Commerce
Commerce is the
trading of something of
economic value such as
goods,
services,
information or
money between two or more entities. Commerce is the central mechanism which drives
capitalism and other
economic systems.
Commercialization is the process of transforming something into a product, service or activity which may be used in commerce.
Commerce has its origins from the very start of
communication in prehistoric times.
Trading was the main facility of prehistoric people, who
bartered what they had for goods and services from each other.
Peter Watson dates the
history of long-distance commerce from
circa 150,000 years ago.
[ Introduction.]Later,
currency was introduced as a standardized
money to facilitate a wider exchange of goods and services.
Numismatists have collections of these monies which include coins from the earliest large-scale societies, although these were initially unmarked lumps of
precious metal[Gold was an especially common form of early money, as described in Origins of Money and of Banking ]. The major advantage to commerce of circulating a standardized currency is that money overcomes 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 must hire someone to build it for him. But he cannot make an equivalent number of pots to equal this service done to him, and even if he could the house builder might not want the pots. Currency solved this problem by allowing values to be assigned to things so that goods and services can in a way be effectively collected and stored for later use, or split among several providers.
Today commerce involves a complex system of
companies that try to maximise their profits by offering
products and
services to the
market, which consists both of individuals and other companies, at the lowest
production cost. There is a system of world wide or
foreign commerce, which some argue has gone too far (
see main:
Free trade).
Globalization marks the rhythm of business.Companies need to reach further and further away, and spread their sales all over the world in order to get revenues.
See also:
Empire of Japan (foreign commerce and shipping),
foreign commerce*
Advertisement*
Agriculture*
Business*
Capitalism*
Distribution (marketing)**
Wholesaler*
Harvesting**
Retailer*
Industry*
Economy*
Electronic commerce*
Fishery*
Laissez-faire*
Manufacturer*
Manufacturing*
Marketing*
Mass production
