And I remember a pretty history of a particular case, by way of instance, when two merchants, contending about a long Factorage account, that had all the niceties of merchandising in it, and labouring on both sides to instruct their counsel, and to put them in when they were out, at last they found them make such ridiculous stuff of it that they both threw up the cause and agreed to a reference, which reference in one week, without any charge, ended all the dispute, which they had spent a great deal of money in before to no purpose.
"An Essay Upon Projects"
Daniel Defoe
The mercantile profit on fifty millions of merchandise, added to the agency and Factorage of the Southern products transmitted to pay for them, will be at least twenty per cent.
"Diary in America, Series One"
Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)