negotiant

Someone who conducts negotiations; a negotiator, an agent.

Ambassadors, negotiants, and generally all other ministers of mean fortune, in conversation with princes and superiors, must use great respect

A trader or merchant; a businessman; a financier.

Such was the scarcity of bread, that a French gentleman told me, that, the day preceding the taking of the Bastille, he was invited to dine with a Negotiant, and, when he went, was informed that a servant had been out five hours in search of bread, and had at last been able to purchase only one loaf.