Auctions have been a part of our heritage since time and memorial
. Joseph son of Jacob was auctioned in Egypt as a slave. So mankind has indulged in this form of doing commerce since a really long time.
Even we can find some forms of auctions in the Ancient Greek texts. They have written about it. From there we can see how auction had become such an important component in the industry, business and commerce.
It was not until much later that auctions were used to sell of items and commodities. They were usually the slaves and the animals that were sold off like this. In a time when women had no rights they were even married off in a process similar to auctioneering.
Auctions were very popular means of trading in the Roman era too. History tells us that when the Roman Empire was expanding the soldiers who had amassed war booty auctioned them off. As we have an auctioneer today with a gavel in those days there used to be a magistrate with a spear!
Auctions in the olden days differed in many other ways too. The auctions for instance went in a descending manner. It meant that the first person who bid the highest became the possessor of the item as long as the reserve price was met.
The word auction wasn't heard of until the seventeenth century. It was only during the reign of Elizabeth I that this word came into being. It was soon incorporated in the Oxford dictionary though this kind of business had being going on since quite some time.
In the North America the settlers would buy pelts from the Native Americans and auction them off to the merchants on ship. This is how they would make money all year round. During the American Civil war the property seized of the landlords would be auctioned off under the colonels.
This is why the practice of calling the auctioneers 'colonels' came into being. Enter the 21st century; ebay.com revolutionised the auctions by making them online. Now anything and everything can be auctioned from the comfort of your home.