The English term, merchant comes from the Middle English, marchant, which itself originated from the Vulgar Latin mercatant or mercatans, formed from present participle of mercatare ('to trade, to traffic or to deal in'). The term

Merchants in antiquity
Merchants have existed as long as humans have conducted business, trade or commerce. A merchant class operated in many

• Businessperson
• Capitalism
• Chapmen
• Commerce
• Costermonger
• Distribution

• The dictionary definition of merchant at Wiktionary
• Media related to Merchants at Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations related to Merchant at Wikiquote

Broadly, merchants can be classified into two categories:
• A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between the

Elizabeth Honig has argued that artists, especially the Dutch painters of Antwerp, developed a fascination with merchants from the mid-16th century. At this time, the economy was undergoing profound changes – capitalism emerged as the dominant social

• Adams Julia. The Familial State. Ruling Families and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern Europe (Cornell University Press, 2005)
• Braudel, F. The Wheels of Commerce: Civilization and Capitalism, 15th to 18th Century (U of California Press, 1992)