Large business houses involved in import and export often offered additional services including finance, bulk-breaking, sorting and risk-taking. In the 17th century, the public began to make mental distinctions between two types of trader; local traders (Dutch: "meerseniers") which referred to local merchants including bakers, grocers, sellers of dairy products and stall-holders, and the merchants (Dutch: "koopman"), which described a new, emergent class of trader who dealt in goods or credit on a large scale. With the rise of a European merchant class, this distinction was necessary to separate the daily trade that the general population understood from the rising ranks of merchants who operated on a world stage and were seen as quite distant from everyday experience.