fair traden.adj.
/ˌfɛː ˈtreɪd/, U.S. /ˈˌfɛ(ə)r ˈtreɪd/ A. n.
1. Trade conducted legally, honestly, or fairly. Also: unrestricted trade, or trade in which restrictions apply equally to all traders. Cf. fair trading n.
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1648 H. Parker Of Free Trade 26 This opposition was procured to us by strangers and enemies, that sought not to reduce us to a fair Trade, but to eject us out of all Trade.
1685 J. Whiston To Honourable Commons of Eng. 2 His Majesties able and worthy Subjects..are very much discouraged, and beat out of their former fair Trade.
1745 ‘Philolaos’ Two Lett. in J. Gibson Jrnl. Late Siege 41 Honest Industry is the..Mother of fair Trade, and well gotten Wealth.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1765 I. 268 The property was sold for the immense sum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds; a magnificent proof of what may be done by fair trade in no long period of time.
1829 Free Trade Advocate 26 Sept. 204/2 What he wished for was fair trade, by which one class of the community should not have a preference over another.
1930 N.Y. Times 11 Feb. 3/4 It [sc. the company]..has an enviable record for fair trade and honesty.
1958 J. B. Pritchard Archaeol. & Old Test. vi. 219 He regulated..the weights and measures of the land in the interest of fair trade.
2012 Times (Nexis) 28 Apr. 12 We will be able to use only Visa cards in the Olympic Park... Is that fair trade?
2. † a. Legal trade or commerce involving imported or exported goods, as opposed to smuggling. Obsolete (except as implied by sense A. 1).
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society > trade and finance > [noun] > authorized trading
fair trade1700
white market1943
1700 (title) Fair trade, besides the heavy duties it lies under, suffers yet more from the frauds of smuglers and the exactions of officers for preventing both.
1736 Daily Gazetteer 15 Oct. 1/2 The pernicious Practice of Smuggling..(by which all fair Trade and honest Industry is discouraged) is destructive to the Nation.
1775 E. Burke Speech Amer. Taxation 27 The contraband will always keep pace in some measure with the fair trade.
1812 D. Macpherson Hist. European Comm. India 417 This account presents a most illustrious proof of the beneficial and powerful effects of moderate duties in promoting fair trade..and in abolishing the pernicious trade of smuggling.
1840 J. F. Davis Chinese (new ed.) iv. 57/2 The opening of the trade in 1834 gave an immediate stimulus to smuggling of all kinds, at the expense of the fair trade.
1896 J. Mackinnon Union Eng. & Sc. x. 362 It was the interest of the merchant to discourage the introduction of contraband goods, as injurious to fair trade.
b. British (euphemistic). Usually with the: smuggling. Now archaic and historical.
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society > trade and finance > illegal or immoral trading > [noun] > smuggling
contrabandc1540
smuggling1698
running business1741
fair trade1815
free trade1815
smugglery1895
1815 W. Scott Guy Mannering I. x. 164 Neither Dirk Hatteraick nor any of his sailors, all well-known men in the fair-trade, were again seen upon that coast.
1878 C. Fleet Glimpses Ancestors Sussex 81 Unscrupulous fellow-townsmen who favoured ‘Fair Trade’ and piracy.
1903 Country Life 26 Sept. 427/2 The few who withheld their countenance from what was known as the ‘fair trade’ were overawed.
1979 J. G. Rule in J. Lowerson & W. N. Yates Southern Hist. I. 145 Such an accepted part of rural life did the ‘fair trade’ become that it was possible for sharp operators to capitalise on this very acceptance.
2009 L. M. Wilkinson Fire at Midnight iv. 57 I don't view the fairtrade as a criminal enterprise.
3. British. The doctrine that free trade (free trade n. 1b) should be maintained only on a reciprocal basis with other nations having this system; the establishment and maintenance of such a reciprocal system. Now historical.
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society > trade and finance > importing and exporting > [noun] > free trade > between nations with reciprocity
fair trade1879
1879 G. Baden-Powell Protection & Bad Times xvi. 346 Reciprocity and fair-trade are the terms readily adopted by individual selfishness to hide its identity.
1881 G. W. Medley Eng. under Free Trade 31 Fair Trade, alias Protection.
1911 S. J. Chapman Outl. Polit. Econ. xxx. 356 Those who believe in what they call ‘fair trade’..grant that universal free trade would be best for all..but they argue that a free trade country in the midst of Protectionist rivals must lose.
2001 D. Paterson Liberalism & Conservatism, 1846–1905 198 There was some demand for fair trade after 1880 but Salisbury handled the demands..with sufficient skill to postpone a heated debate.
4. U.S. Domestic trade which is regulated to ensure fair competition among retailers, esp. by Fair Trade Laws (see fair trade law n. (b) at Compounds 2). Also: the principle or practice of such trade. Now chiefly historical.Recorded earliest in attributive use (cf. Compounds 1).
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1914 Northwestern Druggist Apr. (front cover) Current news of general interest—Stevens Fair Trade Bill H. R. 13305.
1940 H. J. Ostlund & C. R. Vickland (title) Fair trade and the retail drug store: a price study of leading drug store proprietary items under minimum price contracts permitted by fair trade laws.
1949 Mich. Business Rev. July 23/2 Supporters of ‘Fair Trade’ may well have reason for concern in view of recent developments in the field of legal resale price maintenance.
1966 S. C. Hollander in B. S. Yamey Resale Price Maintenance 97 According to the Commission, fair trade forced particularly sharp price increases among mass distributors.
1996 J. J. Bean Beyond Broker State iii. 83 Consumers sealed the fate of fair trade when they refused to purchase products subject to RPM [= resale price maintenance] agreements.
5. A system of ethical trade in which a company in a developed country pays a fair price to a producer in a less-developed country, and seeks to ensure good working conditions and fair wages for the workers involved. Also: the principle or practice of such trade. Cf. sense B.Recorded earliest in attributive use (see also Compounds 1).The movement for ethical trade dates to the mid 20th cent. but became widespread in the late 1980s when various certification initiatives began to label fair trade goods for mainstream retailers. Most of these initiatives are now united under the International Fairtrade Certification Mark or (in the United States and Canada) the Fair Trade Certified Mark.
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society > trade and finance > other trading methods > [noun]
fair trading1685
grocery1689
carriage trade1720
sale or (formerly and) return1795
Labour Exchange1828
security system1831
smousingc1876
postal trade1902
triangular trade1934
switch trading1967
relationship management1970
p-y-o1977
counter-trade1978
pick-your-own1980
counter-trading1983
fair trade1986
carry trade1994
1973 M. Tanzer in N.Y. Times 8 Dec. 35/3 It is time to start a new era of fair-trade relations between the developed and underdeveloped countries, in which..the real value of the latter's commodities to Western consumers will be recognized.]
1986 Guardian 9 Oct. 27/2 Through its fair trade import policy it [sc. Traidcraft] supports 6,000 jobs in the Third World.
1986 Guardian 24 Oct. 9 (advt.) We will be saying to our government: It's time to end the scandal of the debt crisis. It's time for fair trade.
1994 S. Bullock Women & Work v. 84/1 Some products are now on the shelves of major supermarkets, with a message about fair trade on each packet.
2000 Big Issue 10 Apr. 23/1 (advt.) Each issue still has a core theme such as fair trade, climate change, genetics or Cuba.
2011 H. Marcovitz Fair Trade 40 Some who have benefitted from fair trade have used their profits to improve conditions for women in their home countries.
B. adj.
Of a product: (certified as) produced according to principles of fair trade (sense A. 5). Also with capital initials or as one word.
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1989 J. Button How to be Green 204 Shops and supermarkets [should be] encouraged to stock fair trade products.
1993 Observer (Nexis) 19 Dec. (Life Suppl.) 19/3 There is also Cafe Direct, a Fair Trade coffee now on supermarket shelves.
1995 D. Dalton Rights Now! 11/2 If you buy Fair Trade goods, you are giving direct support to the people who produce them.
2002 Time Out N.Y. 3 Oct. 19/3 A ballot measure..would allow only organic, fair-trade or shade-grown coffee to be brewed for sale within city limits.
2006 M. Collier Santa shops on eBay 202 The owners..use certified organic and Fair Trade ingredients as often as possible.
2010 Private Eye 28 May 9/3 Kit Kat is of course now fairtrade and the organisation's logo was clearly visible on the wrapper.
Compounds
C1. General attributive (now esp. in sense A. 5).
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1881 Spectator 10 Dec. 1558 The Fair trade question.
1882 T. H. Farrer Free Trade v. Fair Trade ii. 6 The programme of the Fair Trade League is not definite in its particulars.
1916 Garage Efficiency Feb. 22/1 There has been introduced in the National House of Representatives a bill known as Stevens Bill, the object of which is to create what is known as fair trade conditions.
1937 Princeton Alumni Weekly 26 Feb. 452/2 T. E. Hicks..signs the contract of the Ohio Fair Trade Act, assuring the druggists a minimum fair trade price.
1991 Independent (Nexis) 24 Oct. 33 In Britain, a new symbol called the Fair Trade Mark is being developed.
1992 B. Coote Trade Trap xiv. 183 In considering awarding the Fairtrade Mark for products grown on plantations, the Fairtrade Foundation will look for evidence that workers are free to unionise and negotiate.
1993 J. N. Bhagwati in D. Salvatore Protectionism & World Welfare ii. 33 In the 1870s and 1880s, fair trade organizations such as the National Fair Trade League..and the Reciprocity Free Trade Association arose on the British Scene.
2006 Observer 28 May (Food Monthly Suppl.) 26/2 Being organic nearly always brings fairtrade practice in its wake.
2010 C. M. Hall in L. Jolliffe Coffee Culture, Destinations, & Tourism x. 159 Coffee has remained the main food product of the fair trade movement in terms of both scale and public understanding.
C2.
fair trade law n. (a) a law intended to ensure fair competition in trade; (b) U.S. (usually with capital initials) any of various laws setting out a system of resale sales maintenance (see resale n. Compounds 2) and intended to ensure fair competition among retailers (now chiefly historical).The first Fair Trade Law in the United States was enacted in California in 1931. All such laws were repealed by 1975.
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1913 Paint, Oil & Drug Rev. 22 Oct. 20 In Sweden they have a so-called Fair Trade law which, while not particularly prohibiting price cutting, is aimed at special abuses, such as offering merchandise as premiums.
1937 Rotarian Sept. 24/2 [The law] says..that no retailer..shall be free to sell an article of recognized merit at a price below the retail price set by the manufacturer... Some 40 States have enacted such fair-trade laws.
1951 R. Cassady & W. L. Jones Nature of Competition in Gasoline Distribution at Retail Level 75 Reportedly, the effort to enforce contracts under the Fair Trade Law were abandoned in mid-1938.
1986 D. T. Armentano Antitrust Policy 50 The fair-trade laws legalized resale price maintenance contracts by exempting them from federal antitrust regulation.
1998 H.-C. Yu in J. J. Choi & J. A. Doukes Emerging Capital Markets xii. 152 The government [of China] promulgated the Fair Trade Law in February 1991, prohibiting manipulation of prices.
Derivatives
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society > trade and finance > importing and exporting > [noun] > free trade > between nations with reciprocity > doctrine of
fair tradism1881
1881 Liverpool Mercury 19 Sept. 5/5 It is confidently expected that the Junior Carlton will be saved from the dread darkness of protectionism, reciprocitarianism, fair tradism, and other denizens of the realm of night.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
fair tradev.
/ˌfɛː ˈtreɪd/, U.S. /ˈˌfɛ(ə)r ˈtreɪd/ U.S. Now historical.
transitive. To trade (a product) under regulations set by a Fair Trade Law (see fair trade law n. (b) at fair trade n. and adj. Compounds 2).
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1947 Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) 9 Feb. 4/2 No article, which is not sold in a competitive field, can be fair-traded.
1955 Proc. National Agric. Credit Conf. Memphis, Tennessee, 1954 79 Who fair-trades my beef cattle? Who fair-trades my grass seed?
1978 Jrnl. Marketing 42 No. 1. 52/1 In 1952 some 1,600 manufacturers ‘fair traded’ their products.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1648
v.1947