Commerce
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{{Otheruses1|the business concept}}
'''Commerce''' is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer. It comprises the [[trade|trading]] of something of [[Value (economics)|economic value]] such as [[good (accounting)|goods]], [[Service (economics)|services]], [[information]] or [[money]] between two or more entities. Commerce functions as the central mechanism which drives [[capitalism]] and certain other [[economic system]]s (but compare [[command economy]], for example). '''[[Commercialization]]''' or '''commercialisation''' consists of the process of transforming something into a product, service or activity which one may then use in commerce.
== Word usage ==
''Commerce'' primarily expresses the fairly abstract notions of [[buying]] and [[selling]], whereas ''trade'' may refer to the exchange of a specific class of goods ("the [[sugar trade]]", for example), or to a specific act of exchange (as in "a trade on the stock-exchange").
''Business'' can refer to an organization set up for the purpose of engaging in manufacturing or exchange, as well as serving as a loose synonym of the abstract collective "commerce and industry". Compare with [[retailing]].
== History ==
[[Image:Preziosi - Cherry peddler, 1869.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Cherry peddler in [[Bucharest]], around 1869.]]
Some commentators trace the origins of commerce to the very start of [[communication]] in prehistoric times. Apart from traditional [[self-sufficiency]], [[Trade| trading]] became a principal facility of prehistoric people, who [[barter (economics)| bartered]] what they had for goods and services from each other. Historian [[Peter Watson (business writer)|Peter Watson]] dates the [[History of international trade |history of long-distance commerce]] from [[circa]] 150,000 years ago.
<ref>
{{cite book | author=Watson, Peter | title=Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention from Fire to Freud | publisher=HarperCollins | year=2005| id=ISBN 0-06-621064-X}} Introduction.
</ref>
In historic times, the introduction of [[currency]] as a standardized [[money]] facilitated a wider exchange of goods and services. [[Numismatist]]s have collections of these monies, which include [[coin]]s from some Ancient World large-scale societies, although initial usage involved unmarked lumps of [[precious metal]].
<ref>
[[Gold]] served especially commonly as a form of early money, as described in [http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/origins.html "Origins of Money and of Banking"] {{cite book | author=Davies, Glyn | title=Ideas : A history of money from ancient times to the present day | publisher=University of Wales Press | year=2002| id=ISBN 0-7083-1717-0}}
</ref>
The circulation of a standardized currency provides the major advantage to commerce of overcoming the "[[double coincidence of wants]]" necessary for [[barter (economics)|barter]] trades to occur. For example, if a man who makes pots for a living needs a new house, he may wish to hire someone to build it for him. But he cannot make an equivalent number of pots to equal this service done for him, because even if the builder could build the house, the builder might not want the pots. Currency solved this problem by allowing a society as a whole to assign values and thus to collect goods and services effectively and to store them for later use, or to split them among several providers.
[[As of 2007 |Today]] commerce includes a complex system of [[corporation|companies]] that try to maximize their profits by offering [[product (business)|product]]s and [[Service (economics)|services]] to the [[market]] (which consists both of individuals and other companies) at the lowest [[Production, costs, and pricing| production-cost]]. There exists a system of [[International trade]], which some argue has gone too far (''see main'': [[Free trade]]).
== See also ==
* [[Advertisement]]
* [[Agriculture]]
* [[Business]]
* [[Capitalism]]
* [[Commercial law]]
* [[Distribution (marketing)]]
** [[Wholesaler]]
* [[Eco commerce]]
* [[Finance]]
* [[Harvesting]]
** [[Retailer]]
* [[Industry]]
* [[Economics|Economy]]
* [[Electronic commerce]]
* [[Fair]]
* [[Fishery]]
* [[Laissez-faire]]
* [[Manufacturer]]
* [[Manufacturing]]
* [[Marketing]]
* [[Marketplace]]
* [[Mass production]]
* [[Merchandising]]
* [[Portal:Business and Economics]]
== References ==
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{{Portal:Business and economics/box-header|Categories|Portal:Business and economics/Categories|}}
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[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Commerce| ]]
[[ar:تجارة]]
[[bn:বাণিজ্য]]
[[bg:Търговия]]
[[ca:Comerç]]
[[da:Handel]]
[[de:Handel]]
[[es:Comercio]]
[[eo:Komerco]]
[[eu:Merkatzaritza]]
[[fa:بازرگانی]]
[[fr:Commerce]]
[[it:Commercio]]
[[he:מסחר]]
[[hi:वाणिज्य]]
[[ka:კომერცია]]
[[nl:Handel]]
[[ja:商業]]
[[oc:Comèrci]]
[[pt:Comércio]]
[[ru:Торговля]]
[[simple:Trade]]
[[sl:Trgovina]]
[[zh:商业]]