I have now lying before me that curious book, by Daniel Defoe, “The
complete English Tradesman.” The pompous detail, the studied analysis of
every little mean art, every sneaking address, every trick and
subterfuge (short of larceny) that is necessary to the tradesman’s
occupation, with the hundreds of anecdotes, dialogues (in Defoe’s
liveliest manner) interspersed, all tending to the same amiable purpose,
namely, the sacrificing of every honest emotion of the soul to what he
calls the main chance--if you read it in an _ironical sense_, and as a
piece of _covered satire_, make it one of the most amusing books which
Defoe ever wrote, as much so as any of his best novels. It is difficult
to say what his intention was in writing it. It is almost impossible to
suppose him in earnest. Yet such is the bent of the book to narrow and
to degrade the heart, that if such maxims were as catching and
infectious as those of a licentious cast, which happily is not the case,
had I been living at that time, I certainly should have recommended to
the grand jury of Middlesex, who presented the Fable of the Bees, to
have presented this book of Defoe’s in preference, as of a far more vile
and debasing tendency. I will give one specimen of his advice to the
young tradesman, on the _government of his temper_. “The retail
tradesman in especial, and even every tradesman in his station, must
furnish himself with a competent stock of patience; I mean that sort of
patience which is needful to bear with all sorts of impertinence, and
the most provoking curiosity that it is impossible to imagine the
buyers, even the worst of them, are or can be guilty of. _A tradesman
behind his counter must have no flesh and blood about him, no passions,
no resentment_; he must never be angry, no not so much as seem to be so,
if a customer tumbles him five hundred pounds worth of goods, and scarce
bids money for any thing; nay, though they really come to his shop with
no intent to buy, as many do, only to see what is to be sold, and though
he knows they cannot be better pleased than they are, at some other shop
where they intend to buy, ’tis all one, the tradesman must take it, he
must place it to the account of his calling, that _’tis his business to
be ill used and resent nothing_; and so must answer as obligingly to
those that give him an hour or two’s trouble and buy nothing, as he does
to those who in half the time lay out ten or twenty pounds. The case is
plain, and if some do give him trouble and do not buy, others make
amends and do buy; and as for the trouble, ’tis the business of the
shop.” Here follows a most admirable story of a mercer, who, by his
indefatigable meanness, and more than Socratic patience under affronts,
overcame and reconciled a lady, who upon the report of another lady that
he had behaved saucily to some third lady, had determined to shun his
shop, but by the over-persuasions of a fourth lady was induced to go to
it; which she does, declaring beforehand that she will buy nothing, but
give him all the trouble she can. Her attack and his defence, her
insolence and his persevering patience, are described in colours worthy
of a Mandeville; but it is too long to recite. “The short inference from
this long discourse,” says he, “is this, that here you see, and I could
give you many examples like this, how and in what manner a shopkeeper
is to behave himself in the way of his business; what impertinences,
what taunts, flouts, and ridiculous things, he must bear in his trade,
and must not show the least return, or the least signal of disgust: he
must have no passions, no fire in his temper; he must be all soft and
smooth: nay, if his real temper be naturally fiery and hot, he must show
none of it in his shop: he must be a perfect, _complete hypocrite_ if he
will be a _complete tradesman_.[163] It is true, natural tempers are not
to be always counterfeited; the man cannot easily be a lamb in his shop,
and a lion in himself; but, let it be easy or hard, it must be done, and
is done: there are men who have, by custom and usage, brought themselves
to it, that nothing could be meeker and milder than they, when behind
the counter, and yet nothing be more furious and raging in every other
part of life; nay, the provocations they have met with in their shops
have so irritated their rage, that they would go up stairs from their
shop, and fall into frenzies, and a kind of madness, and beat their
heads against the wall, and perhaps mischief themselves, if not
prevented, till the violence of it had gotten vent, and the passions
abate and cool. I heard once of a shopkeeper that behaved himself thus
to such an extreme, that when he was provoked by the impertinence of the
customers, beyond what his temper could bear, he would go up stairs and
beat his wife, kick his children about like dogs, and be as furious for
two or three minutes, as a man chained down in Bedlam; and again, when
that heat was over, would sit down and cry faster than the children he
had abused; and after the fit, he would go down into the shop again, and
be as humble, courteous, and as calm as any man whatever; so absolute a
government of his passions had he in the shop, and so little out of it:
in the shop, a soulless animal that would resent nothing; and in the
family a madman: in the shop, meek like a lamb; but in the family,
outrageous like a Lybian lion. The sum of the matter is, it is necessary
for a tradesman to subject himself by all the ways possible to his
business; _his customers are to be his idols: so far as he may worship
idols by allowance, he is to bow down to them and worship them_; at
least, he is not in any way to displease them, or show any disgust or
distaste, whatsoever they may say or do; the bottom of all is, that he
is intending to get money by them, and it is not for him that gets money
to offer the least inconvenience to them by whom he gets it; he is to
consider that, as Solomon says, the borrower is servant to the lender,
so the seller is servant to the buyer.” What he says on the head of
_pleasures and recreations_ is not less amusing:--“The tradesman’s
pleasure should be in his business, his companions should be his books,
(he means his ledger, waste-book, &c.;) and if he has a family, he makes
_his excursions up stairs and no further_:--none of my cautions aim at
restraining a tradesman from diverting himself, as we call it, with his
fireside, or keeping company with his wife and children.”[164]
[163] As no qualification accompanies this maxim, it must be
understood as the genuine sentiment of the author.
[164] The Reflector.
* * * * *
MANNERS OF A SPRUCE LONDON MERCER, AND HIS FEMALE CUSTOMER, A HUNDRED
YEARS AGO.
Those who have never minded the conversation of a spruce Mercer, and a
young Lady his Customer that comes to his shop, have neglected a scene
of life that is very entertaining.--His business is to sell as much silk
as he can, at a price by which he shall get what he proposes to be
reasonable, according to the customary profits of the trade. As to the
lady, what she would be at is to please her fancy, and buy cheaper by a
groat or sixpence _per_ yard than the things she wants are usually sold
for. From the impression the gallantry of our sex has made upon her, she
imagines (if she be not very deformed), that she has a fine mien and
easy behaviour, and a peculiar sweetness of voice; that she is handsome,
and if not beautiful, at least more agreeable than most young women she
knows. As she has no pretensions to purchase the same things with less
money than other people, but what are built on her good qualities, so
she sets herself off to the best advantage her wit and discretion will
let her. The thoughts of love are here out of the case; so on the one
hand she has no room for playing the tyrant, and giving herself angry
and peevish airs; and on the other, more liberty of speaking kindly, and
being affable, than she can have almost on any other occasion. She knows
that abundance of well-bred people come to his shop, and endeavours to
render herself as amiable, as virtue and the rules of decency admit of.
Coming with such a resolution of behaviour, she cannot meet with
anything to ruffle her temper.--Before her coach is yet quite stopt, she
is approached by a gentleman-like man, that has every thing clean and
fashionable about him, who in low obeisance pays her homage, and as soon
as her pleasure is known that she has a mind to come in, hands her into
the shop, where immediately he slips from her, and through a by-way,
that remains visible for only half a moment, with great address
intrenches himself behind the counter: here facing her, with a profound
reverence and modish phrase he begs the favour of knowing her commands.
Let her say and dislike what she pleases, she can never be directly
contradicted: she deals with a man, in whom consummate patience is one
of the mysteries of his trade; and whatever trouble she creates, she is
sure to hear nothing but the most obliging language, and has always
before her a cheerful countenance, where joy and respect seem to be
blended with good humour, and all together make up an artificial
serenity, more engaging than untaught nature is able to produce.--When
two persons are so well met, the conversation must be very agreeable, as
well as extremely mannerly, though they talk about trifles. Whilst she
remains irresolute what to take, he seems to be the same in advising
her, and is very cautious how to direct her choice; but when once she
has made it, and is fixed, he immediately becomes positive that it is
the best of the sort, extols her fancy, and the more he looks upon it,
the more he wonders he should not have discovered the preeminence of it
over any thing he has in his shop. By precept, example, and great
observation, he has learned unobserved to slide into the inmost recesses
of the soul, sound the capacity of his customers, and find out their
blind side unknown to them: by all which he is instructed in fifty other
stratagems to make her overvalue her own judgment, as well as the
commodity she would purchase. The greatest advantage he has over her,
lies in the most material part of the commerce between them, the debate
about the price, which he knows to a farthing, and she is wholly
ignorant of: therefore he no where more egregiously imposes upon her
understanding; and though here he has the liberty of telling what lies
he pleases, as to the prime cost and the money he has refused, yet he
trusts not to them only; but, attacking her vanity, makes her believe
the most incredible things in the world, concerning his own weakness and
her superior abilities. He had taken a resolution, he says, never to
part with that piece under such a price, but she has the power of
talking him out of his goods beyond anybody he ever sold to: he protests
that he loses by his silk, but seeing that she has a fancy for it, and
is resolved to give no more, rather than disoblige a lady he has such an
uncommon value for, he will let her have it, and only begs that another
time she will not stand so hard with him. In the mean time the buyer,
who knows that she is no fool and has a voluble tongue, is easily
persuaded that she has a very winning way of talking, and thinking it
sufficient for the sake of good breeding to disown her merit, and in
some witty repartee retort the compliment, he makes her swallow very
contentedly the substance of every thing he tells her. The upshot is,
that with the satisfaction of having saved ninepence _per_ yard, she has
bought her silk exactly at the same price as anybody else might have
done, and often gives sixpence more than, rather than not have sold it,
he would have taken.--
* * * * *
We have copied the above from Mandeville’s “Fable of the Bees,” Edition
1725. How far, and in what way, the practice between the same parties
differs at this day, we respectfully leave to our fair shopping friends,
of this present year 1827, to determine.