ABSTRACT
In the course of the 18th century the wholesaler becomes finally separated from the retailer and comes to constitute a definite branch of the merchant class, whereas the Hansards, for example, were not yet typically wholesalers. Wholesale trade is significant, first, because it evolved new commercial forms. One of these is the auction, which is the means by which the importing wholesaler turns over his goods as quickly as possible and secures the means for making his payment abroad. The typical form of export trade, which takes the place of the fair as an institution, is consignment trading. For the development of a wholesale trade carried out in such fashion, and specifically for speculative trade, the indispensable prerequisite was the presence of an adequate news service and an adequate commercial organization. In the field of commercial organization nothing was changed, at least in principle, in the period before the introduction of the railroads.
