| 释义 |
mercantile, a. (and n.)|ˈmɜːkəntaɪl, -tɪl|
Also 7 merchantile, mercantil, 8 -iel.
[a. F. mercantile, ad. It. mercantil, f. mercante: see merchant. Cf. Sp. and Pg. mercantil.]
1. Of or belonging to merchants or their trade; concerned with the exchange of merchandise; of or pertaining to trade or commerce; commercial.
1642Howell Instr. For. Trav. (Arb.) 61 Navigation and Mercantile Negotiation, are the two Poles whereon that State [sc. Holland] doth move. c1645― Lett. i. xxix. (1655) I. 43 The only procede (that I may use the mercantil term) you can expect, is thanks. 1727Arbuthnot Coins 224 The Expedition of the Argonauts..was partly mercantile, partly military. 1759Book of Fairs 54 Black cattle, sheep, horses, and mercantile goods. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 51 Bonrepaux..was esteemed an adept in the mystery of mercantile politics. 1856E. A. Bond Russia (Hakl. Soc.) Introd. 130 By joining in his mercantile ventures in Russia. 1897Webster (citing McElrath), Mercantile paper, the notes or acceptances given by merchants for goods bought, or received on consignment; drafts on merchants for goods sold or consigned.
b. mercantile system (also m. doctrine, mercantile theory): a term used by Adam Smith and later Political Economists for the system of economic doctrine and legislative policy based on the principle that money alone constituted wealth. Hence mercantile school: those who upheld this system.
1776Adam Smith W.N. iv. i. (heading) Of the Principle of the commercial, or mercantile System. 1848Mill Pol. Econ. I. 2 The set of doctrines designated, since the time of Adam Smith, by the appellation of the Mercantile System. Ibid. 7 The Mercantile Theory could not fail to be seen in its true character. 1881Contemp. Rev. Nov. XL. 806 The ‘mercantile’ school was right in maintaining that an influx of precious metal stimulates commerce and industry. 1885J. K. Ingram in Encycl. Brit. XIX. 354/2 The mercantile doctrine, stated in its most extreme form, makes wealth and money identical.
c. That deals with, investigates or controls commercial affairs.
1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. III. 332 There are three courts,..a civil, a criminal, and a mercantile. 1848Mill Pol. Econ. iii. xvii. §4 Leaders of opinion on mercantile questions. 1858Homans Cycl. Comm. s.v., The Mercantile Agency is a name applied to various houses in the leading cities of the United States, and in Montreal and London. The principal object of the Agency is to supply, to annual subscribers, information respecting the character, capacity and pecuniary condition of persons asking credit... The Agency was first established in 1841 in the city of New York. 1861Goschen For. Exch. 113 Putting aside..the..subject of the currency altogether, and confining ourselves to the more mercantile part of the question.
2. Engaged in trade or commerce. mercantile marine, the shipping collectively employed in commerce (see marine n. 2).
c1645Howell Lett. ii. xv. (1655) I. 94 Amsterdam..is one of the greatest mercantil Towns in Europ. 1662J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. ii. 140 The scituation of this town is upon a fair River, with a good harbour that renders it very Merchantile. a1734North Exam. iii. viii. §29 (1740) 604 His [Fairclough's] son was then mercantiel servant to Mr. North. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. i, Ralph Nickleby..had been some time placed in a mercantile house in London. 1841Elphinstone Hist. India I. 213 The Jáins..are generally an opulent and mercantile class. 1889Act 52 & 53 Vict. c. 45 §1 The expression ‘mercantile agent’ shall mean a mercantile agent having..authority either to sell goods, or [etc.].
3. Having payment or gain as the motive; mercenary; also, simply, disposed for bargaining.
1756Warton Ess. Pope I. 260 The mercantile bard [Dryden]. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Lit. Wks. (Bohn) II. 103 He [the Englishman] loves the axe, the spade, the oar, the gun, the steampipe... He is materialist, economical, mercantile. 1860Ruskin Unto this Last ii. (1862) 41 The two economies, to which the terms ‘Political’ and ‘Mercantile’ might not unadvisedly be attached... Mercantile economy, the economy of ‘merces’ or of ‘pay’, signifies the accumulation, in the hands of individuals, of legal or moral claim upon, or power over, the labour of others.
4. Of or proper to a merchant.
1819Crabbe T. of Hall vii, A bill That was not drawn with true mercantile skill. 1839Alison Hist. Europe xlix. §9 (1849–50) VIII. 9 A nation in which the chivalrous and mercantile qualities are strangely blended.
†5. quasi-n. A merchant. Obs. rare— 1.
1813Jane Austen Lett. (1884) II. 178 A great rich mercantile, Sir Robert Wigram.
Hence ˈmercantilely adv., from a mercantile point of view; with regard to business transactions.
1827Examiner 433/1 It is, mercantilely speaking, not obvious how a present expense can be met by merely possible funds. 1838Fraser's Mag. XVII. 185 Before the arrest he might have been deemed mercantilely solvent. |