History of Commerce
Some commentators trace the origins of commerce to the very start of communication in prehistoric times. Apart from traditional
self-sufficiency, trading became a principal facility of prehistoric people, who bartered what they had for goods and services
from each other. Historian Peter Watson dates the history of long-distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago.
In historic times, the introduction of currency as a standardized money facilitated a wider exchange of goods and services.
Numismatists have collections of these monies, which include coins from some Ancient World large-scale societies, although
initial usage involved unmarked lumps of precious metal. The circulation of a standardized currency provides the major
advantage to commerce of overcoming the "double coincidence of wants" necessary for barter trades to occur. For example,
if a man who makes pots for a living needs a new house, he may wish to hire someone to build it for him. But he cannot make
an equivalent number of pots to equal this service done for him, because even if the builder could build the house, the builder
might not want the pots. Currency solved this problem by allowing a society as a whole to assign values and thus to collect goods
and services effectively and to store them for later use, or to split them among several providers.
Today, commerce includes a complex system of companies that try to maximize their profits by offering products and services
to the market (which consists both of individuals and other companies) at the lowest production-cost. There exists a system of
International trade, which some argue has gone too far.
Electronic Commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as B2B or
Business-to-business. B2B can be open to
all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market).
Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to
facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions.
Investment Dictionary: Commerce
The buying and selling of goods, especially on a large scale.
Investopedia Says:
Commerce is done between businesses, individuals, countries, and so on.
Columbia Encyclopedia: Commerce
Commerce, city (1990 pop. 12,135), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles; inc. 1960. An important transportation
hub for S California, Commerce is the home of several large corporations. There is food processing and diverse manufacturing.
In 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed The Spirit of St. Louis at the old Vail Field in Commerce while on a nationwide tour
following his transatlantic flight.
Dictionary.com says:
com·merce
–noun
- 1. an interchange of goods or commodities, esp. on a large scale between different countries (foreign commerce) or between different parts of the same country (domestic commerce); trade; business.
- 2. social relations, esp. the exchange of views, attitudes, etc.
- 3. sxxxxl intercourse.
- 4. intellectual or spiritual interchange; communion.
- 5. (initial capital letter) Also called Commerce Department. Informal. the Department of Commerce.
Origin:
1530–40; < MF < L commercium, equiv. to commerc(ari) to trade together (com- com- + mercari to buy, deal, deriv. of merc-, s. of merx goods) + -ium -ium
Synonyms:
1. See trade.
Com·merce
–noun
a town in SW California. 10,509.
Related Words for: commerce
commercialism, mercantilism
com·merce
n.
- 1. The buying and selling of goods, especially on a large scale, as between cities or nations. See Synonyms at business.
- 2. Intellectual exchange or social interaction.
- 3. sxxxxl intercourse.
[French, from Old French, from Latin commercium : com-, com- + merx, merc-, merchandise.]
Word Origin & History:
commerce
1537, from M.Fr. commerce, from L. commercium "trade, trafficking," from com- "together" + merx (gen. mercis) "merchandise" (see market).
Commercial is 1687 as an adj.; as a noun meaning "advertising broadcast on radio or TV" it is first recorded 1935.
Legal Dictionary:
Main Entry: com·merce
Function: noun
- 1 : the exchange or buying and selling of goods, commodities, property, or services esp. on a large scale and involving transportation from place to place : TRADE 2 —see also COMMERCE CLAUSE Fair Labor Standards Act in the IMPORTANT LAWS section
- 2 : the act of engaging in sexual intercourse
Commerce Quotes:
"In matters of commerce The fault of the Dutch Is offering too little And asking too much." --Canning, George
"The poets of commerce." --Stephen A Greyser
"The effect of trade and commerce with respect to most civilized states is to send out of their countries what the poor, that is,
the great mass of mankind, have occasion for, and to bring back, in return, what is consumed almost wholly bya small part of those
nations, viz. the rich. Hence it appears that the greater part of manufactures, trade and commerce is highly injurious to the
poor as being the chief means of depriving them of the necessaries of life." --Charles Hall
buying and selling, trade, business, dealing; see business 1, economics.
See Also:
References
- Watson, Peter (2005). Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention from Fire to Freud. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-621064-X. Introduction.
- Gold served especially commonly as a form of early money, as described in "Origins of Money and of Banking" Davies, Glyn (2002). Ideas : A history of money from ancient times to the present day. University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1717-0.
- Investment Dictionary
- Investopedia
- Columbia Encyclopedia
- Dictionary.com Unabridged - Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- Online Etymology Dictionary
- Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law
- Wikipedia.org
