The Art of Speaking according to the Urbanity and Education of the Modern Businessman (1909)

Abstract

The title of this work Urbanidad y Educación del Comerciante Moderno (1909) shows the change registered by society. In the monarchic, aristocratic world, the merchant was denigrated; at the beginning of the 19th century, he received lessons in civility. Martínez Baselga in his Prologue recognizes that all social actors are merchants: "the farmer who exploits the land to sell his crops; the industrialist sells his products, the worker sells his work and his intelligence, the engineer and the doctor sell their scientific knowledge" [...] "and that is why we are all merchants, without the word COMMERCE implying contempt, but quite the contrary". And he adds that "he is the prototype of the working man and the hero of modern times." Then, the use of courtesy, urbanity, good manners, was not limited to elites, but extended to the plurality of roles imposed by the new dynamics of life. In the first chapters, Martínez Baselga focuses on the commercial world: the sales clerk and the establishments. Later on, he offers recommendations to travelers, followed by others that should be kept by any citizen in different public scenarios such as the café, the theater, the meeting, etc. This text was replicated later this year in Chile by PUGA Hnos. publishing house, under the title Manual de urbanidad y de Educación (Manual of Civility and Education). In this opportunity, the reader will find paragraphs dedicated to face-to-face conversation and epistolary communication from the perspective of this prolific writer, veterinarian and sociologist, born in Zaragoza (Spain) in 1862.