A commercial course 1. [antikvár]

PrefaceThere have been many books aiming at teaching commercialpractice, and still more striving to teach English to foreign students,but the present volume is, perhaps, unique in attempting to combinethese aims, in trying, while giving an outline of English businessorganisation, to enlarge the student's general vocabulary, to exercisehim in grammatical constructions and to increase his power ofexpressing himself in English with ease and clearness.This book, the first of two volumes, covers the essential featuresof modern English business. It glances briefly at England's positionin the world of trade, at her industries and powers of production.Then, in more detail, it surveys the various functions of commerce,the work of the wholesaler and the retailer, the forms and the controlof business organisation from the sole trader to the limited liabilitycompany. It discusses the work of the various departments of abusiness concern, examines methods of payment, traces the courseand gives the documents of a home and of an export transaction.Particular emphasis has been given to commercial correspondence,which is of such overriding importance to the foreign student. Inone of the longest chapters the general rules for writing a goodbusiness letter are explained and the main parts which it shouldcontain are analysed. A special section contains numerous examplesof the various categories of business letters, e.g. offers and orders,complaints and apologies etc. To make these letters more real andinteresting they are so arranged as to form in themselves completetransactions from the initial enquiry to the final payment.Throughout, an attempt has been made to smooth away theparticular difficulties of the foreign student and to enlighten himon those matters where the commercial procedure of his countrydiffers from that in England.Each section of the book is followed by copious exercises basedon the subject matter of that section. Of these exercises the onesmarked A are designed to increase the student's knowledge ofEnglish; those marked B to consolidate the work that he has done,by causing him to review what he has just read, to think about theissues involved and to arrange and express his thoughts in good,plain English.The vocabulary of this book has been very carefully controlledbut not stringently limited. Its basis is the vocabulary of the four 111