The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.)

adesman. He that affects a rumbling and bombast style, and fills his letters with long harangues, compliments, and flourishes, should turn poet instead of trades

are expired, and I am launched forth into the great ocean of business, I thought fit to acquaint you, that last month I received my fortune, which, by my father's will, had been my due two years past, at which time I arrived to man's estate, and becam

t in London into a fit of laughter, and instead of sending him the goods he wrote for, put him either first upon writing down into the country t

post another letter, from a young shopkeepe

o use me well, and particularly that the goods may be good of the sorts, though I cannot be at London to look them out myself. I have enclosed a bill of exchange for ￡75, on Messrs A.B. and Company, payable to you, or your order, at one-and-twenty days' sight; be pleased to get it accepted, and i

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in London would presently say-'This young man writes like a man of business; pray let

d leaving out the needful copulatives of speech in trading letters; they are to an extreme affected; no beauty to the style, but, on the contrary, a deformity of the grossest nature. They are affected to the last degree, and with this aggravation, that it is an affectation of the grossest nature; for, in a word, it is affecti

orders for, shall be dispatched with expedition. Markets slacken much on this side; cannot sell the iron for more than 37s. Wish had your orders if shall part with it at that rate. No ships since th

please signify if are come to hand, and accepted, and

be bound to Hamburgh or London. What shall be dispatched may be one thing, or any thing, or every thing, in a former letter. No ships since the 11th, may be no ships come in, or no ships gone out. The Lo

g to him that gives them, or to him they are give

n white. May value yourself per exchange ￡1250 sterling, for the account of above

is supposed he means oranges, but it may be 150 chests orange-trees as well, or chests of oil, or any thing. Lisbon white, may be wine or any thing e

d he ought to have assured him, that on his drawing on him

; but the best merchants in the world are come off from it, and now choose to write plain and intelligibly: much l

he does for him, after he takes him from behind his counter, after he lets him into his counting-house and his books, and after trusting him with his more private busine

aster, A.B. an

serva

I am ordered by my maste

thu

s order, I am to s

ity, or to such a pattern; in which, if the goods are made to the colours, and of a marketable goodness, and within the time limited, the person ordering them cannot refuse to receive them, and make himself

else we may call him, writes to his corr

had no orders from me for such sorts of goods, you cannot take this ill. But I have here enclosed sent you five patterns as under, marked 1 to 5; if you think fit to make me fifty pieces of druggets of the same weight and goodness with the fifty pieces, No. A.B., which I had from you last October, and mixed as exactly a

that you can or cannot answer this order, that I may go

y, gives him an answer t

eady put the said fifty pieces in hand; and as I am always willing to serve you to the best of my power, and am thankful for your favours, you may depend upon them within the time, that is to say, some time in February next, and that they shall be of the like fineness and substance with the other, and as near to the patterns as possible. But in regard our poor are

er, I am content they remain in your hands for sale on my account, and des

lours to the patterns, puts the wool to the spinners, sends his yarn to the weavers, has the pieces brought home, then has them to the thicking or fulling-mill, dresses them in his own workhouse, and sends them up punctually by the time; perhaps by the middle of the month. H

this H.G. of Devizes is a clever workman, understands his business, and may be depended on: I see if I have an order to give that requires an

; his orders are so plain and so direct, that a man cannot mistake, and if the goods are made honestly and to his time, there's one

the warehouseman shuffles them back upon the clothier, to lie for his account, pretending they are not made to his order; the clothier i

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ow sanctions courteous e