The wholesale market appeared with the rise of European maritime empires (Spain, UK, Portugal, the Netherlands) and the foundation of multinational trading companies. This was back in the 16th and 17th centuries. The whole idea behind wholesale commerce was to bring products from distant lands, (even from other continents!), to supply local merchants and business that did not have access to those far away sources.
In the meantime, wholesale commerce from places such as Creager Mercantile of Denver has become a very important link in merchandise circulation.
Nowadays, wholesale trade represents the sale of goods (without undergoing essential transformations in relation to the condition in which they were purchased) in large quantities, to retailers, industrial and commercial users, communities and professional users, other wholesalers or wholesale intermediaries – but not to final consumers.
Wholesale trade also includes trade activities carried out by wholesale trade intermediaries (the activities of commission agents, commodity intermediaries, as well as all intermediation carried out in the name or on behalf of third parties) whether the sale is made on the domestic market or for export. The acts of selling – purchasing take place between economic units, as opposed to the retail trade, where the buyer is also a consumer; within the wholesale activities, both the buyer and the seller are economic units or different economic – social organizations or public administration.