'Commerce' is Latin for 'bringing goods together' — from 'merx' (merchandise), kin to 'Mercury.'
The activity of buying and selling, especially on a large scale; trade between nations or regions; also (archaic) social dealings between people.
From French commerce, from Latin commercium (trade, trafficking, business dealings, intercourse), from com- (together, mutually) + merx (merchandise, goods, wares; genitive mercis). The Latin merx is related to Mercurius (Mercury), the Roman god of trade, travelers, and messengers — his name likely derived from the same stem — and to mercārī (to trade, to buy). The PIE root underlying merx is debated
The Roman god Mercury was the patron of both merchants and thieves — a connection the Romans themselves found amusing rather than contradictory. His name shares the same root as 'commerce,' 'merchant,' and 'merchandise' (all from Latin 'merx,' goods). Even 'mercy' descends from this root: Latin 'mercēs' meant 'wages, reward, price,' which in Church Latin shifted to mean 'pity, compassion' — the reward God gives freely