Merchant Facts for Kids

Merchants deal with trade. That means they deal goods that they do not produce themselves, in order to get profit.

Merchants can be two types:

A wholesale merchant works between producer and retail merchant. Some wholesale merchants only organise the movement of goods rather than move the goods themselves.
A retail merchant sells goods to consumers (including businesses), commonly known as retailers. A shop owner is a retail merchant.

In the US, "merchant" is any person while engaged in a business or profession or a seller who deals regularly in the type of goods sold. Under the common law in the United States, merchants are held to a higher standard in the selling of products than those who are not engaged in the sale of goods as a profession. For example, when a merchant sells something, he or she is expected to give a warranty, guaranteeing that the product is fit to be sold, even if there is nothing in writing to this effect.

capitalism

Images for kids

Merchants from Holland and the Middle East trading.
A scale or balance is often used to symbolise a merchant
Costumes of merchants from Brabant and Antwerp, engraving by Abraham de Bruyn, 1577
Phoenician merchants traded across the entire Mediterranean region
Wall painting from Pompeii depicting every day activities at a market-place
Mosaic showing garum container, from the house of Umbricius Scaurus of Pompeii. The inscription which reads "G(ari) F(los) SCO(mbri) SCAURI EX OFFI(CI)NA SCAURI" has been translated as "The flower of garum, made of the mackerel, a product of Scaurus, from the shop of Scaurus"
Marco Polo was among the earliest European merchants to travel to the Orient, helping to open it up to trade in the 13th century
Mediterranean port with Turkish merchants by Adriaen van der Kabel, 1682
A merchant making up the account by Katsushika Hokusai.
Merchants engaged in international trade began to develop a more outward-looking mindset
A Jewish merchant and his family by Paolo Uccello 1465-1469
The Arnolfini Portrait, believed to be of Italian merchant, Giovanni de Nicolao Arnolfini with his wife, by Jan van Eyck, c. 1434
Lorenzo de' Medici, merchant, Florentine bust, 14th or 15th century
Mathias Mulich (1470-1528), Merchant in Lübeck, by Jacob Claesz van Utrecht, c. 1522
Portrait of Anton Fugger by Hans Maler zu Schwaz, c. 1525
Portrait of George Gisze, the merchant, by Hans Holbein the Younger, c 1532
Portrait of a member of the Wedigh merchant family by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1532
The Hanseatic merchant, Cyriacus Kale, by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1533
A Hanseatic merchant, by Hans Holbein the Younger, c 1538
Portrait of a Merchant by Corneille de Lyon, c. 1541
Sir Thomas Gresham by Anthonis Mor, c. 1560.
Cornelis van der Geest, merchant of Antwerp, by Anthony van Dyck, c. 1620
Portrait of Nicolaes van der Borght, merchant of Antwerp by Van Dyk, 1625–35
Portrait of the cloth merchant, Abraham del Court and his wife Maria de Keerssegieter by Bartelmeus van der Helst, c. 1654
Frederick Rihel, a merchant on horseback by Rembrandt, c. 1663
Portrait of Amsterdam merchant, Cornelis Nuyts (1574-1661) by Jürgen Ovens
Portrait of Joshua van Belle, merchant in Spain by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1670
Portrait of Pieter Cnoll, senior merchant of Batavia, with family, by Jacob Janz Coeman, c.1655
The Merchant by Abraham van Strij c. 1800
Caspar Voght, German merchant, 1801 by Jean-Laurent Mosnier
Joshua Watson, English wine merchant, 1863
The Carpet Merchant by Jean-Léon Gérôme, c 1887
Merchant Sytov by anonymous (Rybinsk museum), mid-19th century
Governors of the Wine Merchant's Guild by Ferdinand Bol, c. 1680
The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild by Rembrandt, c. 1662
Four officers of the Amsterdam Coopers and wine-rackers Guild by Gerbrand Jansz van den Eeckhout, c. 1660
Reception of Jan Karel de Cordes at the guild hall by Balthasar van den Bossche, c.1711
The Merchant's House, Kirkcaldy, Scotland
Merchant Tower, Kentucky, USA
Medieval merchant's house, Southampton, England
Tudor Merchant's Hall, Southampton, England
Drapers' Hall, Coventry, England
The Blacksmiths' Guild Hall, Venice, Italy
Shoemakers' Guild Hall, Venice, Italy
Brodhaus, Bakers' Guild, Einbeck, Germany
Knochenhaueramtshaus, Butcher's guild hall, Hildesheim, Germany
The Butcher's Hall, Antwerp, Belgium
The Hanseatic League Building, Antwerp, 16th century

Merchant facts for kids

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