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HOME > Archives > 2025 > Volume 11 Number 2 (2025) >
IJLLL 2025 Vol.11(2): 100-104
DOI: 10.18178/IJLLL.2025.11.2.581

“Thus Tradesmen Become Gentlemen, by Gentlemen Becoming Tradesmen”: Concept of “Gentleman-Tradesman” in Daniel Defoe

Tsai-Ching Yeh
Department of English, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan
Email: tcyeh@mail.ntut.edu.tw (T.C.Y.)

Manuscript received January 8, 2025; accepted March 2, 2025; published April 25, 2025.

Abstract—Daniel Defoe’s contention of the improvement of social mobility was consistent, as acquisition of nobility was one of the main concerns in his narratives as well as non-fictional writings. Overthrowing the conventional conception to regard nobility and gentry as guaranteed circumstances, Defoe advocated the new trend in economic changes and indicated the self-accomplished tradesmen as the embodiment of his proposition. As he modeled an image of the ambitious and unceasing middle class to substitute for the old-line aristocracy, birth and blood no longer served as the necessary elements for the obtainment of better social status. With the attempt to establish a newly rising class and to emphasize England as a country thriving in trade, Defoe in The Complete English Tradesman (1725/1727) proposed trade as the readiest way for men to “raise their fortunes and families” [1], while the fascination of the combination of two social ranks, the “gentleman-tradesman,” conveyed his consideration for the flow in the hierarchical system. Such an assertion found its demonstration two years later in The Compleat English Gentlemen (1729), as Defoe further elaborated this thesis, trying to sort out the difference between the “born Gentleman” and the “bred Gentleman” [2]. This paper aims to examine the concept of Defoe’s “Compleat English Gentleman” as well as the feasibility of his claim to establish a new social order. It seems that in Defoe, the relationship between the social position of a gentleman and the profession of a tradesman is reciprocal and inseparable, and yet it is ironic that the term “gentleman-tradesman” is in effect a retraction of his bold statement. Based on the study of Defoe’s ideal tradesman and gentleman in his didactic works, this study also investigates the issue of social mobility in Defoe, for a better understanding of his seemingly subversive nature in the treatment of social institution.

Keywords—tradesman, “Compleat English Gentleman,” social order, “gentleman-tradesman”

Cite: Tsai-Ching Yeh, "“Thus Tradesmen Become Gentlemen, by Gentlemen Becoming Tradesmen”: Concept of “Gentleman-Tradesman” in Daniel Defoe," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 100-104, 2025.
 

Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

 

 
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