ABSTRACT
reasons, there are a large number of successive stages in the distributive process, and a large number of traders at each stage. Most of the sales of merchants are to intermediaries, especially large intermediaries, who are a small proportion of the total number of intermediaries operating in the country.5 This is partly because consumers and the smaller intermediaries often buy in smaller individual quantities than the minimum quantities which it is economic for merchants to sell; and also because many of the consumers are far from the merchants’ establishments. Some of the merchants’ sales, however, are to final consumers, especially to certain categories whose position is considered in section VI below.In many of these countries specialisation, especially occupational specialisation, is as yet imperfectly.developed. In trade there is usually no clear cut specialisation by stages, at any rate after the merchant stage; traders are likely to operate at each of several successives stages. Further, large numbers of people are apt to shift at short notice from other occupations into trading, both full-time and part-time, and they equally readily shift their activities from one commodity to another.Lastly, intermediaries and the larger-scale traders generally are among the most vocal and politically influential elements of the local population. They tend to be literate, or at any rate more literate than the population at large; they are often closely connected with the local newspapers, and their views are prominent in the local press and in political assemblies.
