The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1848-01-08
From the New York Tribune. i
REFORM i'm Trade.

their books, taking account of stock, an
Just beginning to prepare or to plan 70
the coming season. 1t is just the tim
to rectify mistakes and to adopt improv
ments, and we trust the following crud
suggestions, though by no means novel
will be pondered by many.
We have too many mercantile eStab.
MISUNDERSTANDING is aware of that
That is to say, the business of exchanging
the products Of industry could be well
performed by less than hall the numbeI
now employed in 1t; thereby securing
cheaper exchanges to the producer with
a more ample or reliable reward to the
cXchangcr.
To illustrate this, we may roughly es-
innate the average sales of a Dry Goods
Jobbing house in this city at 100000
per annum, at medium advance upon
the cost Of ten per cent. Out of this
must be paid rent, clerk-hire, insurance
the support Of a family, and losses by bad
,ieJts-the latter item probably ayerag-
ing SlO,O0Oper annum, or fvc'per cent,
the gross amount Of sales. OF course,
we do not say that there has been five
per cent lost on the collections Of this
year: but we do say,swith perfect ASST
rance OF its accuracy, that on all the
goods sold on credit from our city with
in the last ten, twenty, thirty Or forty
years, the loss cannot be less. The gem
eral result is that jad drifts work the DOWN
fall of two-thirds of all who embark in
business, while eXtravagant expenditures
tempted by the oPParc1t rapidity and IA
ciIity of money-Inaking Counting the ad-
vance in price on goods sold but not yet
paid for as profit ruin large portion of
the residue; 50 that of every hundred who
embark in trade with sanguine hopes of
achieving a competence if not fortune,
nincty-nne come out bankrupt, and not
more than five ever find themselves able
TO retire upon an independence.
This system cannot 90 on. It is alrea
dy undermined and lettering to its tall.
The next Revision will very probably
sweep away the wreck OF it. But il not,
the naked fact that, under the system Of
general credit for goods, the country is
always in debt and paying interest to
the city, and the good, prompt paymas-
tiers are laid under contribution to defray
the price ofthe goods consumed by the
large class who pay at the end of a law
suit or not at all, is gradually working
revolution. So fast as those who pay
promptly and certainly come to under
stand the matter, they will back out OF
so unequal partnership, leaving the
credit business to bad payers alcne, and
that Will soon wind it up.
Not many years can clapse before the
large commercial dealings Of the country
will concentrate in the hands of one
tenth the present number Of JobbcrS, in
proportion to the amount Of transactions
and the general features Of the business
will lie these
Instead Of selling 100000 worth of
goods on credit, at 10 per cent. advance,
a jobbing house will sell $2,000,000
worth at TO 3 per cent advance for
goods unaffected by time or fashion, l to
5 per cent on fancy fabrics; averaging 2
per ct. advance, or SAC, 900 on the years
business, out of which rents, clerk-hirc,
&c, &C., arc to be deducted, leaving q
fair living profit to the trader, His eN-
penses for ledgers ':shaves," book-keep-
ing, dunning expeditions, &c, &c, will
be comparatively much less than now;
ana ne will not need larger capital than
now, as he is turning 1t once a month
instead OF once year.
The means by which this great and be-
nehcent change is to be effected are yari"
Gus, but the chief among them Is -4dccrti-
a,.g--not in Two or three papers nor even
in all those of the city where the business is
done but in the most widely circulated Jour
mails of the whole region whe nee custom is
desired. Nothing has yet been done in the
way Of advertising compared with what
can and inevitably will be. No merchants
who knows how to advertise (ior money
may be thrown away in this as in anything
else lever sell less THAI he choses-always
provided that his fabrics are desirable Of
good quality, ard sold as cheap:y as others
will afford them. There is no assignable
lmi, TO the application Of this principle.
is known 10 fifty thousand people at most
and he sells just enough to live by; suppose
he could make his business as we'll known
10 million persons, why should he not sci
something near fifty times as much as he
now does? And then, if he could intro
duce himselfto the whole twenty million:
composing our people, why not have a cor
responding increase Of business! Ofcourse
we appreciate the limitations OF this prln'
cipIe-that it is an idle and a waste Tor amy
seller TO ad, ertisc his wares in a section
which can more advanlageously produce
such wares for itself, Or obtain them from
some other quarter, this should teach dis
elimination and circumspection in adver
Using; but the annual imports argue that tn
goods consumed by ten milsinos OF peop'
are purchased IN this city; and no mel
l,,or.i-el tlnronrhfV until he hI