1.   Saqr was a leading member of a well-known family of the traditional merchant class which owned the leading liberal newspaper, al-Qabas.

2.   The absence of a prosperous merchant class meant that Sheffield had few fine houses or public buildings.

3.   While war could create serious difficulties for the merchant class, other social groups looked at it in a different light.

4.   Although publicly scorned by the higher-caste samurai, the burgeoning merchant class collected the prints as passionately as later generations would collect posters and baseball cards.

5.   A merchant class will probably always exist in Iran, albeit with severe constraints.

6.   Across the Middle East, Christians tend to come from the merchant classes and receive their education in better-equipped, church-supported schools.

7.   In both countries, a new merchant class has sprung up, owing its wealth to smuggling.

8.   In Colonial America, an affluent merchant class was only in the initial throes of formation.

9.   In Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, small Chinese merchant classes dominate the economies.

10.   Salcedo thinks that this newly united merchant class might help them pool the resources to compete with the big guys.