casks I had marked, unless I took more, and I would take no more--so we
parted, but with no satisfaction on his side; and I afterwards came to
hear that he had sat up all the night with his coopers, mixing spirits
in every cask, whence he drew off a quantity of the right brandy, and
corrupted it, concluding, that as I had no judgment to choose by but my
own, I could not discover it; and it came out by his quarrelling with
the person who brought me to him, for telling him I did not understand
the goods, upon which presumption he ventured to spoil the whole parcel.

I give you this story as a just caution to a young tradesman, and to
show how necessary it is that a tradesman should have judgment in the
goods he buys, and how easily he may be imposed upon and abused, if he
offers to buy upon his own judgment, when really it is defective. I
could enlarge this article with many like examples, but I think this may
suffice.

The next thing I recommend to an apprentice at the conclusion of his
time, is to acquaint himself with his master's chapmen;[6] I mean of
both kinds, as well those he sells to, as those he buys of, and, if he
is a factor, with his master's employers. But what I aim at now is the
chapmen and customers whom his master chiefly sells to. I need not
explain myself not to mean by this the chance customers of a retailer's
shop, for there can be no acquaintance, or very little, made with them;
I mean the country shopkeepers, or others, who buy in parcels, and who
buy to sell again, or export as merchants. If the young man comes from
his master, and has formed no acquaintance or interest among the
customers whom his master dealt with, he has, in short, slipt or lost
one of the principal ends and reasons of his being an apprentice, in
which he has spent seven years, and perhaps his friends given a
considerable sum of money.