properly so called, is divided into an infinity of branches and, so to speak, of steps. This merchant confines himself to getting in a supply of one or of several sorts of commodities which he sells in his shop to all who present themselves. That other goes to sell certain commodities in the place where they are wanted, in order to bring from thence in exchange such things as are produced there, and are wanting in the place from which he set out. One makes his exchanges in his own neighbourhood and by himself, another by means of Correspondents and by the help of Carriers whom he pays, and whom he sends and brings from one Province to another, from one Kingdom to another Kingdom, from Europe to Asia and from Asia to Europe. One sells his merchandise in small pieces to the several individuals who consume them, the other sells only in large quantities at the time to other Merchants who sell them over again at retail to the Consumers. But all have this in common that they buy to sell again, and that their first purchases are an advance which returns to them only in course of time: it is bound to return to them, like the advances of Undertakers in Agriculture and Manufacture, not only undiminished within a certain period, to be employed for new purchases, but also 1. with a profit equal to the revenue which they could acquire with their capital without any labour; 2. with the wages and the price of their labour, of their risks, and of their industry. Without the assurance of this return and of these indispensable profits, no Merchant would undertake Commerce, and no one could possibly go on with it: it is from this point of view that he guides himself in his purchases, when he calculates the
