Apart from this peculiarity, the
Americans, as a whole people, have not the common European proportions of
ordinary dealers."
"This is not the prevalent opinion," said Mr. Sharp.
"It is not, and the reason is, that all American towns, or nearly all that
are at all known in other countries, are purely commercial towns. The
trading portion of a community is always the concentrated portion, too,
and of course, in the absence of a court, of a political, or of a social
capital, it has the greatest power to make itself heard and felt, until
there is a direct appeal to the other classes. The elections commonly
show quite as little sympathy between the majority and the commercial
class as is consistent with the public welfare. In point of fact, America
has but a very small class of real merchants, men who are the cause and
not a consequence of commerce, though she has exceeding activity in the
way of ordinary traffic. The portion of her people who are engaged as
factors,--for this is the true calling of the man who is a regular agent
between the common producer and the common consumer,--are of _a_ high
class as factors, but not of _the_ high class of merchants. The man who
orders a piece of silk to be manufactured at Lyons, at three francs a
yard, to sell it in the regular course of the season to the retailer at
three francs and a half, is no more a true merchant, than the attorney,
who goes through the prescribed forms of the court in his pleadings, is a
barrister.
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