Several officers of the Society recently interviewed members of the Faculty of the Harvard Business School in order to ascertain to what extent historical material would be of special value in the course work of the School. This inquiry had a two-fold purpose: (1) to discover wherein those working in the field of Business History might be of greatest immediate service to current teaching and research in business subjects; and (2) to obtain guidance in the collection and preservation of documentary material pertaining to Business History. It was, in short, an attempt to survey some of the current needs of Business History.

It is a curious fact that many American business men of the past are known more for their charities or philanthropies or for their cultural or political interests and activities than for the very significant work they may have done in business. The biographers of business men, with the exception of those who have deliberately set out to berate the man about whom they were writing, have generally had very little to say about their subject's business. It is as if business were something not worthy of record. It is well to remember that business is important not only because it makes profits for the individual or builds fortunes; it also has a wide social importance. As we have lately experienced, an active, successful business system very likely means greater social well-being; and a depressed business, widespread misery. In so far as the business man is responsible for one or the other, the responsibility should be recognized in studies of his life. Thus through the experience of others would be widened immeasurably our knowledge of how business functions.

The usual approach to business or any other subject tends to emphasize the many changes that have occurred over a period of years and to neglect the fundamental factors that have remained constant. Evidence for this assertion may be found in a thirteenth-century Norwegian work, “Speculum Regale,” or “King's Mirror,” translated into English by Laurence Marcellus Larson. The purpose of “Speculum Regale,” written in the form of a dialog between a learned father and his son, was to provide a young man, planning a career in the higher professions, with a background of necessary information. In Volume III of Professor Larson's translation, there is a dialog on the commercial profession, containing bits of advice which might easily have been given by a modern father who was sending his son into the business world.

Reaching back into history some two hundred and sixty-five years, the archives of the Hudson's Bay Company present an exceptionally fine review of the economic and business development of Canada. The Hudson Bay Company was organized in 1670, and since that date the Company has accumulated in London thousands of letter books, accounting records, and documents pertaining to its growth.

A recent paper by Everett E. Edwards, Associate Agricultural Economist for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, reemphasizes the need for historical materials on the farm industry of the United States. In the light of Mr. Edwards' discussion and the present agitation for more records on agricultural history, it seems timely to present a resumé of material in the Baker Library on the subject.

The exigencies of Government finance under the stress of presentday conditions call to mind the difficulties with which the new Federal Government and its youthful Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, were confronted at the beginning of the first Washington administration. Indeed the manner in which the first Secretary of the Treasury met these problems and the lessons which his solutions seem to have for the present emergency have occasioned the reprinting of Hamilton's great State papers on the national debt, the establishment of a national bank, and the protection of manufactures. Under the inspiration of the Honorable Elihu Root and President Butler of Columbia University, these documents have been reissued in a volume entitled “Papers on Public Credit, Commerce, and Finance.”

As the radio waves ebb, and the sponsor's hour draws to a close, advertising contact with the public is terminated. Only the memories of some exceptionally fine program linger in the minds of the radio audience. On the other hand, the lowliest huckster, who a century ago commissioned some printer to execute even the simplest tradecard describing his wares, achieved the guarantee — if one may use the phrase — of a limited immortality. This naturally depended somewhat on the durability of the paper or cardboard selected, but judging from the volume of material that has accumulated and has been handed down through the decades, the paper manufacturers of the olden days deserve our gratitude for the excellence of their products.

Imagine the consternation and confusion in the American business world if Congress should decide tomorrow that henceforth the dollar would no longer be the basis of our currency, but that a new monetary system with some unit such as the franc or the pound would be adopted. From the standpoint of accounting and business records, there would be a long period of adjustment to the new system. Probably government books would be changed to the new system immediately, but some business enterprises would undoubtedly carry dollars on their records for many months.

Many of the manuscript collections found in the Baker Library center around a particular individual rather than around a certain company or business concern. In such an instance it is usually true that the subject matter of the papers will reach into a wide variety of fields. A case in point is the De Wolf family collection, dealing largely with the activities of James De Wolf of Bristol, Rhode Island. Nominally De Wolf was a merchant, but his interests extended to numerous other spheres, including shipping, estate management, privateering, and politics. In a summary fashion this paper will trace a few of his varied pursuits.

A stroller wandering on Boston's waterfront will find in one of the better known wharving districts a pier that is a prolongation of State Street (known as King Street in Colonial days), the financial avenue of the City. There will be a penetrating tang of fish in the vicinity, and well might this be so for practically the only vessels that put into this wharf are fishermen's schooners and smacks. There is certainly nothing pretentious about this quay, and yet if some of its rotting timbers only had the powers of speech, what a story they might tell. It is, indeed, Long Wharf, the center of Boston's expanding shipping interests from early Colonial days up to the middle of the nineteenth century. However, we do not have to wait for the old timbers to acquire speech in order to ferret out the romance of Long Wharf; for there are references to it in most Boston histories, and in addition there are numerous business papers of the pier's proprietors now deposited in the Baker Library.

Sometime within the next six months it is believed that the new Government Archives Building at Washington, D. C., will be completed; and at this time the Federal Government will finally have a central depository for all of its old and valuable documents. Work began on the massive vault building, located halfway between the White House and the Capitol Building, about a year and a half ago, and the earliest possible completion date is now set for July 1.

“Good morning, Madame! I am working my way through college and have called on you today in order to obtain your help. For the paltry sum of seven cents a week you can assist me in my project, and what is more you can provide yourself with the world's best magazine.” What modern woman has not on a hundred occasions heard these or similar words poured from the mouth of an effervescent young man confidently poised on the front door step. Turn back time one hundred years and we find another American housewife, living in an unfrequented hamlet, who has been greeted by an assuming young fellow with words to this effect, “Madame, are you in need of any pocket sawmills? Horn gunflints? Wooden nutmegs? White oak cheeses? Tin bungholes? Or calico hogtroughs?” Having gained the attention and smile of this housewife, the peddler would then have launched into a laudation of his wares.

Some time ago we published an article on the laying of the Atlantic cable suggested by a copy of the Diary of the expedition, one of the few copies actually printed on board the cable-laying ship, the “Great Eastern,” found in the Baker Library. Another slant on the eventful career of the “Great Eastern” was brought to light in a newspaper clipping from the New York Times.