These are the degrees by which the complete tradesman is brought up, and
by which he is instructed in the principles and methods of his commerce,
by which he is made acquainted with business, and is capable of carrying
it on with success, after which there is not a man in the universe
deserves the title of a complete tradesman, like the English shopkeeper.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] [This misuse of the term _merchant_ continues to exist in Scotland
to the present day.]




CHAPTER I

THE TRADESMAN IN HIS PREPARATIONS WHILE AN APPRENTICE


The first part of a trader's beginning is ordinarily when he is very
young, I mean, when he goes as an apprentice, and the notions of trade
are scarcely got into his head; for boys go apprentices while they are
but boys; to talk to them in their first three or four years signifies
nothing; they are rather then to be taught submission to families, and
subjection to their masters, and dutiful attendance in their shops or
warehouses; and this is not our present business.

But after they have entered the fifth or sixth year, they may then be
entertained with discourses of another nature; and as they begin then to