Originally published in The Quiver (John Cassell) vol.1 #4 (14 Oct 1865).
"It is naught, it is naught, saith tho buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth."—Prov. xx. 14.
Mr. Adam Clarke, in commenting upon this proverb, says: "St. Augustine tells us a pleasant story on this subject. A certain mountebank published in the full theatre that, at the next entertainment, he would show to every man present what was in his heart. The time came, and the concourse was immense. All waited, with death-like silence, to hear what he would say to each. He stood up, and in a single sentence redeemed his pledge—'You all wish to buy cheap and sell dear.' He was applauded, for every one felt it to be a description of his own heart, and was satisfied that all others were similar."
On this story it may be observed, that the mere wish "to buy cheap and to sell dear" is not condemned by the proverb before us; what is condemned is, the employment of unjustifiable means to reduce the price of an article, whether intended to be resold or not. Men must, of course, buy cheaper than they sell, or there could be no profitable trade at all; of course, also, the less they give, and the more they get, so much the better, provided always that there is no beating down on the one side, or overcharge on the other. "To buy in the cheapest market, and sell in the dearest," is one of the established maxims of modern merchandise. It is perfectly fair, for it is to be observed, that buying in a market, and at the market price—a price fixed and regulated, not by individual action, but by circumstances and events which, independently of mere personal feeling, affect the marketable value of commodities—is a very different thing from what is stigmatised by the proverb. Where, for instance, an article is abundant and everybody has more than enough, it must of necessity be far cheaper than where there is little or none, where it has to be imported, where many want it, and all who do are ready to give something considerable to get it. It is perfectly right that the man who deals in such an article, supposing that there are two or three places where it may be had, should buy it where it can be got cheapest, and should take it for sale to wherever it would yield him the largest returns, There is no wrong done in all this to any one. The first seller is satisfied with what he gets, and the last purchaser with what he gives. As to the other places, and the other markets respectively, the merchant will go where he must give more, and carry his goods where he will obtain less, when he has exhausted the first and best on| both sides, and has to be content with diminished profits. He will still do his best to keep buying as cheap and selling as dear as possible, though gradually obliged to pay more and charge less, knowing that he is subject to the action of laws, which, independently of himself, regulate the market price of the goods in which he deals.
What the proverb condemns, then, is not this. What it means to expose and censure is, consciously unjust depreciation of an article, in order to secure it for less than the buyer believes it to be worth. This may be done in, at least, two ways. First, by the actual depreciation of the thing itself, either as to material, or workmanship, or both; the man knowing well enough that, in each respect, it is alike good. Or, secondly, by the man's pretending that he does not want it, and has no use for it, so that, whatever may be its intrinsic value, it is not really of that value to him; he, on the contrary, knowing and feeling that it would just suit him, and secretly wishing to obtain it, if possible.
All this is, of course, wrong. The case, however, is much worse when the buyer knows, or suspects, that the seller must sell; that he is poor, or in difficulties, and that his circumstances may be taken advantage of to wring from him his goods at a cruel sacrifice. A man's heart may be broken, as well as his position destroyed, by such heartless pressure being brought to bear upon him in a great necessity.
The latter of the two pleas above mentioned may, however, be urged sometimes in good faith, and with perfect fairness. A seller may press an article upon you which you really do not want, or do not care for, or not at that moment, and may offer it at a low price to induce you to purchase. You can honestly assure him that you do not wish to buy, and may frankly admit the worth and excellence of the thing itself, and that it is fully worth what he asks for it, and even more. Still he presses and urges you to purchase, and perhaps pleads that you would be conferring a fayour by doing so. In such circumstances a man might be justified in offering even less than what is asked, though that may be less than the intrinsic value of the article, because he consents, for the sake of the vendor and because of his importunity, to purchase and pay for what may be an encumbrance, or what he may not care to have the trouble to turn again into money.
Where, however, two men, on equal terms, are buying and selling, the one asking a fair price, and the other needing and wishing to purchase, for the buyer either to run down the article, or to pretend indifference, in order to get it for what he knows to be beneath its marketable value—the price which the seller has a right to demand, and which the buyer ought to be willing to give—this is wrong, and is the wrong thing which the proverb condemns.
That such is the case appears from the conduct subsequently attributed to the purchaser—"When he is gone his way, then he boasteth." This at once reveals the real character of the transaction, and illustrates the folly which is often associated with deceit. When a man has outwitted another, or has gained an unworthy advantage over him, his wisest course is to say nothing about it: for his own credit he had better hold his tongue. But people who think themselves very knowing and adroit cannot do this: they long to proclaim their own cleverness, and to enjoy tho praise of their achievement, as well as to possess the substantial advantage which they have secured. "When he is gone his way, then he boasteth;" that is, shows, with a chuckle of exultation, what he has got, expatiates on its beauty or excellence, on the use it will be to him, how long he had been wishing to get hold of such a thing, and how cleverly he had managed to beat down the price, and get it for next to nothing, smiling, perhaps, all the time, at the weakness of the man who was so soft as to let him succeed. In this way it often is that deceit and cunning betray themselves, and a sinner proclaims himself a fool. The man of sharp practice, or "the *cute customer," will often choose to have the praise of his adroitness and a laugh at his dupe, though he may be thought wicked, rather than be regarded as truthful and straightforward, if with that he is to be classed with slow, humdrum, commonplace people.
The evil exposed by the proverb is not common amongst us in the higher walks of buying and selling. In the lower strata of shops, and among a certain class of customers, it may, no doubt, be found; but in no place of business of the more respectable order does any seller ever think of asking one price, while ready and willing to take another, or a purchaser to offer less than what is asked, or to depreciate an article with a view to obtaining it on easier terms. If an article is thought too dear, or the buyer does not feel justified in giving its price, it is simply declined, and nothing more is said. It is very likely, however, that in the time and the country of Solomon, trade morality was not high, even in some of the better class of bazaars. In the Mosaic law there are sundry enactments against unfair dealing; but in spite of these, it would seem, both from the Prophets and the Apocrypha, that there were times when justice and equity were rather the exception than the rule. Divers weights and measures are condemned; just balances and a just meteyard are enforced. "Divers weights" might be such as could be changed, according as the individual bought or sold. "Balances of deceit" might be such as were so constructed as to have all the appearance of justice, and yet might cheat the pocket while they satisfied the eye. The fact is, that among Eastern peoples, everywhere—in the olden time, and at the present day—there always has been a tendency to various species of falsehood. The traveller is never sure that he is getting the truth; and this of course is seen in business transactions as well as in other things.
The morality of trade in this country, in the higher walks of business, is, as we have said, in respect to the subject of the proverb, perfectly sound; so that in no first-class shop is anything to be met with but a fixed price; and no purchaser, accustomed to such, dreams of depreciation with a view to offering less than what is asked. Of course, where things are constantly being sold "at a tremendous sacrifice;" where "a bankrupt's stock" is to be offered for sale, or where people are always. "selling off," and "must be cleared out," on one pretence or another, we suppose there may be plenty of hollowness on both sides. In such places there may be as much insincerity in the descriptions given, and in the prices asked, as in anything that the buyers may say or do; though they, it is presumed, go to purchase on the principle of beating down and getting "a bargain."
There are occasions, however, when even the most high-minded men—men who would think themselves insulted, if, in their warehouses, they were offered anything less than what they asked—there are occasions when even they, on the one side or the other, will act on a different principle. In purchasing a house or an estate; in buying a horse; in taking or parting with fixtures or furniture; on leaving an old, or entering on a new residence, these, and other occasions, are times when such bargaining may take place, even among respectable people, as may have the appearance of going very near to what the proverb condemns. But here, again, it is to be remembered that the wish to get a thing for less than what is asked may by no means have in it anything wrong. The vendor in any of the above cases will sometimes say that he is "open to an offer;" that is, that while he asks so much, yet he might be induced to consent to take a lower sum. In such a case, the man wishing to purchase is perfectly justified in offering less than what is asked; but he would not be justified in depreciating the property against his conviction of its actual value, nor in pretending an indifference to it which he did not feel. At the same time he might properly say that another might possibly be found who would give more than he felt warranted to offer; that much as he liked the thing, and would like to have it, it was not so indispensable to him that he must secure it at any cost; if, therefore, the person wishing to part with it chose to take his offer, he would close with him; if not, the negotiation was at an end. It might so happen that the seller would feel it the best thing he could do to accept what was offered; it would be a saving in the end, though, in his opinion, he was parting with something for less than its value. Still, the circumstances may be such, that while it is "given away," sold "for an old song," neither does the seller feel that he has been overreached by the buyer, nor does the buyer, though quite aware of his good bargain, feel disposed to "boast," at least, not in the spirit of the proverb, which is that of a man exulting in the success of a clever trick.
As to house fixtures, every one knows that they must, for the most part, be surrendered at a sacrifice; and even furniture, "as good as new," if obliged to be parted with, must often be let go for "next to nothing." In the case of horses, again, it is singular, how, in the case of men professionally concerned with them, nobody seems to expect anything approaching to ordinary uprightness. Blindness to or depreciation of the best points of an animal, denial or concealment of its defects, as the case may be, seem to be assumed as matters of course; so that, in two senses, there may be "boasting" of a bargain—in the one, at getting a perfect beauty, or a strong roadster, at a ridiculously low figure; in the other, at having so managed as to get rid—and at a capital price—of an old screw. It is told of the son of a horse-dealer, a sharp lad, that, when once unexpectedly called by his father to mount a horse, and exhibit his paces, the little fellow whispered the question, in order to regulate how he should ride, "Are you buying, or selling?"
The reverse of the proverb might admit of large illustration: the way, that is to say, in which sellers will take advantage of the ignorance or simplicity of buyers; how they will puff off their articles, imputing qualities which they do not possess, or denying their defects, or in other ways forcing a purchase, and then "boasting" of their success at the expense of the purchaser. But these things are not before us; nor, perhaps, it may be thought, were some others which have been introduced. What has been said, however, will not be in vain, if it impress any with the importance of little things in speech and action; the paramount obligation of strict adherence to truth; the avoidance of every approach to dissimulation in all the concerns of ordinary life; and the necessity which there is for Christian men to show that the religious element pervades and penetrates their whole being, and is regulative and purifying to the minutest points of secular behaviour. It was the prayer of the Psalmist, "Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee." Because he was professedly a religious man, he felt he must be eminent in the virtues of common life. It was religious servants who were exhorted "to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things," by "showing all good fidelity" of hand and lip, and in respect to the smallest concerns connected with their vocation. It rests on all who profess and call themselves Christians, "whether they eat or drink," buy or sell, "or whatever they do, to do all to the glory of God." "Let every man speak truth with his neighbour." "Let no man go beyond, and defraud another in any matter." "Let all guile be put away from you." "Avoid every appearance of evil." "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise," it is for Christians, in shop and counting-house, mart and market, "to think on these things" and do them.