A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that he didn't produce himself, in order to earn a profit. 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.
Subject: About them 
Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:35 pm