If we are to understand business documents in their social, political, and histor
ical contexts we must turn not only to writing texts or to letter-writers, the most
frequently cited sources of business communication principles, but to texts like
Defoe's The Complete English Tradesman (1727-1728). His chapters on "The
Trading Style " and on ''A Tradesman's Writing Letters " are integral parts of a
much larger instructional manual designed to prepare young tradesmen for
success in the world of eighteenth-century business.
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