!!!Kaufmann Merchant (German: Kaufmann), a person involved in commercial enterprise. In the Middle Ages, merchants were mainly travelling tradesmen with special privileges (e.g. merchants from Regensburg in Vienna), from the 15%%sup th/% century they were a driving force in the development of early capitalism, and from the 16%%sup th/% century they were also involved in selling products locally (and often owned the production sites as well). Since the end of the 19%%sup th/% century, the commercial sector has seen both a separation of industrialised production from crafts and trades as well as increasing specialisation. %%language [Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Kaufmann|class='wikipage austrian'] %% [{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}] [{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]