In the final issue of his nine-year periodical The Review (1704-1713) on 11 June 1713, Defoe famously asserted that Trade was the “Whore I really doated upon, and design’d to have taken up with”. Notwithstanding his interesting choice of metaphor, there is little question, looking over the diversity of subject matter contained within Defoe’s prolific canon, that trade is the cornerstone of his many professional and private interests. Defoe’s vast knowledge of trade, and its many pitfalls, was the result of far more than an abstract interest. He undertook numerous business enterprises over his long professional life, both in the manufacture of goods (including brick and pantiles, perfume, and linen) and m

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Published 25 January 2005

Citation: Pritchard, Penny. "The Complete English Tradesman". The Literary Encyclopedia. 25 January 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1210, accessed 20 November 2009.]