1. Trade and commerce are the two broader categories in which business activities
are divided. Commerce is responsible for facilitating the interchange of goods
and services in an economy. It is further classified into two parts, i.e. trade and
auxiliaries related to it whereas trade means purchasing and selling goods and
services in exchange for money.
Commerce and trade are often considered the same thing, and these two terms
are mostly used interchangeably. However, that is not the actual case; they are
very different from each other and have different meanings.
The role of international commerce and trade has long been of interest to
human geographers. One of the earliest publications on the topic may be
found in Chisholm’s 1889 Handbook of Commercial Geography which became
an important guide book for British merchants and traders. For contemporary
human geographers, international commerce and trade constitutes an
important inquiry because of the inherent spatiality of trade flows, particularly
the influence of distance on the level of trade between countries.
The scope of commerce is wider than that of trade, which not only refers to
the exchange of goods and services but also includes all those activities that
are vital for the completion of that exchange. To further comprehend the
understanding of these two terms the basic comparison is given below .
Business Activities are grouped into two broad categories, i.e. industry and
commerce. Commerce is concerned with facilitating the exchange of goods
and services in the economy. It is sub-classified as trade and auxiliaries to
trade. Many think that trade and commerce are the same terms and can be
used interchangeably. But the fact is both the terms are different from each
other and carry different meanings. Trade simply means buying and selling of
goods and services in return for money or money’s worth.
The scope of commerce is much broader than that of trade. It deals with vital
factors responsible for an exchange of goods apart from the transaction itself.
Therefore it is crucial to obtain a better understanding of these two concepts
before moving on to the discussion of trade vs commerce.
Commerce is not synonymous with business but is a subset of it. Commerce
does not relate to the sourcing, manufacturing, or production processes but only
to the distribution of goods and services. That alone encompasses a number of
roles, such as logistical, political, regulatory, legal, social, and economic.
