BASIC FOR BUSINESS
by   S. L. Salzedo
"Interpreter in the Supreme Court of Judicature"
London, 1933, 1942
Psyche Miniatures - General Series No. 52

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Division of Pages

Special List of Business Words		Page
To the Reader		7
1 . AGENCIES	Examples	21
2 . REFERENCES	Examples	31
3 . ORDERING	Examples	38
4 . TRANSPORT	Examples	46
5 . CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS	Examples	52
6 . INSURANCE	Examples	61
7 . PAYMENT	Examples	66
8 . OTHER QUESTIONS	Examples	75
9 . BOOKS AND PAPERS	Examples	84
10. REQUEST FOR A POSITION	Examples	90
BUSINESS WORDS PUT INTO BASIC		93

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TO THE READER
    With Basic for Business, another guide to the use of Basic for a special field is put before the public. Here, as in Basic for Science and others, a list of 50 words is given which are t be used for business purposes in addition to the general 850. Most of the space is taken up with business letters and business agreement sin Basic. These have two purposes ; first, to let business men -- and more specially English business men -- see how far Basic has the power of meeting their needs, and second, to give learners examples which may be copied or got by heart.
    There is no discussion here of the general Basic system. A full account of this is given in Basic English and the ABC of Basic English, or, in Basic Step-by-Step.
    A wide field is coved by the word 'business'. It gives no clear picture of a person to say of him, "He is a business man" ; he might be anything from a book-keeper to an insurance expert. Traders, bankers, storekeepers, and those responsible for operations on the Exchange are all equally business men, though they have little in common but an interest in making money. This interest is so general, however, that it does not give much light on the special interests of those who make a living out of business.
    Naturally, the fact that business has such a number of different branches with so loose a connection between them makes the selection of one list of 50 special words for the needs of every sort of business expert quite impossible. There are certain words, such as liability , purchase, and guarantee which are common to al the branches, but the number of these is very limited. Clearly then, it will be necessary to have separate lists for bankers, insurance men, and so on, in the same way in which we have separate lists for zoologists, chemists, and psychologists, thought hey are all men of science.
    On the other hand there is one branch of business which is, in a very great measure the key to all the rest. The backbone of business is trade. Industry is nothing but an organization for producing goods for the trader ; the chief purpose of insurance is to make the transport of goods a safe undertaking ; and trading operations may have important effects on banks and the money-market. In addition to this, the greatest part of international business has to do with imports and exports. After more than 30 years experience in putting business letters of all sorts and in almost every European language into English, Mr. Salzedo gives it as his opinion that quite 90% of the letters exchanged between business men internationally are about questions of trade.
    For these reasons the decision was made that a Business List of the widest and most general use possible would be formed by making a list of 50 which would give such necessary words as are common to all the branches of business, and the special words needed for trading purposes. There is no doubt that this is the field which teachers of ' Business English' have chiefly in mind when writing their books. To take one example which is representative, all the letters in Professor Okamoto's Business Letters Simplified designed for the Japanese learner at a business school, might be put into good Basic with the help of the Business List printed at the front of this book. Even in a complete system such as handbooks commonly undertake to give almost all the space is taken up with trading details of one sort or another.
    The letters and agreements from which the 60 Basic examples here given were made by Miss Lockhart are the work of Mr. Salzedo. He made the selection with a view to covering as wide a range of business needs as possible. No reference was made to any other hand-book. All of them are the sort of letters which are probably sent through the post by someone every day. Though separate lists are clearly necessary for the experts, questions of insurance, money details and law naturally get attention in so far as they come into normal trading operations..
    Mr. Salzedo, who is a language expert with a special knowledge of what is needed .t the business level, was able to say, after reading through the Basic copies of his letters :

" Certainly Basic comes out of the ordeal remarkably well. the meanings are clear and entirely free from any ambiguity, the renderings import no variation of contractual implementations, and generally the result seems to me wholly satisfactory."

    International words, other than the 50 given in The Basic Words, have been used only in so far as they are need for covering the field in question.¹ No doubt a number of additions might be made which would make the wheels go round more smoothly. For example, in a list of English words current in Japan, we come across cash , premium , service , slump , dock. Two test words for the Japanese, which have a place in our list, are net and warrant (in the sense of a warrant for goods). Not only are these used everywhere in Europe, but net is certainly current in Japan in connection with sports, and the warrant system has so newly come into existence that it seems probable that, having been imported from Europe to the East, it will have kept its European name.
    The word-list at the end of the book is a key for putting a number of common business words into Basic with the help of the special 50. The greater part of these are taken from Mr. Salzedo's letter and the value of the key may be tested by looking at th examples themselves ; but certain additions have been made so as to make the list more complete from the point of view of someone desiring to get the sense in Basic of a letter sent to him in normal business English. Even Basic words have been listed where it is necessary to make clear how a business use which is not a Basic use may be got round : balance, for example, in the send of an amount of money,and forward as a ' verb '. The reader with little knowledge of English will be wise to keep in mind that only the sense of a word which are specially important for business get attention here, though some of the words on the list have uses in more general connections. If he does this, common sense will make it clear to him that when he comes across statements such as "It was a case of bad organization", "royalty was preset at the opening of the show ", " the work was not part of this duties as a book-keeper ", the suggestions made in Basic for Business will be no use to him and he will have to go for help to The Basic Dictionary..
    Names such as ' Chamber of Commerce ' are given in the letters in their normal English form. No decision is possible about the use of names of persons, places, and organizations till the Committee now working on Radio needs has gone more fully into the question.
    There is more profit to be got from learning examples by heart in connection with business letters than in most other special fields, because in business a small number of conditions and decisions have to be faced again and again, and the forms used have a tendency to become fixed. For this reason it is possible to get a very long way with a rubber-stamp knowledge. That is why the shorthand experts have been able to make a working system based on the use of unit signs for long groups of words, a system which would not be possible if there were a great number of such word-groups in frequent use. It may be pointed out that Basic gives the experts a chance of taking this system even further than they have been able to do at present because in Basic the number of different ways in which one statement may be made is much more limited than in normal English, and for this reason the forms of letters will necessarily become more regular.
    A reader who has any knowledge of business will see for himself which parts of the examples it will be wisest for him to get into his head. He will do well to give special attention to the words with which the letters are started and ended. Openings such as " In answer to your letter of the . . . about . . . . we have pleasure in saying . . . ", " To our regret we have to say that . . . ", " We are surprised that we are so far without any answer to our letter of the . . . ", might be listed for learning and reference purposes. A list of ending would have an equal value. Examples which will be of very general use are " Hoping that you will be pleased with this suggesting and send an early answer . . . ", " Waiting for the receipt of my order . . .", " Looking forward to your orders in the future . . . ", " With regrets for the trouble you have been caused . . . ". It is important to get these details right because the purpose and outlook of the sender are frequently judged by the words with which the letter is started and ended. The parting words, " It is our hope that there will be no more cause for complaint " make it quite clear that the writer is not pleased, while keeping well inside the limits of good taste ; and a letter ending " Hoping that you will not be greatly troubled by my request . . . " has probably more chance of getting attention than one worded with less care. It will be noted that ' yours truly ' is the form used at the end of all Basic business letters as a sign that there is no more to be said. anyone who gets tired of putting this may make small changes such as ' yours very truly ' or ' I am yours truly ', but it is our belief that nobody will be very troubled by the fact that ' respectfully ', ' faithfully ' and ' I have the honour to be ' have been put on one side, even if it is no longer possible to say the right thing to one's bank manager.
    The fact that certain ornaments and additions normally exchanged in letters between business men are overlooked by Basic gives equally little cause for regret. Any attempt to put what we have to say more simply and straightforwardly is a step in the right direction. Much good ink and time is wasted in writing about ' an esteemed firm ' or being ' favoured by an enquiry '. There is no need for creditors to be ' reluctantly compelled ' to make their requests for payment ; even less is it necessary for someone desiring simple details from another business house to say before putting this question, " May I trespass on your indulgence in the following matter ". Forms such as these are only like the silver paper round the chocolate, and when the chocolate is a bitter one, the silver paper may seem a little out of place. Basic has quite enough smooth sounding words to be able to do everything necessary in the way of giving a soft answer or making a delicate request. Here are some suggestions : " We have pleasure in saying", " Will you be kind enough to . . . ", " To my regret I am unable . . . ", " Kindly let me have . . . ". A long list of this sort might be made of words which have the effect of keeping out ill-feelings.   The degree of which these are necessary is all a question of what one is used to. A Frenchman has more taste for polish than an Englishman ; while in the Far East the ornaments of language seem quite overpowering to most Europeans. If everyone equally is forced by Basic to get to the point as quickly as possible, we may safely say that nobody's feeling will be wounded.
    From one point of view Business English has been made as hard for everybody as possible, even for the English themselves. It seems as if the business man has a strange love for putting in long words where simple words would do as well and better.  My favorite is BBC's " Thank you, very much, indeed."  for  " Thanks." In this way there has come into existence a special business language which is not based on business needs or interests, and whose only purpose seems to be to make whatever is under discussion seem more important than it is. A business man will ' furnish ' details where a normal person would give them ; he ' renders ' an account when he might equally well send it in ; letters are talked of as ' favours ' and payments as ' remittances '. To give a clearer idea of how unnecessarily complex business letters are made in normal English, I will give examples of some of the self-important forms which are frequently used, together with Basic parallels taken from letters here printed :

We are compelled to have recourse to your services.	We are forced to make our request to you.
It afforded us great pleasure.	It gave us great pleasure.
Furnish particulars.	Give details.
I shall esteem it a great favour if you will send.	Will you kindly send.
You may rest assured that.	You may be certain that.
We venture to suggest.	We make the suggestion.

It may be doubted if anyone would seriously say that there is any loss of sense in putting such statements into Basic, and it is to be hoped that some at least will be of the opinion that the simple Basic words are more pleasing and more natural to the ear.
    Traders undertake the sale and purchase of all sorts of goods, but naturally the names of a great number of these are not among the general 850 words. the trading operations of most business houses, however, are limited to certain groups of goods -- fruit, cloth, writing materials and so on --, and wherever this is so it would be very simple to make short lists of the names which are needed in connection with any special group of goods. The question of the general trader is a harder one, and for him some reference to word-books will probably be necessary. but if the general form of a letter is clear, the fact that two or three words in it have to be looked up will give no trouble to anyone.
    To those with a wide interest in business organization the suggestion is made that the special list at the front of this book might be looked at with profit in connection with the special list given in Basic for Economics.
   

C. K. OGDEN      

The Orthological Institute,
10, King's Parade,
Cambridge, England

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1 . Canal, capital, carton, consul, guarantee, minus, net, per cent., plus, propaganda, stand, wagon, warrant.

-19-

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BASIC FOR BUSINESS -- Examples

I . AGENCIES ;   Examples 1-6, page 21

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1 . REQUEST FOR AGENCY

Dear Sirs,

    The London Chamber of Commerce has been kind enough to give me the name of your business.
    If you have not a representative in this town, I would be pleased to take up your agency for this part of the country or for . . . on condition that no other person will be acting for you here. I have in the past been the representative for a German maker of the same sort of goods, but I am more interested in getting an agency for English goods, because these have a better name. I have a very good connection in the branch.
    If you are interested in this offer, please send me all the advertisement material about your inks, together with shade cards.
    If possible, please give your prices C.I.T.
    I am quite ready to give you a test order, but I am hoping that it will not be necessary for me to take any fixed amount a year, at least at first. It is hard work at the start, and let me say in addition that I will only be able to get a market if your prices are low enough for the competition and your qualities are good.
    It is my rule to make all payments against forwarding papers. Please say what allowance you will let me have under these conditions, keeping in mind that I will be responsible for putting salesmen on the road in town and country, and for advertisement and so on without any help from you, in addition to taking on myself the danger of bad debts.
    As business reference I give you the Anglo South American Bank.
    Hoping that you will be pleased with this suggestion, and send an early answer,

Yours truly,


2 . AGENCY GIVEN

Dear Sirs,

    In answer to your letter of the . . . , about agency, we have pleasure in saying that the place named by you is still open and that we would be ready to give our agency on the conditions given under.
    The agency to be for . . . . . You will be fully responsible for any purchase you make from us. Delivery will be made free (covering carriage but not import tax) to . . . . The payment will be made by bill at 30 days, minus your agency allowance of 30% and 2% for quick payment. This good allowance will make it possible for you in your turn to give some allowance to retailers, while still making the necessary profit. Accounts to be sent in two copies.
    We will send to you, to be answered by you, any letters about our goods which may come to us from places under your agency.
    We are ready to make this agreement for one year as a test, and if nothing is said about ending it three months before that time, the agreement will have force for another year, and so on.

    Events outside our control, such as an increase in import taxes great enough to take away the market for our goods, would put an end to the agreement automatically.
    If your customs rules make necessary a different sort of packing from that normally used, a special charge will be made, covering the price of it to us.
    We are sending you today a selection which is a sample range and separately, by book post, some advertisement material. We will be pleased to let you have any other material of this sort, post free, at your request, but we have nothing in the Spanish language.
    You may be certain that we will put through your orders without loss of time, and with every possible care. Looking forward to your orders in the future, we are,

Yours truly,


3 . AGENCY NOT GIVEN

Dear Sirs,

    I have your letter of he 15th of this month. To my regret I am unable to give your the complete agency, because I have a number of old clients in your country who have been getting their supplies for me for a very long time.
    I will be pleased, however, to put through any orders you may be able to give me, and I will give you an allowance of . . . in the price.
    Please take note of the general conditions on which I do all my business. they are given at the end of this letter.
    My goods will be on view at the Leipzig Show, stand number . . . and I will be pleased to see your there.

Yours truly,



CONDITIONS OF DOING BUSINESS

    Claims based on small changes in colour will not be taken into account, because it is not possible to be certain that shades will be quite the same. These prices are for the ton, with packing and carriage to a German railway station.
    For sending by quick train, a special charge will be made in addition. The goods when sent off, are for account of the person to who sent.
    We will not be responsible for late delivery caused by events outside our control, such as strikes or trouble at the works. Complaints will only get attention if made not more than 10 days after receipt of the goods.
    Payment will be effected 30 days from the day on which the account is made out, less 2% allowance, or 45 days net payment.
    The place of payment and where the agreement has effect in law is . . . for the two sides. The goods supplied are the property of the works supplying them till full payment has been made of the purchase price ; the right of the person to who the consignment is sent to make a sale of the goods is not changed by this.





4 . CONDITIONS OF AGENCY

Dear Sirs,

    We take note of your conditions of agency as our only importers. Your conditions are right for us, but please let it be quite clear that the allowance will only be given on business which has been done and after payment. We will not be able to give you credit for goods you send back, because there is only a market for them at a certain time of the year, so they would be a complete loss to us. Any import tax payment we got back would go to us as exporters.
   We are pleased to have business relations with you, and it is our hope that trade will be regular and good. You may be certain at all time of the quality of our goods.
    We are today, without loss of time, sending your chief order, given in your order-letter of . . . , and will send on your second order by an early steamer.
    Please let us have your approval in writing of the conditions named in this letter, and the agreement between us will then be complete.
    As to imports from your country, we would be pleased to have a list of chief exports, and will go into the question in greater detail.

Yours truly,

    The first steamer going from here is the . . . of the . . . Steamship Company, but no ships go straight from here to your town, so the goods will have to be put on another ship at . . . .


5 . REQUEST FOR AGENCY, EXPORT OF FRUITS

Dear Sirs,

    I am writing to see if you will make me your representative to do business with the orange planters of this island, for the purpose of getting consignments to send to you. I have very good relations with most of the planters here, and would be able to get good consignments for you if you are able to get prices at any rate equal to those of other business houses on your market. You would naturally give me the normal allowance of . . . , letting me have the amounts of sales by telegram straight away, and account sales by post with payment of net profits by cheques, made out in the names of the planters in question.
    If you are ready to make me your representative, please send me a letter tho that effect, and I will send a small test consignment. If the sales are good in comparison with those of business houses, I will be able to do good work.
    It would be a great help to me if the letters between us might be in Basic English.

Yours truly,


6 . STARTING IN BUSINESS, QUESTIONS ABOUT AGENCY

Dear Sirs,

    We have become limited partners under the trading name of . . . which has been placed on the trade record of this town, the general manager being Senior . . . .
    We have a very good knowledge of this branch. Our general partner has been working in it for a number of years and has a good connection. We will give all our time and interest to this branch only.
    We are only able to do business as an agency, and will not be purchasing for our account. We would, however, take care to put you in touch with the best business houses only.
    Will you kindly let us have a statement of your conditions of agency, allowance on sales, and so on, and send us al the advertisement material you may have in connection with your goods.

Yours truly,



II . REFERENCES ; Examples 7-13 , page 31

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7 . TAKING UP A REFERENCE IN CONNECTION WITH AN AGENCY

Dear Sirs,

    . . . of Buenos Aires, with whom we are exchanging letters with a view to giving them our agency, have given us your name as a reference.
    It will be very kind of you if you will give us all possible details about the business house in question. We will not be giving them any great amount of credit, but it would be a great help to us if you would say if the business is a pushing one and if Messrs. . . . are good and responsible business men. Would it be safe for us to have an agency agreement with them?
    We will be much in your debt for any help you are able to give us, and you may be certain that anything you say will be looked on as private.

Yours truly,




8 . REFERENCE GIVEN

Dear Sirs,

    In answer to your letter of the . . . , Messrs. . . . have had our agency in the Argentine for the past ten years. they are good business men and ready to take trouble, and have never been late with their payments. We are very pleased with them in every way. They have branch agencies in important towns.
    We give you these details without guarantee.

Yours truly,




9 . REQUEST FOR DETAILS

Dear Sirs,
    Will you be kind enough to give us some help.
    Our exchange has gone so low that it seems wise for us to make an attempt to get supplies of certain goods for which there is a good and regular sale in this market from countries which have gone off gold, and not from our normal places of supply.
    We are forced to make our request to you because there is no Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in your town from which to get trade details in the normal way. It will be very kind if you will give us the names and addresses of responsible business house of good position which are producers (not agencies or middlemen) of these goods in different quanlities, cheap and beter makes, but not priced very high, keeping in mind that goods which are pleasing to the eye have a great attraction for purchasers here.
    Hoping that you will not be greatly troubled by my request.

Yours truly,




10 . DETAILS SUPPLIED

Dear Sirs,
    We were unable to give attention earlier to our letter of the . . . because our chief has been away from town on business.
    In answer to your question, we have pleasure in giving you a list of what, in our opinion, are the chief names in this branch of business. But we have no special knowledge of the branch, so we have got these names from current works of reference.
    It is our hope that you have not been needing these details. We will be ready at any time to do any small thing of this sort for you, but make the suggestion that if an answer is desired quickly there would be much less loss of time if such questions were addressed to the nearest British Consul, who is in as good a position as ourselves to give you such details.

Yours truly,




11 . ANSWER TO QUESTIONS ABOUT MONEY POSITION OF ANOTHER BUSINESS

Dear Sirs,
    When we got your letter of the 25th of last month, we put questions straight away as to the position of the business named by you and the condition of its books.
    The business house in question was formed into a partner's business in 1950. ater they became limited partners (Societe en Commandite) and at last, in 1955, a Limited Company, to which payment of capital had been made to the value of 1,000,000 francs.
    Its business was done very well at first, and profits were high. In the last two years, however, it has had serious losses throught other businesses with which it has had connections going bankrupt.
    It has come to our ears that there are a great number of protested bills against it at the present time, and it is in a very bad position.
    For these reasons we are forced to give it as our opinion that you would be unwise to do any business with this company without making conditions which will keep you quite safe from any chance of loss.
    It is a regret to us that we have to say all this. Though in our belief we are giving a true account, it is naturally given completely privately, and we are not in any way responsible for the facts.

Yours truly,




12 . LETTER TO TAKE TO A FRIEND

Dear Sir,

    The person who comes to you with this letter is Mr. . . . , an old friend of ours who is going to be in your town on business. We will be very pleased if you are able to give him any help, and will at all times be ready to do the same for you.

Yours truly,




13 . ANSWER

Dear Sirs,

    Mr. . . . came here with your letter when he was in this town. It gave us great pleasure to give him all possible help, and we will be happy to do the same at all times for any other friend of yours who may come to this town.

Yours truly,



III . ORDERING ; Examples 14-19 , page 38

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14 . REQUEST FOR PRICE LISTS

Dear Sirs,

    Will you kindly send me a complete list of the machines and machine -parts made by you, giving details and prices.
    I am specially interested in all sorts of woodworking apparatus and machines for working materials generally, because I am at present putting machines of this sort into a works-building.
    Hoping for an early answer,

Yours truly,


    (more) -- 7 pages


15 . ORDER

Dear Sirs,

    . . . (more) . . .

Yours truly,




   


16 . ATTEMPT TO GET ORDERS

Dear Sirs,

    . . . (more) . . .

Yours truly,






17 . OFFER OF GOODS

Dear Sirs,

    We are able to make you an offer of . . . at . . . a ton, delivery f.o.b. We send chemical detail of this substance with our present letter.

    We are sending you a general sample, by receipted sample post, which you may take as a true sample of the quality.

    It would be possible for the goods to be loaded loose or in cord-lined bags, for which there would be a special charge.

    The goods would be shipped straight away on receipt of your telegram ordering us to do so.

Yours truly,






18 . STATEMENT THAT AN ORDER HAS NOT BEEN STOPPED AS REQUESTED

Dear Sirs,

    . . . (more) . . .

Yours truly,






19 . GOODS SENT , VERY CHEAP GOODS OFFERED

Dear Sirs,

    . . . (more) . . .

Yours truly,

< Top       Next >


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Special Word-list for Business : (50)   (frontispiece)
acceptance, address, agency, allowance, assets, assistant, average,
bale, bankrupt, barrel, bill, broker,
certificate, charge, claim, client, code, complaint, consignment, cost, court, customs,
debit, deck, defect, delivery, export, gross, guarantee, hire, hold,
import, investment, liability, license, load, loan,
packing, pair, partner, purchase, reference, retail,
sale, sample, show, sight, strike, supply, wholesale.

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Business Words Put Into Basic