The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.)

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

rward beyond the time of their servitude, and think of setting up and being for themselves, I think then is the time to put them upon useful preparati

s; if a grocer, the quality of sugars, teas, &c.; and so on with all other trades. During the first years of a young man's time, he of course learns to weigh and measure either liquids or solids, to pack up and make bales, trusses, packages, &c., an

s bought, and thereby knows what every thing costs at first hand, what gain is made of them, and if a miscarriage happens, he knows what loss too; by which he is led of course to look into the goodness of the goods, and see the reason of things: if the goods are not to expecta

s it; for this part has its season, and that more remarkable than in many other cases, and that season lost, ne

is time without obtaining such a skill as this in the goods he is to deal in, he ent

not be hid; the merchants or manufacturers of whom he buys, presently discover him; the very boys in the wholesalemen's warehouses, and in merchant's warehouses, will play upon him, sell him one thing for another, show him

hazard of being cheated to a very great degree, and perhaps some time o

randy I saw was very good, and I bought freely to the value of about ￡600, and shipped them for England, where they gave very good satisfaction to my employer. But I could not complete my commission to my mind in that parcel. Some days after, some merchants, who had seen me buy the other, and thought me a novice in the business, and that I took no cooper to taste the brandy, laid a plot for me, which indeed was such a plot as I was

he brandy, the same person who brought me an account of them, comes to my lodgings to treat with me about the price. We did not make many words: I bade him the current price which I had bought for some days before, and after a few struggle

afternoon, and taste them again, and mark out what I wanted. He seemed uneasy at that, and pretended he had two merchants waiting to see them,

not come sooner, and that I would not be obliged to take the whole parcel, nor would I buy any of them without tasting

her person's judgment of them, and you are welcome to do so, sir, with all my heart; send any body you please:' but still he urged for a bargai

t was, I ventured to trust to it; I thought I had honest men to deal

old me, that seeing I would not buy without seeing the goods again, and would not go just then, he could not

d not have hindered him, for that I had told him he should not wait for me, but sell them to the first good customer he found. He told me he had indeed sold two or three casks, but he would not d

asks which I had touched with the marking-iron when I was there before, but I d

y; the rest apparently showed themselves to be mixed, at least I thought so. I marked out the thr

nobody had to do with that; if I did not like his goods, another, whose judgment was better, might like them, and so there was no harm done: in a word, he would not let me have the three 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 c

ave judgment in the goods he buys, and how easily he may be imposed upon and abused, if he offers to buy upon his own j

s 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

nning infinitely more difficult to him than it would otherwise be; and he not only has new customers to seek, but has their characters to

not so much as know him, or remember that he had ever heard his name, except as he had heard his master call his apprentice Jacob. I know some masters diligently watch to prevent their

his seven years' time for, and putting him off with a blear-eyed Leah in her stead; it is, indeed, a kind of robbing him, taking from him the advantage which he served his ti

ith his customers; he does not else perform his promise to teach him the art and mystery of his trade; he does not make him master of his business, or enable him as he ought

ring, ought to acquaint himself with the books, that is to say, to see and learn his master's method of book

ship is, and ought in justice to be, a school to him, where he ought to learn every thing that should qualify him for his business, at least every thing that his master can te

quainting himself with his books, depends at least the comfort of his trade, if not the very trade itself. If they are not duly posted, and if every thing is not carefully entered in them, the debtor's accounts kept even, the cash constantly balanced, and the credit

; he knows not what to do, or what step to take; he may indeed have served his time, but he has not learned his trade, nor is he fit to set up; and be the fault in himself for no

e the retailer, as well as to them; if the book-keeping be small, it is the sooner learned, and the apprentice is the more to blame if he neglects it. Besides, the objection is much more trifling than the advice. The tradesman cannot carry on a

ed; but if that should not happen, as often it does not, let the apprentice know, that it is one of the most needful things to him that can belong to his apprenticeship, and that he ought not to let his time run over his head, without getting as much insight in

servitude now, and hardly of subjection, and their behaviour is accordingly more like gentlemen than tradesmen; more like companions to their masters, than like servants. On the other hand, the

, are so much employed to worse purposes, that apprentices do not come out of their times better finished for business and trade than they did formerly, but much the worse: and though it is not the proper business and design of this work to enlarge on the injustice done both to

as above, if he neither will acquaint himself with the customers, nor the books, nor with the buying part, nor gain judgment in the wares he is to deal in, the l

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much ingenuity, patience, and industry, or through some peculiar merit of his own. Indeed, it is always to be presumed that a tradesman's customers are attached to him from some of these causes. Of course, it would be ha