Trade and commerce
Also called: Trade · Topic: Tertiary, Quaternary and Quinary Activities · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 6 "Tertiary and Quaternary Activities"
Meaning
Trade and commerce means buying and selling goods that were made somewhere else, for profit. It is a tertiary activity because it does not make goods. It only moves them from the people who make them to the people who use them. It happens through retail trade (selling to consumers) and wholesale trade (selling in bulk to shops). Trade grew from local barter, the direct swap of goods, into international exchange using money. As it grew, trading centres came up where goods are collected and then sent out again.
Example
Surat in Gujarat is a big trading centre for textiles. Traders collect cloth from its mills and send it to shops across India.
Don't confuse with
- Secondary activities: these turn raw materials into goods, as a textile mill does. Trade only buys and sells goods; it does not make them.