The French claim that visiting cards first appeared in their land in the seventeenth century while the Chinese seek to prove that visiting cards were invented by their ancestors shortly after they had concocted explosive powder. However, the first ever known sample of a visiting card, dating back to 1786, was found in Germany. Gradually, with the development of certain rules of use, the cards had become common by the nineteenth century.
法国人认为名片于十七世纪在他们的土地上率先出现，而中国人则设法证明名片是在他们的祖先发明了火药后不久发明的。不管怎样，有记录的第一张名片1786年出现于德国。慢慢地，随着某些使用规则的出现，到十九世纪时名片变得普遍起来。

Do you know which corner of a visiting card you must fold when leaving it with a footman in order to indicate that you have called on to inquire after the master's health? No? Neither do I, but only a hundred years ago this knowledge was as vital for an aristocrat as dancing and polite conversation.

你知不知道当你把名片留与仆人时，为了暗示你来拜访过主人给他请安，你必须折叠名片的哪一角？不知道？我也不知道，不过在一百年以前这点学问对于贵族来说就和跳舞和有教养的交谈一样重要。

Visiting cards used to be an indispensable attribute of the etiquette and the rules of their use were as sophisticated as those of cutlery. At that time visiting cards belonged to the notions of such consequence like title, rank, land, horses etc.

过去名片是礼节一个不可缺少的组成部分，而且它们的使用规则像餐具的使用规则那样复杂。在那个时候，名片有如头衔、等级、土地、马匹等一样重要。

First businessmen used their cards as marks of distinction and thus introduced the first modifications in their design. Later, as the growing demand for the cards boosted the development of the printing industry, more and more sophisticated card design patterns appeared.

最早的商人将他们的卡片作为区别于他人的一个标志，因此在他们的名片设计中首先出现了变化。后来，随着名片需求的增加，印刷工业的发展得到推进，出现了越来越多复杂的卡片设计图案。

On the other hand, there appeared an ever-growing social group of private entrepreneurs who had a constant need to exchange their contact information. These pragmatic people started to print out their own cheaper business cards to give them at presentations, exhibitions, conferences etc.

另一方面，私人企业家的数量也在日益增长。这些人需要经常交换他们的联系信息。这些注重实效的人开始印刷便宜的名片给自己，在见面、展览以及会议等场合送出。