… social classes and the rise of the merchant was part of the expansion of the ‘middling sorts’. Cultures of commerce and politeness – two key attributes of eighteenth-century British identity – came together in the figure of the merchant. … a merchant’s credit and financial dealings. People > Commerce Mots-clés Commerce Merchants Middling sort North America Politeness A merchant was ‘a trader or a dealer by wholesale’, especially ‘one who trafficks to remote countries’. 1 Not … way of life and became somewhat of a status symbol. Indeed, many historians have made connections between commerce and politeness, which was regarded as a model of civil behaviour and ‘ideal of sociability’. 13 Some individuals noted a …