Merchant

This archetype represents a person who often engages in basic tit-for-tat exchanges with others. These are entrepreneurs or salespeople or just folks who tend to give only when they’ve calculated and collected what they think is due them in return.

When the Merchant is invoked to govern all relationships things can get quite problematic, unless, of course, one deals mostly only with others who invoke the Merchant to govern all relationships. There are a significant number of people, though, who are not satisfied with tit-for-tat exchanges in all contexts, such as the contexts of friendship or romance.

If you are dissatisfied with the dominance of this archetype in your life, you should make an effort to give even when you know there is no hope for getting anything in return and perhaps build some associations that are intended to demand a deeper commitment than you are typically comfortable making.