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81-512: The reasons for Hafner departing American Flyer, the company he helped found, are lost to history. In the book Greenberg's Guide to American Flyer Prewar O Gauge, author Alan R. Schuweiler cites three possibilities: Hafner may not have known what official position he held in the company, he may have sought a larger share of the company, and he may have been passed over in favor of his co-founder's son, William Ogden Coleman Jr. During its peak periods, it employed as many as 150 people. While Hafner

162-636: A Hafner design. This suggests the two companies worked together in their early days, or that one or both companies copied designs from the other. Since American Flyer was known to have purchased rolling stock from German competitor Bing , it is possible that American Flyer also purchased from Hafner, or vice versa. Unlike most its competitors, not including Marx, Hafner survived the Great Depression without making significant changes to its product line, since it always specialized in inexpensive train sets that sold for US$ 3 or less. World War II proved

243-597: A billion-pound industry", BBC News , December 2020. The Welsh entrepreneur Pryce Pryce-Jones set up the first mail-order company in 1861. Starting off as an apprentice to a local draper in Newtown, Wales , he took over the business in 1856 and renamed it the Royal Welsh Warehouse, selling local Welsh flannel . The establishment of the Uniform Penny Post in 1840, and the extension of

324-433: A few circumstances tariffs might be beneficial to the host country; but never for the world at large. The Great Depression was a major economic recession that ran from 1929 to the late 1930s. During this period, there was a great drop in trade and other economic indicators. The lack of free trade was considered by many as a principal cause of the depression causing stagnation and inflation. Only during World War II did

405-536: A greater challenge. Since toy production was prohibited after 1942, toy companies had to adapt. While Marx, Lionel and the A. C. Gilbert Company were able to secure government contracts to manufacture items with military applications, Hafner lacked the tooling and manufacturing expertise to do the same. Hafner survived by forming a symbiotic relationship with the Fox Brewing Company. Fox was unable to secure bottlecaps from any other source, while Hafner

486-458: A mail-order operation. Thus J.C. Penney entered the mail order catalogue business. J.C. Penney, a latecomer in catalogue operations, was different from many of its competitors because it had a large retail store base before launching into the mail-order business. The first J.C. Penney catalogue was mailed the next year in 1963. Customers could order from the catalogue inside J.C. Penney stores in eight states. The J.C. Penney Catalog Distribution Center

567-636: A near-collapse of the trade network in the western world. Trade, however, continued to flourish among the kingdoms of Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and Southeast Asia. Some trade did occur in the west. For instance, Radhanites were a medieval guild or group (the precise meaning of the word is lost to history) of Jewish merchants who traded between the Christians in Europe and the Muslims of

648-463: A positive relationship between how well-connected a coastal location was and the local prevalence of archaeological sites from the Iron Age. This suggests that a location's trade potential was an important determinant of human settlements. The complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir , dated 1750 BCE, documents the tribulations of a copper merchant at the time. From the beginning of Greek civilization until

729-471: A printed catalogue. Year Mail Order Catalogues were founded The objective of the direct marketing industry is to alter the sales distribution chain, in other words [bypass] the wholesaler and the retailer and go directly to the customer, reducing therefore tariffs and taxes. In the European Union, a " VAT union " is in force: the merchant selling to a buyer in a different EU member country adds

810-575: Is deeply bound up in trade, as a system of clay tokens used for accounting – found in Upper Euphrates valley in Syria dated to the 10th millennium BCE – is one of the earliest versions of writing. Ebla was a prominent trading center during the third millennia BCE, with a network reaching into Anatolia and north Mesopotamia. Materials used for creating jewelry were traded with Egypt since 3000 BCE. Long-range trade routes first appeared in

891-536: Is derived from the Latin commercium , from cum "together" and merx , "merchandise." Trade originated from human communication in prehistoric times. Prehistoric peoples exchanged goods and services with each other in a gift economy before the innovation of modern-day currency. Peter Watson dates the history of long-distance commerce to c.  150,000 years ago. In the Mediterranean region,

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972-409: Is mostly based on conjecture and logical inference. Letters of credit , paper money , and non-physical money have greatly simplified and promoted trade as buying can be separated from selling , or earning . Trade between two traders is called bilateral trade , while trade involving more than two traders is called multilateral trade . In one modern view, trade exists due to specialization and

1053-450: Is published in a similar fashion as any magazine publication and distributed through a variety of means, usually via a postal service and the internet. Sometimes supermarket products do mail order promotions, whereby people can send in the UPC plus shipping and handling to get a product made especially for the company. In 1498, the publisher Aldus Manutius of Venice printed a catalogue of

1134-752: Is the earliest still surviving mail-order business, established by Alfred Hammacher in New York City in 1848. Offering mechanic's tools and builder's hardware, its first catalogue was published in 1881. T. Eaton Co. Limited was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an Irish immigrant. The first Eaton's catalogue was a 34-page booklet issued in 1884. As Eaton's grew, so did the catalogue. By 1920, Eaton's operated mail order warehouses in Winnipeg, Toronto and Moncton to serve its catalogue customers. Catalogue order offices were also established throughout

1215-744: The Bengal Sultanate was a major trading nation in the world and often referred to by Europeans as the wealthiest country with which to trade. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Portuguese gained an economic advantage in the Kingdom of Kongo due to different philosophies of trade. Whereas Portuguese traders concentrated on the accumulation of capital, in Kongo spiritual meaning was attached to many objects of trade. According to economic historian Toby Green , in Kongo "giving more than receiving

1296-618: The Great Depression of the 1930s. Trade openness increased substantially again from the 1950s onward (albeit with a slowdown during the oil crisis of the 1970s ). Economists and economic historians contend that current levels of trade openness are the highest they have ever been. Trade is from Middle English trade ("path, course of conduct"), introduced into English by Hanseatic merchants, from Middle Low German trade ("track, course"), from Old Saxon trada ("spoor, track"), from Proto-Germanic *tradō ("track, way"), and cognate with Old English tredan ("to tread"). Commerce

1377-723: The Princess of Wales and royal households across Europe. He also began exporting drapery to the US and British colonies , amassing 200,000 customers around the UK and the world. One of his most popular products was the Euklisia Rug , the forerunner of the modern sleeping bag, which Pryce-Jones exported around the world, at one point landing a contract with the Russian Army for 60,000 rugs. By 1880, he had more than 100,000 customers in

1458-703: The Venetian Republic and the Republic of Genoa were major trade centers. They dominated trade in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, having the monopoly between Europe and the Near East for centuries. From the 8th to the 11th century, the Vikings and Varangians traded as they sailed from and to Scandinavia. Vikings sailed to Western Europe, while Varangians to Kyivan Rus' . The Hanseatic League

1539-707: The division of labor , a predominant form of economic activity in which individuals and groups concentrate on a small aspect of production, but use their output in trade for other products and needs. Trade exists between regions because different regions may have a comparative advantage (perceived or real) in the production of some trade-able goods – including the production of scarce or limited natural resources elsewhere. For example, different regions' sizes may encourage mass production . In such circumstances, trading at market price between locations can benefit both locations. Different types of traders may specialize in trading different kinds of goods; for example,

1620-490: 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. Free trade is a policy by which a government does not discriminate against imports or exports by applying tariffs or subsidies. This policy

1701-492: The railway network , helped Pryce-Jones to eventually turn his small rural concern into a company with global renown. Customers were able to order by mail for the first time—this following the creation of the modern postal service and the invention of the postage stamp ( Penny Black ) where there was a charge of one penny for carriage and delivery between any two places in the United Kingdom irrespective of distance—and

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1782-401: The spice trade and grain trade have both historically been important in the development of a global, international economy. Retail trade consists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a very fixed location (such as a department store , boutique , or kiosk ), online or by mail , in small or individual lots for direct consumption or use by the purchaser. Wholesale trade is

1863-405: The terms of trade through maintaining tariffs , and that the response to this might be reciprocity in trade policy. Ricardo and others had suggested this earlier. This was taken as evidence against the universal doctrine of free trade, as it was believed that more of the economic surplus of trade would accrue to a country following reciprocal , rather than completely free, trade policies. This

1944-715: The 3rd millennium BCE, when Sumerians in Mesopotamia traded with the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley . The Phoenicians were noted sea traders, traveling across the Mediterranean Sea , and as far north as Britain for sources of tin to manufacture bronze . For this purpose they established trade colonies the Greeks called emporia . Along the coast of the Mediterranean, researchers have found

2025-811: The Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. In 1776, Adam Smith published the paper An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations . It criticized Mercantilism , and argued that economic specialization could benefit nations just as much as firms. Since the division of labour was restricted by the size of the market, he said that countries having access to larger markets would be able to divide labour more efficiently and thereby become more productive . Smith said that he considered all rationalizations of import and export controls "dupery", which hurt

2106-560: The Caribbean. During the Middle Ages , commerce developed in Europe by trading luxury goods at trade fairs. Wealth became converted into movable wealth or capital . Banking systems developed where money on account was transferred across national boundaries. Hand to hand markets became a feature of town life and were regulated by town authorities. Western Europe established a complex and expansive trade network with cargo ships being

2187-631: The Columbia Record Club, the magazine subscription card, and the American Express Customer Rewards program. With the invention of the Internet, a company's website became the more usual way to order merchandise for delivery by mail. Unless the retailer provides a paper catalogue from which to order, that is if the products are mainly presented to and searched for by the customer on a web site or mobile app,

2268-652: The Internet, in some cases with a PDF or tablet application which allows shoppers to browse an electronic catalog that resembles a paper one very closely, though by the late 2010s this has become increasingly rare, and product information is presented in a format designed for the Web and mobile apps, rather than a PDF. Rising paper, printing, and postage costs have caused some traditional catalogue merchants, such as Bloomingdale's , to suspend their printed catalogues and sell only through websites. Also, while some Internet merchants are or were also catalogue merchants, many have never had

2349-741: The Near East. The first true maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean was by the Austronesian peoples of Island Southeast Asia . Initiated by the indigenous peoples of Taiwan and the Philippines , the Maritime Jade Road was an extensive trading network connecting multiple areas in Southeast and East Asia. Its primary products were made of jade mined from Taiwan by Taiwanese indigenous peoples and processed mostly in

2430-575: The Philippines by indigenous Filipinos, especially in Batanes , Luzon , and Palawan . Some were also processed in Vietnam , while the peoples of Malaysia , Brunei , Singapore , Thailand , Indonesia , and Cambodia also participated in the massive trading network. The maritime road is one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world. It

2511-476: The Stone Age by excavations in 1901. The first clear archaeological evidence of trade in manufactured goods is found in south west Asia. Archaeological evidence of obsidian use provides data on how this material was increasingly the preferred choice rather than chert from the late Mesolithic to Neolithic, requiring exchange as deposits of obsidian are rare in the Mediterranean region. Obsidian provided

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2592-462: The UK alone and his success was rewarded in 1887 with a knighthood. In 1845, Tiffany's Blue Book was the first mail-order catalogue in the United States. In 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward of Chicago produced a mail-order catalogue for his Montgomery Ward mail order business. By buying goods and then reselling them directly to customers, Aaron Montgomery Ward was consequently removing

2673-545: The VAT of his own country to the price, and the buyer pays no additional tax. A buyer for resale may deduct that VAT, just as with purchases made within their own country. Up until June 21, 2018, mail order retailers in the United States operated with the advantage of not being required to collect state sales tax , unless the retailer's business had a physical presence in the customer's state . Instead, most states required

2754-479: The agreement. In 1947, 23 countries agreed to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to promote free trade. The European Union became the world's largest exporter of manufactured goods and services, the biggest export market for around 80 countries. Today, trade is merely a subset within a complex system of companies which try to maximize their profits by offering products and services to

2835-673: The books he was printing. In 1667, the English gardener William Lucas published a seed catalogue, which he mailed to his customers to inform them of his prices. Catalogues spread to British America , where Benjamin Franklin is believed to have been the first cataloguer. In 1744 he produced a catalogue of scientific and academic books. In 1833, Antonio Fattorini started a mail order watch club in Bradford, which would eventually transform into Empire Stores. Pryce-Jones could only dream of

2916-642: The company was producing a 532-page catalogue with the largest variety of items that anybody at the time could have imagined. "In 1893, the sales topped 400,000 dollars. Two years later they exceeded 750,000 dollars." In 1906 Sears opened its catalogue plant and the Sears Merchandise Building Tower . And by that time, the Sears catalogue had become known in the industry as "the Consumers' Bible". In 1933, Sears, Roebuck and Co. produced

2997-552: The country, with the first opening in Oakville in 1916. Richard Warren Sears started a business selling watches through mail order catalogues in Redwood Falls, Minnesota , in 1888. By 1894, the Sears catalogue had grown to 322 pages, featuring sewing machines , bicycles , sporting goods , automobiles (produced from 1905–1915 by Lincoln Motor Car Works of Chicago, not related to the current Ford Motor Company brand of

3078-411: The creation of a powerful global network that came to include everything from mail order, to telemarketing and social media. Mail order changed the worldwide marketplace by introducing the concept of privacy and individuality into the retail industry. Today, the mail order catalogue industry is worth approximately 100 billion dollars and generates over 2 trillion in incremental sales. Sir John Moores

3159-410: The doctrine still considered the most counterintuitive in economics : The ascendancy of free trade was primarily based on national advantage in the mid 19th century. That is, the calculation made was whether it was in any particular country's self-interest to open its borders to imports. John Stuart Mill proved that a country with monopoly pricing power on the international market could manipulate

3240-695: The earliest contact between cultures involved members of the species Homo sapiens , principally using the Danube river, at a time beginning 35,000–30,000 BP . There is evidence of the exchange of obsidian and flint during the Stone Age . Trade in obsidian is believed to have taken place in New Guinea from 17,000 BCE. The earliest use of obsidian in the Near East dates to the Lower and Middle paleolithic. Robert Carr Bosanquet investigated trade in

3321-533: The east–west trade route known as the Silk Road after the 4th century CE up to the 8th century CE, with Suyab and Talas ranking among their main centers in the north. They were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia. From the Middle Ages, the maritime republics , in particular Venice , Pisa and Genoa , played a key role in trade along the Mediterranean. From the 11th to the late 15th centuries,

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3402-608: The fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, a financially lucrative trade brought valuable spice to Europe from the far east, including India and China. Roman commerce allowed its empire to flourish and endure. The latter Roman Republic and the Pax Romana of the Roman empire produced a stable and secure transportation network that enabled the shipment of trade goods without fear of significant piracy , as Rome had become

3483-550: The first millennium AD. It continued up to historic times, later becoming the Maritime Silk Road. The emergence of exchange networks in the Pre-Columbian societies of and near to Mexico are known to have occurred within recent years before and after 1500 BCE. Trade networks reached north to Oasisamerica . There is evidence of established maritime trade with the cultures of northwestern South America and

3564-439: The first of its famous Christmas catalogues known as the " Sears Wishbook ", a catalogue featuring toys and gifts and separate from the annual Christmas catalogue. From 1908 to 1940, Sears also sold kit houses by mail order, selling 70,000 to 75,000 such homes, many of which are still lived in today. By creating a direct marketing industry through the mail order catalogue, Pryce Pryce-Jones and Aaron Montgomery Ward enabled

3645-471: The goods directly to the customer via their travelling agents. A mail order catalogue is a publication containing a list of general merchandise from a company. Companies who publish and operate mail order catalogues are referred to as cataloguers within the industry. Cataloguers buy or manufacture goods then market those goods to prospects (prospective customers). Cataloguers may "rent" names from list brokers or cooperative databases . The catalogue itself

3726-414: The goods were delivered throughout the UK via the newly created railway system. In 1861, Pryce-Jones hit upon a unique method of selling his wares. He distributed catalogues of his wares across the country, allowing people to choose the items they wished and order them via post; he would then dispatch the goods to the customer via the railways, promising next-day delivery . It was an ideal way of meeting

3807-565: The homely folk of this country help them to obtain some of the profits made by manufacturing and trading... to save money on things they must have. This Catalogue is our Ship... staffed by an All-British crew... You won't find sleepy, old-fashioned goods carried in the LITTLEWOODS ship. Only the newest of the new goods—honest, British-made merchandise." With the success of the catalogue business, Moores moved his business four times to larger buildings in 1932. Moores sailed to America to look at

3888-410: The impact his entrepreneurial vision would have on the world when he was selling Welsh flannel to Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale in the late 1800s. Jones is credited as being the pioneer of a global mail order industry now worth about £75bn. Forget the internet and delivery drivers, Pryce-Jones used the superhighway of the day—the railway and parcel post. —"The mail-order pioneer who started

3969-409: The low end of the market. Unlike most of its competitors, Hafner never created an electric train. Any Hafner electric trains that exist today were retrofitted with a motor from another manufacturer. Electrifying Hafner locomotives by outfitting them with surplus Marx electric motors is a somewhat common practice. Both Hafner and Marx were known to use "recycled" lithography, a cost-saving practice where

4050-406: The main carrier of goods; Cogs and Hulks are two examples of such cargo ships. Many ports would develop their own extensive trade networks. The English port city of Bristol traded with peoples from what is modern day Iceland, all along the western coast of France, and down to what is now Spain. During the Middle Ages, Central Asia was the economic center of the world. The Sogdians dominated

4131-601: The material cultures of India and China. Indonesians , in particular were trading in spices (mainly cinnamon and cassia ) with East Africa using catamaran and outrigger boats and sailing with the help of the Westerlies in the Indian Ocean. This trade network expanded to reach as far as Africa and the Arabian Peninsula , resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar by the first half of

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4212-461: The material to make cutting utensils or tools, although since other more easily obtainable materials were available, use was exclusive to the higher status of the tribe using "the rich man's flint". Obsidian has held its value relative to flint. Early traders traded Obsidian at distances of 900 kilometres within the Mediterranean region. Trade in the Mediterranean during the Neolithic of Europe

4293-435: The mid-20th century such as flashlights have surfaced with Hafner lithography inside, which indicates that Hafner sold its surplus or unusable print runs for use in the manufacture of products that would be painted. Mail-order catalog Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: Then,

4374-631: The middlemen at the general store and to the benefit of the customer, lowering the prices drastically. His first catalogue was a single sheet of paper with a price list, 8 by 12 inches, showing the merchandise for sale and ordering instructions. Montgomery Ward identified a market of merchant-wary farmers in the Midwest. Within two decades, his single-page list of products grew into a 540-page illustrated book selling over 20,000 items. From about 1921 to 1931, Ward sold prefabricated kit houses , called Wardway Homes, by mail order. Hammacher Schlemmer

4455-463: The movement of gold and other resources sent out by Muslim traders on the Trans-Saharan trading network. Beginning in the 16th century, European merchants would purchase gold, spices, cloth, timber and slaves from West African states as part of the triangular trade . This was often in exchange for cloth , iron , or cowrie shells which were used locally as currency. Founded in 1352,

4536-528: The needs of customers in isolated rural locations who were either too busy or unable to get into Newtown to shop directly. This was the world's first mail order business, an idea which would change the nature of retail in the coming century. The further expansion of the railways in the years that followed allowed Pryce Jones to greatly expand his customer base and his business grew rapidly. He supplied his products to an impressive variety of famous clientele, including Florence Nightingale and Queen Victoria ,

4617-485: The operations of Montgomery Ward and Sears and Roebuck. By 1936, the business had hit the 4 million pound mark, making Moores a millionaire a second time over, by mail order. James Cash Penney started his first retail store in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming. By 1925, J.C. Penney had 674 stores generating sales of $ 91 million. In 1962 J.C. Penney bought Wisconsin based General Merchandise Company with discount stores and

4698-433: The products are delivered to the customer. The products are usually delivered directly to an address supplied by the customer, such as a home address, but occasionally the orders are delivered to a nearby retail location for the customer to pick up. Some merchants also allow the goods to be shipped directly to a third party consumer, which is an effective way to send a gift to an out-of-town recipient. Some merchants delivered

4779-803: The recession end in the United States. Also during the war, in 1944, 44 countries signed the Bretton Woods Agreement , intended to prevent national trade barriers, to avoid depressions. It set up rules and institutions to regulate the international political economy : the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later divided into the World Bank $ Bank for International Settlements). These organizations became operational in 1946 after enough countries ratified

4860-606: The resident purchaser to pay the applicable taxes. In 2018, after the United States Supreme Court heard the case of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. and a five-justice majority overturned Quill Corp. v. North Dakota , ruling that the physical presence rule decided in Quill was "unsound and incorrect" in the current age of Internet services, American e-commerce and mail order retailers began collecting state sales tax on orders. Buying Trade involves

4941-591: The same difficulties, and by 1956 was out of business and in liquidation. Louis Marx and Company purchased the Hafner tooling, then shipped it to its subsidiary in Mexico , where it was used to produce inexpensive windup and battery -powered sets. Many Marx collectors believe Louis Marx's primary motivation for the purchase was to eliminate another competitor from the marketplace. The clockwork locomotives and colorful lithographed tinplate rolling stock placed Hafner at

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5022-432: The same name ) and a host of other new items. Organizing the company so it could handle orders on an economical and efficient basis, Chicago clothing manufacturer Julius Rosenwald became a part-owner in 1895. By the following year, dolls , refrigerators , stoves and groceries had been added to the catalog. Sears, Roebuck and Co. soon developed a reputation for high quality products and customer satisfaction. By 1895,

5103-468: The sole effective sea power in the Mediterranean with the conquest of Egypt and the near east. In ancient Greece Hermes was the god of trade (commerce) and weights and measures. In ancient Rome, Mercurius was the god of merchants, whose festival was celebrated by traders on the 25th day of the fifth month. The concept of free trade was an antithesis to the will and economic direction of

5184-428: The sovereigns of the ancient Greek states. Free trade between states was stifled by the need for strict internal controls (via taxation) to maintain security within the treasury of the sovereign, which nevertheless enabled the maintenance of a modicum of civility within the structures of functional community life. The fall of the Roman empire and the succeeding Dark Ages brought instability to Western Europe and

5265-427: The term "mail order" is rarely used to describe the ordering of goods over the Internet. It is more usual to refer to this as e-commerce or online shopping. Online shopping allows more detailed information (including audio and video) to be presented, and allows for faster ordering than by mailed form (though phone orders are also common for mail-order catalogues). Most traditional mail order companies now also sell over

5346-415: The tinplate from defective print runs was flipped over and printed on the blank side and used. The result of this is hidden graphics on the interior of cars and accessories. In addition to re-using its own defective sheets, Hafner would sometimes buy defective sheets from other companies as scrap and use it. Some Hafner collectors specialize in collecting these variations. Additionally, some metal products from

5427-555: The trading nation as a whole for the benefit of specific industries. In 1799, the Dutch East India Company , formerly the world's largest company, became bankrupt , partly due to the rise of competitive free trade. In 1817, David Ricardo , James Mill and Robert Torrens showed that free trade would benefit the industrially weak as well as the strong, in the famous theory of comparative advantage . In Principles of Political Economy and Taxation Ricardo advanced

5508-448: The traffic in goods that are sold as merchandise to retailers , industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services. Historically, openness to free trade substantially increased in some areas from 1815 until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Trade openness increased again during the 1920s but collapsed (in particular in Europe and North America) during

5589-485: The transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market . Traders generally negotiate through a medium of credit or exchange, such as money. Though some economists characterize barter (i.e. trading things without the use of money ) as an early form of trade, money was invented before written history began. Consequently, any story of how money first developed

5670-652: Was a British businessman and philanthropist most famous for the founding of the Littlewoods retail company that was located in Liverpool , England . Moores became a millionaire through the creation of the Littlewood Pool, one of the best-known names in sports gambling in England. In January 1932, Moores was able to disengage himself sufficiently from the pools to start up Littlewoods Mail Order Store. This

5751-436: Was a symbol of spiritual and political power and privilege." In the 16th century, the Seventeen Provinces were the center of free trade, imposing no exchange controls , and advocating the free movement of goods. Trade in the East Indies was dominated by Portugal in the 16th century, the Dutch Republic in the 17th century, and the British in the 18th century. The Spanish Empire developed regular trade links across both

5832-545: Was able to quickly gain distribution from catalog retailer G. Sommers & Co. , it never received the widespread distribution of the so-called "Big Four" of American Flyer, Lionel , Dorfan , and Ives . The early Hafner trains bore the Overland Flyer brand and closely resembled competing offerings from American Flyer. As late as 1917 a car appeared in American Flyer's product line that closely resembled

5913-623: Was an alliance of trading cities that maintained a trade monopoly over most of Northern Europe and the Baltic , between the 13th and 17th centuries. Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama pioneered the European spice trade in 1498 when he reached Calicut after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the African continent. Prior to this, the flow of spice into Europe from India

5994-570: Was controlled by Islamic powers, especially Egypt. The spice trade was of major economic importance and helped spur the Age of Discovery in Europe. Spices brought to Europe from the Eastern world were some of the most valuable commodities for their weight, sometimes rivaling gold . From 1070 onward, kingdoms in West Africa became significant members of global trade . This came initially through

6075-739: Was followed on July 6, 1937 by the opening of the first Littlewoods department store in Blackpool . By the time World War II started there were 25 Littlewoods stores across the UK and over 50 by 1952. The first Littlewoods catalogue was published in May 1932 with 168 pages. Its motta was: "We hoist our Flag in the Port of Supply, and right away we sail to the Ports of Demand—the Homes of the People. We intend to help

6156-416: Was followed within a few years by the infant industry scenario developed by Mill promoting the theory that the government had the duty to protect young industries, although only for a time necessary for them to develop full capacity. This became the policy in many countries attempting to industrialize and out-compete English exporters. Milton Friedman later continued this vein of thought, showing that in

6237-498: Was greatest in this material. Networks were in existence at around 12,000 BCE Anatolia was the source primarily for trade with the Levant, Iran and Egypt according to Zarins study of 1990. Melos and Lipari sources produced among the most widespread trading in the Mediterranean region as known to archaeology. The Sari-i-Sang mine in the mountains of Afghanistan was the largest source for trade of lapis lazuli . The material

6318-692: Was in existence for at least 3,000 years, where its peak production was from 2000 BCE to 500 CE, older than the Silk Road in mainland Eurasia and the later Maritime Silk Road . The Maritime Jade Road began to wane during its final centuries from 500 CE until 1000 CE. The entire period of the network was a golden age for the diverse societies of the region. Sea-faring Southeast Asians also established trade routes with Southern India and Sri Lanka as early as 1500 BC, ushering an exchange of material culture (like catamarans , outrigger boats , sewn-plank boats, and paan) and cultigens (like coconuts , sandalwood , bananas , and sugarcane ); as well as connecting

6399-513: Was located in Milwaukee. Catalogues through the ages Mail order had always relied on the innovative technique of selling products directly to the consumer at appealing prices, but the term " direct marketing " was only coined in 1967, by Lester Wunderman — considered to be the father of contemporary direct marketing. He was behind the creation of the toll-free 1-800 number and numerous mail order based loyalty marketing programs including

6480-560: Was most largely traded during the Kassite period of Babylonia beginning 1595 BCE. Adam Smith traces the origins of commerce to the very start of transactions in prehistoric times. Apart from traditional self-sufficiency , trading became a principal faculty for prehistoric people, who bartered what they had for goods and services from each other. Anthropologists have found no evidence of barter systems that did not exist alongside systems of credit. The earliest evidence of writing in

6561-547: Was unable to make much else. William Hafner's son John Hafner took over the company in 1933, but the elder Hafner stayed involved with the company until his death in 1944. John Hafner ran the company until 1951, when he sold the company to All Metal Products Company , the makers of the Wyandotte brand of toys. In a 1992 interview, Hafner said he was glad to get out of the business, citing increased difficulty competing with larger toy manufacturers. Hafner's new ownership faced

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