 Brown also learned much about Massachusetts' mercantile elite; while he initially considered this knowledge a curse, it proved to be a boon to his later activities in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry.The business community had reacted with hesitation when Brown asked them to change their highly profitable practice of selling low-quality wool "en masse" at low prices.Initially, Brown naïvely trusted them, but he soon realized they were determined to maintain their control of price-setting.