The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-10-13
NEJy WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS.
New York Snn |.

on the experiment OF conducting Its bus
ness without the aid of such agents. 1t wa
step which was attended with some risks
and could not safely have been taken by
house less potent in capital and established
trade connections, for q great part of th
business brought to onr merchants now q
days comes through their drummers, wht
scour the country in search of orders, ant
: eventually build up trade with the hold
ing of which their personal influence hal
much to do.
The New York grocers found that by dis
pensing with these indefatigable agents
they lost some trade, but we believe they
claim to have so redoced their expenses by
the abandonment of the system of CONNER
cial travellers as to make their profits fully
as large as they were before. Their wares
having become known to the trade of the
country through long and persistent solicit
ing, they now, for ths most part, content
themselves with sending to their customers
q weekly price list, from which orders may
be made up and transmitted by mail or tele-
graph. They must, however, suffer to some
| extent from the cutting down in prices by
! the agents of other houees, who journey
from town to town and village to village,
and use all their wits both to gain and to
retain business.
The growth in the number of commercial
travellers since the war has been astorish-
ing. For twenty five years and more our
jobbing merchants ihave been accustomed
to send ont travelling statesmen and eollec-
tors, though formerly they were mostly des.
patched to the South and West but there
were comparatively few of them until with
in the last ten or fifteen yeare. Now they
are mum bered by the ten thousand, and are
as familiar in the hotels of the interior as
the gentleAanly clerk or the gorgeous bar
sender. They constitute very cr7sidezable
portion of the travellers by rail, and there
are many hotels il the country which get
n nPk in1. H.
returning solicitors of trade. Some of these
hotels advertise especially for thei7 patron
age and seek otherwise to viii it by oferia4
reduced terms to them and by furnishing
rooms set apart for the display OF thei?
samples. The cost Of ono of these agents tc
the employer for travelling expenses alone
is about four to six 3olla1s day, ana they
are either paiG salaries OF allowed com
mission on the business they get.
Some idea of the number of these enter
prisins travellers may be obtained from the
knowledge that their association in this
wac started in 1872: with 20 mem Sers,
already contains about 3, 909 members pro-
bably not half of the whole number Of com
merclal travellers in New York and shat
the city of Syraense alone seads out more
than thousand commercial travellers.
The total of the great host who represent
the business boCees of all the cities of the
Union We cannot give, but it a n1st be from
twenty to thirty Thousand, at least.
The extensive employ ment OF these traT-
elleTs has of course worked a great change
In the methods oS trade. The orders from
customers now days come more in
steady stream than formerly, when oar
joboinG merchants were overloaded with
buslnesS at the beginning of spring and in
August and the early aatumu, and remain
ed comparatively inactive during the rest
of tie year, so far as the county trade w2s
| nN NnoGr H. L.
terror, from the West, and from the South,
made his regular February OF March and
August and September trips to New York,
to be eagerly welcomed by attentive sales
men hut now the country trader may
order everything be requires from New
York through the commercial travellers,
who represent different lines of business IN
the city, and who do not omit to visit him
with great! punctuaIity once week, or
once month. If he comes to the metrop-
oils, 1t is his curiosity or desire for change
which draws him hither rather than any
| real business necessity.
Another development of the system of
commercial travelling is one which has of
late years seriously troubled the jobbing
trade of the city. 1t is the use of druEa-
mers by the manufacturers to sell their
wares directly, 80 as to dispense very
| greatly with the need of the services of mid
dlemen. Our jobbing and commission trade
has received a severe blow from this new
method of doing business, and it is likely
to feel its i'll effects more and more. The
manufacturers of printing and writing
| paper, of cotton and woollen goods, Of
boots and shoes, of hardware and other
articles, are sending their agents through
| the country to solicit orders from the
smaller merchants for their products at
factory prices. They sometimes even go
80 far as to supply large consumers over
the heads of local dealers with whom they
have been accustomed to trade. Mapufac-
turers of some articles look forward to the
time when they shall be able to get along
entirely without commission meachants,
aud they are arranging their business ac-
cOrdingly, thus following the system pre-
valent among French manufacturers.
All this indicates change in the manner
of trading which will have q marked effect
on New York, which must always remain,
however, the centre of the New World ex-
changes, and the main scat Of imports, and
is perhaps destined to become also far
greater manufacturing city than it now is.
The growth of Chicago and other Western