{ "model": { "rank": 9780, "code": "thing-q26643", "model_id": "vr.tr.commerce", "name": "commerce", "purpose": "Let an agent explain commerce as a concept and field, relay its forms, institutions and regulation from economics and legal sources, describe commercial education and culturally specific forms, and distinguish commerce from trade in the narrow sense, from business and from marketing.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q26643/", "tier": 2, "score": 46, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "international governmental or non-governmental organizations", "Māori commerce", "Bachelor of Commerce and Administration", "Interstate commerce", "Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (Honours)", "local commerce", "Rabita Bank", "Roman commerce", "domestic trade", "banking in Azerbaijan", "International Trade", "Below the line", "Mediterranean trade during the Roman Empire", "domestic air service" ], "aliasCount": 14, "merged": 14, "knownIn": 46, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.commerce", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q26643", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q26643", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T05:57:32Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q26643", "registryId": "vr.tr.commerce", "name": "commerce", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q26643/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.commerce", "name": "commerce", "purpose": "Let an agent explain commerce as a concept and field, relay its forms, institutions and regulation from economics and legal sources, describe commercial education and culturally specific forms, and distinguish commerce from trade in the narrow sense, from business and from marketing.", "definition": "The exchange of goods and services between economic agents, encompassing trade at local, interstate and international scale, the institutions that support it such as chambers of commerce and international governmental and non-governmental organisations, and culturally specific forms such as Maori commerce built on iwi and hapu enterprise; commerce is studied in economics and taught in degrees such as the Bachelor of Commerce and Administration, and is regulated through commercial law, competition rules and trade agreements.", "what_it_is_for": "Not applicable; a field of economic activity.", "affordances": [ "explain the concept", "relay forms and institutions", "describe education and cultural forms", "distinguish related terms" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Exchange", "Multiple scales", "Institutional support", "Legal regulation" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; exchange of goods and services.", "visual_identification": [ "Exchange of goods and services", "Local commerce, interstate commerce, international commerce, Maori commerce, commercial organisations, commerce degrees", "Trade often means cross-border exchange; business is the organisation; marketing is one function" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "world merchandise trade", "typical_range": "over 20", "unit": "trillion USD", "note": "per year, WTO" }, { "quantity": "US Commerce Clause", "typical_range": "Article I, Section 8", "unit": "reference", "note": "interstate commerce" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "local and retail commerce", "interstate commerce and its regulation", "international commerce and trade", "e-commerce", "Maori commerce and other indigenous economic forms", "commercial education such as the Bachelor of Commerce and Administration", "international governmental and non-governmental organisations supporting commerce" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "economics", "why": "subject in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is regulated by", "target": "commercial law", "why": "and competition law" }, { "relation": "is supported by", "target": "chamber of commerce", "why": "and trade organisations" }, { "relation": "is exemplified by", "target": "international trade", "why": "at global scale" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Commercial and contract law", "Competition and consumer protection law", "WTO agreements and trade treaties", "Constitutional commerce clauses such as in the United States" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing commerce with trade, business or marketing", "Agents giving personal financial or legal advice", "Registry aliases mixing organisations and degrees with the concept" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What commerce is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is commerce, and how does it differ from trade, business and marketing?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about the concept, a form of commerce, a degree or a legal matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "forms", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "findings": [ { "id": "forms-finding", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are local, interstate, international and electronic commerce, and what is Maori commerce?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific form?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutions", "description": "Institutions and law.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutions", "description": "Institutions.", "findings": [ { "id": "institutions-finding", "name": "Institutions", "description": "Institutions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What roles do chambers of commerce, trade bodies and international organisations play?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Law.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do commercial law, competition rules, trade agreements and commerce clauses regulate commerce, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking about their own case, which needs a lawyer?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "study", "name": "Study", "description": "Study and education.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "economics", "name": "Economics", "description": "Economics of commerce.", "findings": [ { "id": "economics-finding", "name": "Economics", "description": "Economics.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do economists analyse commerce, exchange and markets?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "education", "name": "Education", "description": "Commerce degrees.", "findings": [ { "id": "education-finding", "name": "Education", "description": "Education.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are Bachelor of Commerce and related degrees, and what do they cover?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits Bachelor of Commerce?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Culture and history.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "indigenous", "name": "Indigenous", "description": "Indigenous commerce.", "findings": [ { "id": "indigenous-finding", "name": "Indigenous", "description": "Indigenous.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is Maori commerce organised through iwi and hapu enterprises, as Maori organisations describe it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation respectful and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did commerce develop from ancient trade routes to global e-commerce?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of trade?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should international trade and e-commerce be separate primary entries?", "How should economics and legal sources be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming degrees and organisation types; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a commerce, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain commerce as a concept and field, relay its forms, institutions and regulation from economics and legal sources, describe commercial education and culturally specific forms, and distinguish commerce from trade in the narrow sense, from business and from marketing.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: international governmental or non-governmental organizations, Māori commerce, Bachelor of Commerce and Administration, Interstate commerce, Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (Honours), local commerce, Rabita Bank, Roman commerce, domestic trade, banking in Azerbaijan, International Trade, Below the line.", "14 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 46 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a commerce, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "international governmental or non-governmental organizations", "Māori commerce", "Bachelor of Commerce and Administration", "Interstate commerce", "Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (Honours)", "local commerce", "Rabita Bank", "Roman commerce", "domestic trade", "banking in Azerbaijan", "International Trade", "Below the line" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 46 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 14 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one commerce from another, and a commerce from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a commerce sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a commerce from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a commerce passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a commerce between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a commerce, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a commerce is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a commerce says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a commerce contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a commerce and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What commerce studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does commerce take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does commerce establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where commerce is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark commerce as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place commerce, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a commerce came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a commerce and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a commerce is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a commerce, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a commerce, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a commerce is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }