general in England and to some extent in America, in retail, wholesale and importing houses. Young men came to their life’s work through a course of experience and training well calculated to give an all-round view of the business. The apprenticeship system gradually decreased about the middle of the 19th century, and for years after no systematic training was provided for young people other than the haphazard effect of their experience. The first training of modern salesmen in America seems to have been by the subscription book houses that flourished during the ’seventies and ’eighties. Their canvassers or book agents were thoroughly drilled or schooled in the art of selling or in securing orders. During the ’nineties sales managers in specialty manufacturing concerns, notably the National Cash Register Co., of Dayton, O., began training their men in special schools held at the factory. Training salespeople for retail stores seems to have begun in the ’nineties in such subjects as arithmetic, spelling and writing and, in 1905, in sales methods, under the auspices of the Women’s Education and Industrial Union in Boston. Educational service to salespeople and other workers is now commonly found in the better classes of both wholesale and retail stores. A beginning has been made also in education in distribution and marketing in American colleges and public schools. Several colleges offer courses in marketing, selling, sales management and advertising. Many high schools give similar but somewhat more elementary courses. The main drawback to a rapid development of public education in marketing seems to be a shortage of teachers who can conduct such courses rather than lack of public interest. Considerable aid is being given to distribution through educational short courses, institutes, and conventions and extension classes conducted by some of the state universities on systems much like those adopted by the agricultural colleges in conducting educational work for farmers. Associations of dealers have given to their annual meetings more and more of the spirit of educational gatherings. Such an organization as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in its relation to distribution is largely a clearing-house for information and educational ideas for its members. One of the notable things in the progress made in educational work for marketing is the growing conception of the relation of the sciences of psychology and sociology when practically applied to the problems of marketing. In addition to these sciences the college courses in marketing now established include economics, statistics, geography and languages, in addition to more technical business subjects such as salesmanship, advertising, sales management and accounting.
Government Aid and Regulation. The U.S. Government has taken a growing interest in marketing, particularly of agricultural products. In 1913 there was established in the U.S. Department of Agriculture a Bureau of Markets to organize and carry on studies in the marketing of agricultural products, assist in working out grades for various commodities, attack problems of transportation and storage as affecting farm products and so on. The Bureau of Markets issues monthly a document known as the Market Reporter. The Bureau of Crop Estimates, another division of the Department of Agriculture, publishes monthly the Crop Reporter, which collects and presents information on the condition of production of agricultural products. The International Agricultural Institute, located at Rome, and supported by the coöperative action of most of the Governments of the world, collects and disseminates essential crop information for all parts of the world, information invaluable to the proper distribution of food products. Since the establishment of the Federal Bureau of Markets there has been a strong tendency to establish state and local marketing bureaus to act locally and to coöperate with the national bureau. Up to Feb. 15 1921, 31 American states had started such bureaus, commissions or departments. Proposals to establish similar organizations were then before other states and were almost certain to pass. The county agents, agricultural educational officers appointed by the states to assist in the development of agriculture, working in hundreds of counties scattered all over the United States, help to organize buying and selling clubs and actually serve in many cases as sales and purchasing agents for such goods as seed grains, fertilizers and so on. In addition, the Federal Government shows its interest in marketing through control of transportation, weights and measures, storage plants and exchanges, and prevents adulteration and mishandling of products entering into interstate trade. The U.S. Department of Commerce, through its Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, collects and distributes information on export trade. The U.S. Geological Survey reports the production and distribution of minerals and metals. The Forest Service reports the production of lumber and other wood products. The Federal Trade Commission has made intensive marketing studies of certain commodities and has drawn up outlines of accounting systems suited to retailers and manufacturers. The chief function of the Commission, however, is to act as a court of investigation and trial of unfair trade.
Bibliography.—A. B. Adams, “Marketing Perishable Farm Products,” Columbia University Studies, vol. lxxii., No. 3, 1916; “Reducing the Cost of Food Distribution,” Annals of the Amer. Acad. of Pol. and Soc. Science, Nov. 1913; H. H. Brace, The Value of Organized Speculation (1913); W. W. Cumberland, Coöperative Marketing (1917); P. T. Cherington, The Elements of Marketing (1920); C. S. Duncan, Marketing: Its Problems and Methods (1920); and Wholesale Marketing of Food (1920); E. P. Harris, Coöperation the Hope of the Consumer (1918); A. Marshall, Industry and Trade (1920); E. G. Nourse, The Chicago Produce Market (1918); P. H. Nystrom, The Economics of Retailing (1920); W. Sammons, Keeping up with Rising Costs (1915) and How to Run a Wholesale Business at a Profit (1918); A. Sonnichsen, Consumers’ Coöperation (1919) and L. D. H. Weld, The Marketing of Farm Products (1915).
- (P. H. N.)
MARKHAM, SIR ALBERT HASTINGS (1841–1918), British admiral and Arctic explorer, was born at Bagnères, France, Nov. 11 1841, the son of a naval captain. Entering the Royal Navy in 1856, he served during the next 16 years in the Far East (where he took a prominent part in reprisals upon the Japanese of Kagoshima for the murder of an Englishman) and on the Mediterranean and Australian stations. In 1873 he shipped as A.B. on a whaler for Davis Straits and Baffin Bay with a view to investigating that route for polar research; he took an active share in the work of the vessel, and wrote a fascinating narrative of the voyage (A Whaling Cruise to Baffin’s Bay). In 1875 and following years he commanded H.M.S. “Alert” on the Arctic expedition under Nares, and at the head of a sledge-party he reached the highest latitude attained up to that time (83° 20′ N.). Subsequently, after further service in the Pacific and as captain of the “Vernon” torpedo school, he visited Novaya Zemlya with Sir H. Gore-Booth, and also Hudson Strait and Bay, upon which he reported to the Canadian Government as to their suitability for a commercial route. In 1886 he was appointed to command the training squadron; he was promoted rear-admiral in 1891, and in 1892 became second-in-command of the Mediterranean squadron under Sir George Tryon. His flagship was the “Camperdown” when she was rammed and sunk by the “Victoria”; he was acting under superior orders and was not censured. Subsequently he was placed in command at the Nore. He was created K.C.B. in 1903 and retired in 1906, devoting himself thereafter to literary work (including a biography of his cousin Sir Clements Markham), to the furtherance of polar exploration, and, during the World War, to the mine-sweeping service. He died in London on Oct. 28 1918.
MARKHAM, SIR ARTHUR BASIL, 1st Bart. (1866–1916), English politician, was born at Brimington Hall, near Chesterfield, Aug. 25 1866. He was educated at Rugby, and later entered the Sherwood Foresters. In 1900 he was elected Liberal member for the Mansfield division of Notts., where, as a wealthy colliery-owner, he exercised considerable influence. He became known as a highly independent but energetic member of the House of Commons, and was created a baronet in 1911. He died at Newstead Abbey, Mansfield, Aug. 5 1916.
His sister, Violet Rosa Markham, born at Brimington Hall Oct. 3 1872, became well known as a traveller, making long journeys in South Africa, and Siberia. In connexion with the anti-suffrage movement she made a reputation as a speaker. She was a member of the Central Committee on Women’s Employment (1914), and in 1917 deputy director of the women’s section of the National Service Department. The same year
