ABSTRACT
With the rise of the wholesale centers during the latter half of the nineteenth century came equally far-reaching developments on the part of wholesale merchants in the United States. This was a formative period for these middlemen and one in which many fundamental changes and innovations were made in the method and scope of their operations. It is the purpose of the present chapter to examine and clarify these phenomena in terms of the reasons for their occurrence and their effect upon the wholesale merchant and his methods of doing business.
