The Complete English Tradesman: In Familiar Letters; Directing Him in All the Several Parts and Progressions of Trade ... Calculated for the Instruction of Our Inland Tradesmen; and Especially of Young Beginners.Daniel Defoe, born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations.