Commerce is a game of skill, which every man cannot play, which few men can play well. The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic.
Emerson presents commerce as a practical discipline that depends on judgement, observation and numerical understanding. The successful merchant, in his account, is not guided mainly by speculation or impulse, but by close attention to facts and by the ability to draw sensible conclusions from experience. His reference to arithmetic stresses the importance of measurable realities such as costs, prices, quantities and returns.
Within Wealth, the passage reflects Emerson’s wider interest in the skills required to use resources effectively. He treats commercial ability as a combination of practical intelligence, realism and disciplined decision-making rather than as a universal talent. The description is shaped by 19th-century assumptions about merchants and economic life, but its central idea is broader: competent business judgement requires evidence, numeracy and an accurate understanding of circumstances rather than confidence alone.