which gave it appeal to the bourgeois groups among 
     whom it was a favorite. It was very much like account 
     keeping. The merchant not only deals in wares, but he has 
     a way of keeping record of them which levels all sorts of 
     items to the pages of an account book. Here the most 
     diverse products are mingled on an equal footing—wool, 
     wax, incense, coal, iron, and jewels—although they have 
     nothing in common except commercial value. To handle a 
     merchant’s wares in terms of his account books, one 
     need not trouble oneself with the nature of the wares. 
     One has to know only the principles of accounting.