What I Learned From Marco Polo That Applies to the Current Economic Crisis

If you are disinclined to read this entire article and simply want to know what I learned, it is this: Empires and civilizations come and go, but good merchants survive.  The longer version follows.

My wife’s book club had sent her its latest offering.  She was not picking it up, so, after a few days, I did.   MARCO POLO From VENICE to XANADU by Laurence Bergreen pulled me right in.  Being a merchant, I immediately identified with the Polos (Marco, his father Niccolo, and his uncle Maffeo) who made their way around the world negotiating, forming alliances, and avoiding legal and political trouble.  The requirements for being a successful merchant today have not changed.  To my thinking, merchants are more like craftsmen than they are like bankers.  Banks, financial institutions, and the like are intimately connected with governments, their institutions and their economic policies.  Merchants however exist within and beside any and every economic system ever devised or that ever will be devised.  Marco, Niccolo, and Maffeo Polo were always looking out for the next trading opportunity.  In every country and culture that they traveled through or settled in, their objective was to find the local merchants and trade for goods.  Niccolo and Maffeo did this for 17 years, returned to Venice, and then departed again, this time with 19-year old Marco, for an additional 24 years.  Their adventures were hair-raising; we follow Marco’s coming of age and his maturation as a student of the world. The extraordinary stories were sometimes unimaginable. But all was in the service of their trade.  Whether operating within a rising or falling Mongolia dominated Asia (this was the time of Kublai Khan) or a rising or falling Venice (Marco Polo actually writes the story of his Travels while a prisoner of war in Genoa) – all of which supplied context for the Polos in the late 13th Century – they continued to “do their thing” and prospered. 

These days, as I go out and about, it is apparent that many stores and restaurants are hurting.  As a small businessman, it saddens me to see these businesses failing (no government bailout coming to these folks).  But, what really intrigues me are the, even now, many busy stores and restaurants.  I stand in them and marvel.  What-I ask myself–is this place doing right?  And, what do all busy businesses have in common?  Here are my observations: A. Sell what customers are looking for.  Gone are the days–for now at least–when people can be separated from their money for stuff they didn’t really want or need.  B. A business today must offer authentic value.  For example, no longer can you retail a purse for $1,500 when the materials, workmanship, features, and design ought to make it a $150 purse.  C. Service must be exceptional.  Nothing less will do.  D. A good reputation (brand) helps, but only if A, B, and C are in place. 

There are stores that literally survive hundreds of years through all manner of upheaval.  In my industry for example, Lock & Co. has been a retail hatter in London since 1676 and in the same location–No. 6 St. James Street–since 1764.  Think about what England has gone through these past 333 years.  Like I said at the outset: Empires and civilizations come and go, but responsive, open-minded, and creative merchants - like the Polos - survive. 

Fred Belinsky
VillageHatShop.com
VillageHats.co.uk

Comments

[Daniel]

Well, at the least, no one's devised an economic system that actually stays on its feet without merchants.

The foundation of working economies is trade and entrepreneurship activities of which the merchant is an exemplar. Trade allows us to profit from specializing where we have or respective comparative advantages. Entrepreneurship, seeking profit from new sorts of production (perhaps new goods and services, or perhaps delivery to new markets), and propels the economy towards greater economic efficiency.

Bankers could be more like merchants (and some have been), but the state wants the commanding height of the money supply, and most bankers want to be or presume that they must be part of the ruling elite. The results of the alliance have never been particularly good for the rest of us, but the arrangement seems to work fairly well most of the time for the state and for the bankers.

[Fred Belinsky]

Daniel -

Thanks for this interesing comment. It certaily illuminates the discussion.

Best,
Freed

[Brent]

You hit the nail on the head with the A-B-C-D points above.

Selection - Value - Service - Reputation are the keys to a successful merchant in any Industry.

[Mark]

Fred,

Nice cite. For a reasons of ignorance, Polo's contemporaries discounted him as a crank & only decades later were his tales substantiated to be more widely accepted.

Something to consider: the independence of merchants was, in some societies, provisional & at the service of the central authority (the Aztec's potecha for instance). Most merchants throughout history, foreign ones particularly, were savvy enough to understand that they had to intertwine their interests & activities with those of the local political elites, even to the point of marrying into them at some level, as occurred among some of the Dutch in Asia.

Daniel's remarks about banking are also intriguing because once upon a time states did not necessarily control money supply. During the Ming Dynasty in China, for example, or in the USA as late as the Civil War many private &/or local currencies circulated along with Federal notes.

Thanks for the lessons, guys; keep 'em coming

[E. R. Dick Schuster]

Right on! I'm not a merchant, but I've long maintained that the way to lasting peace and prosperity is through truly open trade and good faith negotiation, and goodwill toward our fellow travelers, not threats of violence and warfare.

You, sir, are a mensch.

[Ares Vista]

Our current market is demanding more from merchants than ever before, the biggest demand being TRANSPARENCY. Consumers are looking for the path of least resistance, and their confidence is the lubricant. The overall experience must be easy, relevant, and professional at all levels.