In the United States this word is applied to wholesale merchants, who operate between the importer and retailer. Importers usually sell only by the package. The jobber buys by the package and sells by the piece. The retailer buys of the jobber, and sells in smaller quantities. In England the word is used in an analogous sense, as of one who buys and sells stocks.
There have been at times a good deal of jealousy and dissension between the jobbers and auctioneers. They are in some measure rivals. Both sell to the retail dealer; and the jobbers complain that the auctioneer injures their business by selling as low to the country and retail merchant as to them.--Perils of Pearl Street, p. 102.