Commercial travellers may be re garded as a separate species of the genus merchant ; they are employed by merchant firms or by manufacturers who, to that extent, act as their own merchants to obtain orders from the retailers and they generally carry with them samples of the goods their principals wish to sell. The beginning of this de velopment of trade coincided roughly with the industrial revo lution, the consequent need for extended markets for factory production and the provision of better facilities for travelling and transport ; thus commercial travellers and chambers of corn merce both date from the late 18 century, though both have de veloped enormously since that time.
The co-operative system of trade, which in recent years has assumed greatly increased importance, in so far as it succeeds in bringing together under one management the manufacture or distribution of commodities replaces the merchant, the intelligent centre of distribution guided by his sense of profit or reward for getting the right goods into the hands of the right people, by the appropriate official of the co operative enterprise guided in the same task by, no doubt, more precise information and possibly free from the necessity, as from the opportunity, of showing in the shape of a demonstrable "profit" the positive success of his transactions. This is equally true whether the system is co-operative in the special sense as embracing the consumer or is simply an amalgamation of ordinary private enterprises, cutting out the independent merchant to a greater or less extent. Whatever may be the ultimate expansion of such systems of trade organization the essential function of distribution which the merchant performs will remain and it is difficult to imagine the rise of any economic practice which will render him or the chamber of commerce obsolete.
Closely connected with co-operative marketing is standardiza tion which has attained a considerable development in the case of agricultural produce and is receiving an increasing amount of attention as part of the general process known as "rationaliza tion" which appears to consist largely in the application of corn mon sense principles to trade organization.
Organization, in no matter what sphere, is tending towards the establishment of inter national principles and institutions. In the sphere of commerce the International chamber of commerce has already attained wide recognition, and plays an important part in the work of unifying and ameliorating the conditions under which the trade of the world may be conducted. A piece of work of particular impor tance in the proper organization of merchant business is being undertaken by the International Law Conference in drawing up rules relating to c.i.f. contracts and cognate questions of the rights and duties of the buyer and seller. The common interests of the various national trades, which it has been noted are served by innumerable trade associations, are dealt with by such bodies as the International Association of Federations of National In dustries, while international cartels, trusts or combines are growing slowly, if with much difficulty and in face of apprehension. (See