Business, commerce, trade, industry, traffic are comparable chiefly when they denote one of the forms or branches of human endeavor which have for their objective the supplying of commodities.
Business specifically applies to the combined activities of all those who are engaged in the barter, purchase, or sale of commodities of any sort either as wholesale or retail transactions or in financial transactions connected with such activities; in this sense business is thought of as the combined activities of all kinds of dealers (as merchants) and financiers (as bankers) as opposed to those of all kinds of producers (as manufacturers and farmers).
The term is also used more broadly to include the activities of producers and transporters of goods as well as of merchants and bankers, since all these have for their ultimate aims the supplying of commodities and the increase of private wealth.
Commerce and trade, on the other hand, apply to the activities of those who are engaged in the exchange of commodities, especially such exchange as involves transactions on a large scale and the transportation of goods from place to place.
The words are often used interchangeably; thus, in the United States the Interstate Commerce Commission regulates common carriers of all kinds (rail, water, motor) engaged in interstate transportation of passengers or goods; the Federal Trade Commission was created to prevent use of unfair methods of competition in interstate commerce and to investigate trade conditions in and with foreign countries. But in general commerce is preferred when different countries or states are involved, when transportation is across seas or by sea, and when the dealings are not only in merchandise but also in media of exchange (as money, bills of exchange, and notes) and trade, when different business organizations in the same country are involved or when the dealings are in merchandise.
Industry applies chiefly to the activities of those who are engaged in production, especially in the processing of natural products, the manufacture of artificial products, the erection of buildings and other structures, on so large a scale that problems of capital and labor are involved. The term may be used generally to include all activities covered by this definition. It may also be used more narrowly of any branch of industry as determined by the thing produced.
Traffic (see also INTERCOURSE) applies to the activities of those who are engaged in the operation of public carriers (as ships, railroads, bus lines, and systems of trucking) and who are therefore primarily responsible for the transportation not only of commodities and articles of manufacture but also of persons from one part of a country or of the world to another.