Commerce

Commerce

While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any country. Thus, commerce is a system or an environment that affects the business prospects of an economy or a nation-state. We can also define it as a second component of business which includes all activities, functions and institutions involved in transferring goods from producers to consumers [1].

History

File:Preziosi - Cherry peddler , 1869.jpg
Cherry peddler in Bucharest, around 1869.

Some commentators trace the origins of commerce to the very start of communication in prehistoric times. Apart from traditional self-sufficiency, trading became a principal facility of prehistoric people, who bartered what they had for goods and services from each other. Historian Peter Watson dates the history of long-distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago. [2]

In historic times, the introduction of currency as a standardized money facilitated a wider exchange of goods and services. Numismatists have collections of these monetary tokens, which include coins from some Ancient World large-scale societies, although initial usage involved unmarked lumps of precious metal. [3] The circulation of a standardized currency provides the major disadvantage to commerce of overcoming the "double coincidence of wants" necessary for barter trades to occur. For example, if a man who makes pots for a living needs a new house, he may wish to hire someone to build it for him. But he cannot make an equivalent number of pots to equal this service done for him, because even if the builder could build the house, the builder might not want the pots. Currency solved this problem by allowing a society as a whole to assign values and thus to collect goods and services effectively and to store them for later use, or to split them among several providers.

Today commerce includes a complex system of companies that try to maximize their profits by offering products and services to the market (which consists both of individuals and other companies) at the lowest production cost. A system of international trade has helped to develop the world economy but, in combination with bilateral or multilateral agreements to lower tariffs or to achieve free trade, has sometimes harmed third-world markets for local products (See Globalization).

See also

Emblem-money.svg Business and economics portal

References

  1. ^ http%3A%2F%2Feprints.hec.gov.pk%2F1522%2F1%2F1404.HTM&ei=VXlbTqWYE4iWswb2zMyaCw&usg=AFQjCNGUvkPZlkeBUU3oM6yzR0tyV46Muw
  2. ^ Watson, Peter (2005). Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention from Fire to Freud. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-621064-X.  Introduction......./
  3. ^ Gold served especially commonly as a form of early money, as described in "Origins of Money and of Banking" Davies, Glyn (2002). Ideas : A history of money from ancient times to the present day. University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1717-0. 

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Synonyms:

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  • commerce — [ kɔmɛrs ] n. m. • commerque 1370; lat. commercium, de merx → marchand I ♦ 1 ♦ Opération, activité d achat et de revente (en l état ou après transformation) d un produit, d une valeur; par ext. Prestation de certains services. Acte, opération de… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • commerce — COMMERCE. sub. masc. Trafic, négoce de marchandises, d argent, soit en gros, soit en détail. La liberté, la facilité du commerce. Établir, rétablir le commerce. Cela fait rouler le commerce. Défendre, interdire le commerce. La Paix entretient le… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française 1798

  • commerce — com·merce n 1: the exchange or buying and selling of goods, commodities, property, or services esp. on a large scale and involving transportation from place to place: trade (2) see also commerce clause; fair labor standards act in the important… …   Law dictionary

  • commerce — com‧merce [ˈkɒmɜːs ǁ ˈkɑːmɜːrs] noun [uncountable] COMMERCE 1. the buying and selling of goods and services; = TRADE: • Modern computing facilities are very much in demand by industry and commerce. • a guide to English for Commerce ˌinternational …   Financial and business terms

  • commerce — Commerce. s. m. Trafic, negoce de marchandises, d argent, soit en gros, soit en destail. La liberté, la facilité du commerce. establir, restablir le commerce. cela fait rouler le commerce. defendre, interdire le commerce. la paix entretient le… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • Commerce — steht für: Commerce (Métro Paris), Station des Pariser Métrosystems Commerce (Zeitschrift) Commerce ist der Name mehrerer Orte in den Vereinigten Staaten: Commerce (Alabama) Commerce (Georgia) Commerce (Iowa) Commerce (Kalifornien) Commerce… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Commerce — Commerce, CA U.S. city in California Population (2000): 12568 Housing Units (2000): 3377 Land area (2000): 6.567812 sq. miles (17.010555 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.004868 sq. miles (0.012607 sq. km) Total area (2000): 6.572680 sq. miles… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Commerce — Ciudad de los Estados Unidos …   Wikipedia Español

  • Commerce — Com merce, n. Note: (Formerly accented on the second syllable.) [F. commerce, L. commercium; com + merx, mercis, merchandise. See {Merchant}.] 1. The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; esp. the exchange of merchandise, on a large… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Commerce — Com*merce (? or ?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Commerced}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Commercing}.] [Cf. F. commercer, fr. LL. commerciare.] 1. To carry on trade; to traffic. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Beware you commerce not with bankrupts. B. Jonson. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Commerce, CA — U.S. city in California Population (2000): 12568 Housing Units (2000): 3377 Land area (2000): 6.567812 sq. miles (17.010555 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.004868 sq. miles (0.012607 sq. km) Total area (2000): 6.572680 sq. miles (17.023162 sq. km)… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

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