COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS NOT NEW

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1909, Page 1758

COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS NOT NEW

It has generally been supposed that the commercial traveller is a product' of our own busy day, but as early as 1757 a Sheffield cutlery manufacturer conceived the idea of sending to the Continent glib talkers to convince the merchants that the English-made cutlery was superior to that". of local manufacturers, and so marked .was his success that it was not long before the same idea was put into practice in other lines. As early as 1765 the term ' bagman ' had become common, the word being defined in Murray's Dictionary of that year, the example being quoted from Goldsmith. The title ' commercial traveller ' is the only modern part of the idea, the ancient bagman lasting until the improvements in travel caused the term to become obsolete. In earlier years the salesman travelled with his samples in a bag strapped to his horse's back, and moved from place to place, and it was not until the passing of the stage coach days that the sample trunk became the feature of the traveller's outfit. '