- published: 17 Nov 2012
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A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.
Merchants can be one of two types:
A merchant class characterizes many pre-modern societies. Its status can range from high (the members even eventually achieving titles such as that of Merchant Prince or Nabob) to low, as in Chinese culture, owing to the presumed distastefulness of profiting from "mere" trade rather than from labor or the labor of others as in agriculture and craftsmanship.
In the United States, "merchant" is defined (under the Uniform Commercial Code) as any person while engaged in a business or profession or a seller who deals regularly in the type of goods sold. Under the common law and the Uniform Commercial Code in the United States, merchants are held to a higher standard in the selling of products than those who are not engaged in the sale of goods as a profession.
The UCC also contains a "merchant's confirmation" exception to the Statute of Frauds. The Merchant Confirmation Rule states that if one merchant sends a writing sufficient