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Ultimately, dana involves a recognition of several points:
Dana is a moment of humility, where one says: "That is a stronger person than I am, with higher purposes than I have. Giving to them helps them make the world I live in better." There may be other, more superficial reasons, but that is the core of it.
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Dana is given by selflessly helping others and by doing so ironically helping yourself. It is the understanding of interconnection. Service as oppose to monetary or material aspects is another great way to give Dana.
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In this Sutta, Buddha broke it down to 7 categories of why people give Dana (1) To answer your question as to purpose of dana, people give for many reasons. (2) some give to detach(ornament of mind) which bears great fruit and great benefit. (3) some people give to help others.
I think you can answer yourself if the reason you want the merchant to maximize his profit is because you want to help him out or you are doing it to let go of your attachment.