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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 mari…

A mercantile or speculative enterprise of hazard; a venture; a shipment by a merchant on his own account. A bill of adventure (Com.), a writing setting forth that the goods shipped are at the owner's risk.

Financial dealings; buying and selling; traffic in general; mercantile transactions. It seldom happens that men of a studious turn acquire any degree of reputation for their knowledge of business. Bp. Popteus.

ficer who has charge of the payments and receipts (moneys, checks, notes), of a bank or a mercantile company.

A place where merchants and others meet to transact business; a building appropriated for mercantile transactions. [Colloq. for Exchange.]

instrument of contract in two, and giving one part to each of the contractors] (Com.), a mercantile lease of a vessel; a specific contract by which the owners of a vessel let the entire vessel, or some principal part of the vessel, to another person, to be used by the latter in transportation for his own account, eith…

Of or pertaining to commerce; carrying on or occupied with commerce or trade; mercantile; as, commercial advantages; commercial relations. "Princely commercial houses." Macaulay. Commercial college, a school for giving instruction in commercial knowledge and business. -- Commercial law. See under Law. -- Commercial n…

ctation of future playment for property transferred, or of fulfillment or promises given; mercantile reputation entitling one to be trusted; -- applied to individuals, corporations, communities, or nations; as, to buy goods on credit. Credit is nothing but the expectation of money, within some limited time. Locke.…

d acceptance; as, to explode a scheme, fashion, or doctrine. Old exploded contrivances of mercantile fraud. Burke. To explode and exterminate dark atheism. Bently.

The exact amount expressed on a bill, note, bond, or other mercantile paper, without any addition for interest or reduction for discount. McElrath.

One who transacts business for another; an agent; a substitute; especially, a mercantile agent who buys and sells goods and transacts business for others in commission; a commission merchant or consignee. He may be a home factor or a foreign factor. He may buy and sell in his own name, and he is intrusted with the poss…

A mercantile establishment or factory for foreign trade in China, as formerly at Canton; a succession of offices connected by a common passage and used for business or storage. Hong merchant, one of the few Chinese merchants who, previous to the treaty of 1842, formed a guild which had the exclusive privilege of tradin…

lic service for private gain; as, a jobbing politician. London Sat. Rev. Jobbing house, a mercantile establishment which buys from importers, wholesalers or manufacturers, and sells to retailers. [U.S.]

he department of navigation and sea forces; the collective shipping of a country; as, the mercantile marine.

or steel, certain common sizes of wrought iron and steel bars. -- Merchant service, the mercantile marine of a country. Am. Cyc. -- Merchant ship, a ship employed in commerce. -- Merchant tailor, a tailor who keeps and sells materials for the garments which he makes.

Hence, mercantile business; trading. [Obs.] Who had lost, with these prizes, forty thousand pounds, after twenty years' negotiation in the East Indies. Evelyn.

Course of business or occupation; continued employment with a view to same end; as, mercantile pursuits; a literary pursuit.

-- Ship breaker, one who breaks up vessels when unfit for further use. -- Ship broker, a mercantile agent employed in buying and selling ships, procuring cargoes, etc., and generally in transacting the business of a ship or ships when in port. -- Ship canal, a canal suitable for the passage of seagoing vessels. -- S…

Of the payment of what is due; as, the suspension of a mercantile firm or of a bank.

eat original castes among the Hindoos, now either extinct or partially represented by the mercantile class of Banyas. See the Note under Caste, 1.