The term commerce comes from the Latin concept commercĭum and refers to the transaction that is carried out with the objective of buying or selling a product. Trade is also called the commercial premises, business, pharmacy or store, and the social group made up of merchants.
For example: “My father is engaged in the fruit and vegetable trade in the wholesale market”, “They opened a clothing store right next to my house”, “Assault on a store in the Santa Catalina neighborhood: the police arrested three criminals ».
Commerce, in other words, is a social and economic activity that involves the acquisition and transfer of goods. Who participates in an act of commerce can buy the product to make direct use of it, to resell it or to transform it. In general, this commercial operation implies the delivery of one thing to receive, in consideration, another of similar value. The medium of exchange in commerce is usually money.
However, it must be emphasized that until the appearance of money, what ancient civilizations did was carry out trade through what was called barter. This operation consisted of acquiring a specific product from a vendor who was paid by giving him another product that he needed.
In this way, we could emphasize that said commercial operation was fundamentally based on the exchange of basic necessities such as food.
Likewise, and making use of History, it must also be said that what were called trade routes existed in the past. These were nothing more than various routes or itineraries that served as links between the areas where a certain product was produced and those that, however, demanded it.
Among the best-known trade routes we find, for example, the silk route that linked China with Europe; the New Spain Route that served as a link between Asia and America with Europe; or the famous spice route that linked the old continent with places in Oceania, China and India.
Itineraries, all of them that on many occasions were the “culprits” for the discovery of new places and corners of the world and for promoting creation and innovation in areas such as science or technology. Some of the historical figures who have been fundamental in the development of these routes are Marco Polo or Vasco de Gama.
Merchant is that person, whether legal or physical, who lives off the trade. Therefore, commercial activity is their livelihood.
There are different kinds of commerce according to their characteristics. The retail trade (also known as trading the retail) takes place between the seller and the consumer end (the person who buys the product for use or consume).
In wholesale trade (or wholesale trade), however, the buyer is not the one who consumes or uses the purchased product. Its intention is to be able to make a subsequent sale of the same product, at a higher price than paid.
