Is it a sin to develop trade?

Question:

Is it a sin to buy items from one place and sell them somewhere else much more expensive?

It is not a sin, but it can be.To understand it, let us see at first …

What is the trade?

Let us see successively.The wholesaler buys the goods from the producer, then he adds to the price of the goods the value of his work, the cost of transportation and storage.After that, the shop owners come and buy products from him with the new price and they go to stores where they add to the price the value of their work, transportation, storage and the work of all workers. The goods would not get from producers to consumers without all these people’s work and the expenses they incur.And if the producer wants to sell his production by himself, he is free to fix the price, because nobody else can know better the value and the volume of work and expenses of the product.

Do not abuse

Like any other human activity, traders should also follow the good of the people and not to abuse the freedom they have in setting prices, or to intimidate others who sell the same product.It is known that some people being supported by the leadership of the country, pay bribes to officials so that only they may be provided with the right to sell a product. Then, anyone else trying to sell the product is persecuted and so the buyer has no choice, and has to buy only from a single seller and pay the price that was imposed. Then, sometimes, these sellers who seek only their own profit and exploit people, create the artificial lack of a product and then sell it at inflated prices. For example, some hide the wheat and do not sell it to people to create the state of famine.Then, when famine is big, they come to sell the wheat, looking like benefactors and sell it at extremely high prices.God says in the Holy Scriptures about these merchants:

He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it. He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, but he who seeks evil, evil will come to him. (Proverbs 11:26-27)(NASB)

Do not envy

After being exposed to atheism and communist doctrine, there are many people in our nation who have become jealous and spiteful. They do not rejoice at the success of his neighbor and do not think how to help him, but how to put obstacles and to speak bad about him. I was told that when a Chinese living in another country starts up a business, let’s say a shop, all the Chinese in the area come to buy from him, even if they should make a greater effort, only to encourage their brother. How good it would be to learn from them this beautiful attitude and feel with each other, to encourage and help one another. If the neighbor opens a booth to sell bread and other foodstuffs on our street, to be happy and to go and buy from him, but to not talk bad about him, calling him ”double dealer” or “speculator”. Let God guard us from such an attitude, because it is not a Christian one.

Translated by Felicia Rotaru