sails, and all requisites, may cost. 16. To know the wages commonly given to the captains, officers, and sailors, and the manner of engaging with them. 17. He ought to understand the foreign languages, or at least as many of them as he can attain to; these may be reduced to four, viz. the Spanish, which is used not only in Spain but on the coast of Africa, from the Canaries to the Cape of Good Hope; the Italian, which is understood on all the coasts of the Mediterranean, and in many parts of the Levant: the German, which is understood in almost all the northern countries; and the French, which is now become almost universally current. 18. He ought to be acquainted with the consular jurisdiction, with the laws, eustoms, and usages of the different countries he does or may trade to; and in general all the ordinances and regulations both at home and abroad that have any relation to commerce. 19. Though it is not necessary for a merchant to be very learned, it is proper that he should know something of history, particularly that of his own country; geography, hydrography, or the science of navigation; and that he be acquainted with the discoveries of the countries in which trade is established, in what manner it is settled, of the companies formed to support those establishments, and of the colonies they have sent out.

All these branches of knowledge are of great service to a merchant who carries on an extensive commerce; but if his trade and his views are more limited, his learning and knowledge may be so too: but a material requisite for forming a merchant is, his having on all occasions a strict regard to truth, and his avoiding fraud and deceit as corroding cankers that must inevitably destroy his reputation and fortune.

Trade is a thing of so universal a nature, that it is impossible for the laws of Britain, or of any other nation, to determine all the affairs relating to it; therefore fore all nations, as well as Great Britain, show a particular regard to the law-merchant, which is a law made by the merchants among themselves; however, merchants and other strangers are subject to the laws of the country in which they reside. Foreign merchants are to sell their merchandise at the port where they land, in grofs, and not by retail; and they are allowed to be paid in gold or silver bullion, in foreign coin or jewels, which may be exported. If a difference arises between the king and any foreign state, the merchants of that state are allowed fix months time to sell their effects and leave the kingdom; during which time they are to remain free and unmolested in their persons and goods. See the articles Commerce, and Mercantile Law.