What "Let your first efforts be, not for wealth, but independence. ever be your talents, whatever your prospects, never be tempted to speculate away, on the chance of a palace, that which you need as a provision against the workhouse."-Lord Lytton. "Whoever has sixpence is sovereign over all men to the extent of that sixpence; commands cooks to feed him, philosophers to teach him, kings to mount guard over him, to the extent of that sixpence."-Carlyle. "That man is but of the lower part of the world that is not brought up to business and affairs."-Owen Feltham. "It is in vain to put wealth within the reach of him who will not stretch out his hand to take it.-Dr. Johnson. "You will be invincible if you engage in no strife where you are not sure that it is in your power to conquer."-Epictetus, "Encheiridion." "Still let the mind be bent, still plotting where, -George Herbert. CHAPTER VI. N the preceding chapter we have indicated the qualities and habits which would seem to be indispensable to the success of the man of business. We have shown that he must be diligent exceedingly, gifted with an indomitable perseverance, patient, self-reliant, punctual, courteous, and original in aim and method. According to the old adage, however, "Example is better than precept," and it may be for the advantage and interest of the reader, if, to those instances and illustrations already given, we add a variety of biographical reminiscences or anecdotes, occasionally pausing to draw from them an appropriate moral. 66 Daniel Defoe, when discoursing upon mercantile morality in the England of Queen Anne's reign, notices, among other trade stratagems, the false light which some retail dealers introduced into their shops for the purpose of giving a delusive appearance to their wares. He comments severely upon the shop rhetoric" and "the flow of falsehoods" which tradesmen were wont to pour out upon their customers, and quotes their defence of the bad habit as based on the "we must live" principle; they could not keep up their trade without lying. Add to which, he says, the fact that there was scarce a shopkeeper who had not a bag of spurious or debased coins which he imposed upon unwary customers whenever he had the opportunity. The latter practice has been rendered almost impossible by stringent legislation and an improved coinage; but "shop rhetoric" is still too common, though we cannot but wonder on whom it now imposes. A superficial view of things would lead one to conclude that the great army of business men, dealers wholesale and retail, merchants, traders, shopkeepers-call them what you will-were engaged in a 186 66 BUSINESS RHETORIC. noble rivalry to supply the public with the finest commodities at the lowest possible prices. The tea and coffee offered for the breakfast table are invariably "of the best quality;" the ales or wines which, in spite of Sir Wilfrid Lawson and the Good Templars, you consume at dinner, are of “ a celebrated brewage" or the "finest vintage." Your fruit and vegetables are fresh from the garden or orchard, and "unequalled in flavour." The beef is of "prime quality," the mutton incredibly "tender," the bread made of "the finest wheat flour." If you go to your tailor, he recommends a cloth of which the like was never before in the market, and never will be again, and promises you a perfect fit." The newspaper you read has "the largest circulation in the world;" the book you order is "the best that has been produced this season.' If you think of purchasing a horse, you find that all the animals offered for sale are announced as "first-rate," "invaluable," " "the handsomest in town," "perfectly quiet to drive or ride," "famed for their action," and "sold for no fault." The properties for which purchasers are desired puzzle you greatly, inasmuch as all are "exceedingly valuable," "most eligible," "delightfully situated," "admirably adapted," "fitted up with every convenience." In truth, the wonder is how their owners or occupants could ever be induced to dispose of them! It cannot be on account of any illness rendering a "change of air necessary," for a glance at the advertisement columns of a daily or weekly paper convinces you that for every disease under the sun science has discovered a cure. If people consent to die, it must be because they are weary of life, or in ignorance of the "infallible remedies" placed at their disposal. This "business rhetoric" is admirably ridiculed in a burlesque fiction entitled, "The History of Brown, Jones, and Robinson," which appeared in the "Cornhill Magazine " some years ago. We suspect that it is beginning to lose its influence upon the public, and certainly it is discarded by reputable men of business. On the ground of morality, serious objection may be taken to announcements of "great reduction," "selling off," "tremendous sacrifices," "at less than prime cost," and other baits intended to deceive the simple and inexperienced. On the score of taste, objection may be taken to the ambitious nomenclature which everywhere greets the eye as we pass through the commercial quarter of town or city. We DOUGLAS JERROLD ON TRADE ROGUERY. 187 believe that sobriety of taste and the highest morality will be found as profitable in trade as in any other calling; and we fail to understand why "business" should be supposed to justify a relaxation or forgetfulness of the laws of religion. The merchant-princes of England, the men who have built up and who maintain the stately edifice of her commercial prosperity, have never resorted to such paltry devices, nor forgotten that for them, as for the soldier, the artist, or the man of letters, the path of glory is the path of honour and duty. It is painful to be told that this high standard has of late years found fewer and fewer admirers, and that British commercial morality has become almost a legend of the past. Society is startled ever and anon by revelations which seem to show that the trader laughs at honesty and exercises all his ingenuity to evade the law. A popular satirist has drawn a bitterly humorous comparison between the roguery of British and Chinese traders, which the acts of our Legislature have proved to be no exaggeration. 66 According to a well-known writer, a grocer is a man who buys and sells sugar, and plums, and spices for gain.' 66 Happy," says the satirist, "is the English grocer who can lay his hand upon his commercial heart, and, making answer to the text, say, 'I am the man!' For of the men who set over their shop-doors the designation of 'Grocer,' how many are there who buy and sell sugar, and sugar only; who turn the penny upon spices in their purity; vend nought but the true ware-the undoctored clove! "Great is the villainy of the Chinese; but it is written in certain books of the prying chemist that the roguery of the Briton-bent, it may be, upon the means of social respectability-doth outblush the pale face of the Mongolian trick sters. "The Chinaman glazes his tea with Prussian blue; he paints his Congo, and adds a perfume to his Twankey; but he, the pig-tailed heathen, does not recognise in a Britisher a man and a brother, and, in his limited sympathies, fails to acknowledge in any British maiden, of any fabulous age soever, a woman and a sister. The China teaman is a benighted barbarian; the British grocer is an effulgent Christian. The Chinaman's religion is the gust of revenge; the Briton's creed is the creed of common love. |