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Profiles

  • William Greenough (1792 - 1874)
    William Greenough Prominent Boston merchant. Son of Rev. William Greenough, pastor of the church in Newton. Married Sarah Gardner on 23 August 1817. One son, William Whitwell Greenough. Photo of ...
  • Henry Leverich (1848 - 1895)
    Henry Leverich Henry Leverich, Head of the Bradstreet Agency Here. Death reaped a rich harvest yesterday in the ranks of the businessmen of this city. First announcement was made that Mr. Fred Pe...
  • George Cabot, U.S. Senator (1752 - 1823)
    George Cabot, U.S. Senator Senator Cabot was an American merchant, seaman, and politician from Massachusetts. He represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate and was the presiding officer...
  • Epes Sargent, Jr. (1748 - 1822)
    Epes Sargent, Jr. Epes Sargent (1748-1822) was a merchant and first collector of the port of Gloucester, Mass., appointed by George Washington in 1789. He moved to New Hampshire in 1794 to pursue ...
  • Albert Lord Avery (1817 - 1901)
    27th Mayor of Pensacola 1886-87,88-90 His application for the Florida Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution was accepted March 14, 1896. After Marion died, Albert married her sister, Emily....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchants

A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities produced by others, in order to earn a profit. The status of the merchant has varied during different periods of history and amongst different societies. Merchants have often been the subject of works of art.

There are two types of merchant.

A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant, typically dealing in large quantities of goods. Some wholesale merchants only organize the movement of goods rather than move the goods themselves. A retail merchant or retailer, sells merchandise to consumers (including businesses), usually in small quantities. A shop owner is a retail merchant.

A merchant class characterizes many pre-modern societies. Its status can range from high (the members even eventually achieving titles such as that of Merchant Prince or Nabob) to low, as in Chinese culture, owing to the presumed distastefulness of profiting from "mere" trade rather than from labor or the labor of others as in agriculture and craftsmanship.

In the Greco-Roman world merchants typically did not have high social status, though they may have enjoyed great wealth, and there were exceptions, such as in Syria and Palestine in late antiquity, where merchants did have a high social position.

Medieval attitudes toward merchants in the West were strongly influenced by criticism of their activities by the Christian church, which closely associated their activities with the sin of usury.

From around 1300 to the 1800s a large number of European Chartered and Merchant Companies were established to exploit international trading opportunities, for instance the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, Chartered in 1407.