The complete English tradesman, by Daniel Defoe, 1926

Résumé du document

Daniel Defoe was an English fervent supporter of trade: to him, trade was a natural feature of the English nation, and the English people were the best people at trading in the world. Indeed, in the 18th century, the State is a means to promote trade, the English empire is all about trade; the English nation works on trade, and that is a fact that was formulated by Napoleon in his phrase (talking about the English nation) "a nation of shopkeepers". So we see how critical commerce was in England at the beginning of the 18th century, and thus the importance of theories about trade at that time. Here, Defoe actually writes his theory about "Fine shops and fine shows", as the subtitle says, so he focuses on a precise type of commerce, that is to say shops, and explains how to arrange one's shop to make a good trade.

Extraits

[...] He explains that young tradesmen have a tendency to privilege the show of their shops rather than the goods. He illustrates the balance sheet with figures: he gives the average amounts of money that the young tradesmen reserve to the decoration of their shops, which amounts to “L300 expenses to fit up a and the amount reserved to goods, which amounts to or L40 stock”: he denounces the “ridiculous” discrepancy between the two amounts and the room that takes the “fitting in the expenses, whereas to him it should be the converse. [...]

[...] Defoe exposes his ideal image of the English tradesman who would be the model of how Englishmen should be. Indeed, Defoe is a fervent patriot and he developed the idea that national identity should be built on trade. This text can be opposed to the opinion of Bernard Mandeville, who condemns this eulogy of honesty which more paralyzes trade than it makes it work, and to the evolution of commerce itself, which proved at the 18th century that commodities, fashion and superfluous things were an engine for commerce. [...]

[...] But anyway, presentation comes after. Defoe applies to the young tradesman, as he says in his text: ) the young tradesman, to whom I am directing this discourse ( that is to say a tradesman that begins to build his trade, who does not have lots of many in general, who has a business and a name to promote, and we can understand that he does not want the young tradesman to waste his money in what is secondary. However, although he is not totally against fitting up a shop, it is something not to neglect once the tradesman has become richer, because the presentation of products is almost as important as the consistence of the stock: it enables him to be more famous, to transmit to people a nice image of his shop, and it is an important means to attract customers and so to make money and a good reputation we can see today how much marketing and communication are important to succeed in business It seems more to be a regret of the past, where Englishmen did not receive the influence of foreigners, stayed independent and - that is to say “real Englishmen”. [...]

[...] To Defoe, the goods are the essential thing that really matters for the customers, so they should be essential to tradesman too, and not the show that is only an artificial, secondary thing. If he does, Defoe explains the logical consequences of such a behaviour: to him, the fame of trade makes the trade; that is, if the tradesman is trusted by his first customers, who are happy to have a large choice of goods, then the reputation of the shop and the tradesman will be good and that image will attract other customers. [...]

[...] That is why Defoe wants the English people to keep away from those ridiculous manners and to distinguish themselves from the French by becoming a model of honesty. We can feel all the contempt Defoe has against the fashionable gentry in this sentence: ) and this shall bring a throng to him much better, and of much better people, than those that go in merely for a gay shop”. In a third time, he advises the young tradesmen to make a balanced choice: the presentation of the shops is something not to neglect, but the essential lies on stock. [...]