[p.39] are altogether unconnected with the Maggrebin, Syria, and Djidda
merchants.
Mercantile transactions are farther simplified by the traders employing
chiefly their own capital, commission business being much less extensive
than it is in Europe. When a merchant consigns a considerable quantity
of goods to a place, he sends a partner with them, or perhaps a
relative, if he have no partner resident in the place. Ranking concerns
and bills of exchange are wholly unknown among the natives, which saves
them much trouble. In those towns where European factories are
established, bills may be found, but they are hardly current with the
natives, among whom assignments only are customary.
The practice followed equally by Mahomedan, Christian, and Jewish
merchants, in the East, of never drawing an exact balance of the actual
state of their capital, is another cause that renders the details of
book-keeping less necessary here than in Europe. For the same reason
that a Bedouin never counts the tents of his tribe, nor the exact number
of his sheep, nor a military chief the exact number of his men, nor a
governor the number of inhabitants of his town, a merchant never
attempts to ascertain the exact amount of his property; an approximation
only is all that be desires. This arises from a belief that counting is
an ostentatious display of wealth, which heaven will punish by a speedy
diminution.