1. 4.4 Trade: elements and types

2. 4.4 Trade: elements and types
Trade is the activity of the tertiary sector that consists on sale and purchase of goods and services in exchange for payment in order to meet people´s needs.
Trade has four elements:
Supply and demand: sellers who provide and buyers who acquire products.
Merchandise: goods and services
Payment: bartering in the past, money or credit cards, cheques…
The market: place where the exchange is undertaken. It can be physical or abstract.

3. 4.4 Trade: elements and types

4. 4.4 Trade: elements and types
According to the geographical range where it´s practised, trade can be:
Domestic: within a country´s borders. It has two basic types:
Wholesale trade: buys large quantities of merchandise and sells them to other traders or businesses. For example…
Retail trade: sales directly to consumers. Traditional businesses are experiencing a crisis due to the large retail stores (supermarkets, shopping centres…). Retail trade has moved from the urban centre to the periphery in the last decades.

5. 4.4 Trade: elements and types
- Foreign: between countries. It involves imports and exports.

6. 4.4 Trade: elements and types
Nowadays, there is a high volume of international trade due to the globalization of the economy. Trading blocks are groups of countries that have been created to promote trade at a regional scale.