Merchants and Shopkeepers

[cornishglassons]

Hi Everyone,

This is a bit of a general query and wasn't quite sure if this was the place to post it.

Anyway, my query is about the profession 'merchant'. Many of the Glassons I am researching have been listed as merchants. Granted they seemed to diversify into other areas such as owning land and ships, but basically I interpreted a merchant as soneone owning a shop where they bought and sold.

However, last night when reading an essay my daughter had written on the class system for history GCSE (for which she got an A1 so I assume she is correct) she had the profession merchant (listed under the rich) as different from shopkeepers (middle class). So can anyone tell me, because she can't ;D, the difference between a merchant and a shopkeeper in 19th century Britain?

Many thanks!
Carole

[Cornish Terrier]

A very interesting problem you have raised Carole.

Reading this reminded me of something I thought strange whilst working on the Quicks over the last few weeks.

I do not remember the exact person or details however memory says that a Groom gave his occupation as 'Merchant' when he was married yet in a later Census the same man appeared as a 'labourer' or similar.

From that I gathered that this person may have briefly gotten into the 'traditional' trade of a merchant but possibly failed and had to revert to his former occupation.

Will be interested to see what ohers think of this one.

[trencrom]

I would have thought that "merchant" could be used as synonymous for a "shopkeeper", or for that matter anyone who was in the business of retailing goods (i.e. " merchandise"), whether via a "shop"{ or otherwise.
I don't know that it had upper class connotations and would be inclined to question that.

Trencronm

[donne]

It seems to me there is a distinction to be made. A 'shopkeeper' is surely one who sells goods across a shop counter. A merchant could do the same, but more likely buys and sells commodities on a larger scale, like a corn or coal merchant. As to 'class', well that's always tricky. I would guess that a 'merchant' may deal in larger quantities than a 'shopkeeper' and may therfore be better off. Certainly the 'Merchant Adventurers' of Bristol were the princes of the mercantile class.

[trencrom]

Will qualify previous post slightly -- while I have seen store owners described as "merchants" in quite recent times, a better definition of the latter perhaps would be folk operating a retail business.

Trencrom