" Others told me how leading firms
always stamped their letters for domestic and not foreign postage. The
office boy simply would not learn geography. Nobody minded paying the
deficit, but through local red tape this seeming trifle sometimes caused
two or even three weeks' delay in the delivery of important letters.
Certain of our strongest firms have been calmly ignoring shipping
directions. What did they care if the packages had to cross the Andes on
mule back, and if mules could only carry packages of a certain size and
weight? What did they care if the duty remission for materials on some
Government contract, or the customs classification of a shipment,
depended on adherence to specific directions? I could multiply examples
of the most amazing casualness and careless disregard, of bad packing,
of ungenerous credit, which have enraged the importer.
A European merchant, many years established in a South American city,
and knowing the community, has been selling pianos in this way: The
manufacturer would quote him a price and deliver the piano, giving him
long credit at an ordinary rate of interest. The merchant would finally
sell the piano on the installment plan, receiving interest at a higher
rate on the deferred payments, the merchant trusting the buyer, the
manufacturer trusting the merchant, both thus making good profits, and
the purchaser being accommodated.
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