Trade card refers to small cards used in early times by merchants to advertise their business by distributing it to potential customers. Sometimes, it also served the purpose of directing them to their stores as there were no formal street addresses at the time. Trade cards became popular in London at the beginning of the seventeenth century. These are the early forms of the modern business card. With the arrival of color printing, these images in cards became colorful and vibrant and people began to collect them.