MERCANTILE

Of or pertaining to merchants, or the business of merchants; having to do with trade, or the buying and selling of commodities; commercial. The expedition of the Argonauts was partly mercantile, partly military. Arbuthnot. Mercantile agency, an agency for procuring information of the standing and credit of merchants in different parts of the country, for the use of dealers who sell to them. -- Mercantile marine, the persons and vessels employed in commerce, taken collectively. -- Mercantile paper, the notes or acceptances given by merchants for goods bought, or received on consignment; drafts on merchants for goods sold or consigned. McElrath.