<P> Retail trade consists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a very fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, online or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption or use by the purchaser . Wholesale trade is defined as the sale of goods that are sold as merchandise to retailers, or industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services . </P> <P> Commerce is derived from the Latin commercium, from cum and merx, merchandise . </P> <P> Trade from Middle English trade ("path, course of conduct"), introduced into English by Hanseatic merchants, from Middle Low German trade ("track, course"), from Old Saxon trada ("spoor, track"), from Proto - Germanic * tradō ("track, way"), and cognate with Old English tredan ("to tread"). </P> <P> Trade originated with human communication in prehistoric times . Trading was the main facility of prehistoric people, who bartered goods and services from each other before the innovation of modern - day currency . Peter Watson dates the history of long - distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago . </P>

When did the exchange of goods and resources across the atlantic begin