In the forest region of the State of Washington lying south of the Capital, Olympia, there is a little town, Tenino, that has been receiving in the last three years an amount of newspaper publicity far out of proportion to its size. And well might this be so, for Tenino has added a new page in the history of currency by issuing wooden money, some of which has found its way into the archives of the Society.

From time to time during the life of the Society new fields of endeavor have been opened up, thus leading to a general broadening of the organization's activities. One such added activity that has assumed a position of importance is the collection of business historical material in foreign countries. In the six year period that the Society has been seeking foreign material there has been an influx into the Baker Library of hundreds of documents on business abroad.

During the year 1934, a sister organization to the Business Historical Society, known as the Council for the Preservation of Business Archives, was formed in London, England. The Council officially came into being on May 11, 1934 when a group of influential men of England gathered at the London School of Economics and Political Science for the Foundation meeting. A great deal of preliminary work had been done in the preceding two or three years, but the organization meeting was the first public notice given the enterprise.

Since the publication of an article on the Frederick Tudor papers in the September 1932 Bulletin, the Society has received a great deal of new manuscript material relating to the Tudor Ice Company and other Tudor business ventures from Mr. Frederick Tudor, grandson of the founder of the ice project. Although a few readers may recall the previous article, a digest thereof will help to place our new acquisitions in their proper setting.

In these days we hear much in praise of collective and controlled enterprises. It is, therefore, especially interesting to note that the first business contract signed in this country of which we have record was to establish an undertaking of just such a sort. This event occurred at Plymouth in 1626, when Governor William Bradford, Captain Miles Standish, William Brewster, John Alden, and several others drew up an agreement with the Colony and with the Merchant Adventurers of London, England, whereby they assumed complete control of the trade of the Colony for a period of six years.

Like the majority of the states, Pennsylvania has never completely concentrated her archives. Various groups of material currently administered by a bureau or department, such as the land records in the Land Office, should not be concentrated until they cease to be a part of the Government's daily business. But aside from these, there are tons of non-active files which will some day be moved, when the Archive Division of the State Library can house them. Under such conditions no one can state absolutely and concisely what there is; and as one result of this difficulty, research work that might utilize business documents is severely handicapped.

The status of labor has been markedly changed since the early days of our country. In general it may be said that the worker has tended to acquire a position of even greater bargaining power relative to the employer (indeed, today there are instances where labor holds the superior position.) Of course certain types of laborers have always possessed an advantageous and strategic bargaining power position, but on the whole the tendency toward greater freedom for labor as a class is not disputable. Evidences of this evolutionary movement in the worker's status toward more freedom of contract may be found in the numerous labor agreements and labor indentures in the Baker Library.

It would be difficult to find a person who has displayed a greater amount of assiduity in unearthing papers and manuscripts on business history than has the Society's president, Mr. Charles H. Taylor. Corporation records, shipping and whaling papers, log books, estate management papers, indentures, deeds, and in fact manuscripts and documents on almost all phases of business history have been lodged in the Baker Library as a result of Mr. Taylor's activities. Among the countless historical documents brought to light by him is an item that does not have a great deal of business significance, nevertheless is sufficiently entertaining to justify its publication.

An interesting chapter in the currency history of this country is called to mind by one original document and several photostatic copies of original documents concerning the Merchants' Note scheme of 1733, found in the archives of the Society.

For at least twenty years prior to the formation of this Society, there were men in this country interested in the collection of records pertaining to the history of the railroads. Many of them the writer knew by personal acquaintance or through the medium of correspondence. With the Great War came the high price of scrap paper, and the railroads seized this opportunity of disposing of many of their old records in such fashion. Realizing that the individual could do but little toward the preservation of these records, two close friends, living in or near Boston, together with the writer, formed this Society.

The eastern merchant who dealt with the West in the early nineteenth century was faced with many problems. But the western merchant was still worse off. Both sets of difficulties, particularly those of the latter, are illustrated in the correspondence between Christian Shultz and his various partners, of Maysville, Kentucky, and the metal-selling firm of Nathan Trotter & Co., of Philadelphia. These letters are found in the Trotter collection in the Baker Library.

The rapid growth of the sales tax movement in the United States and the results and implications of this development are discussed in a recently published book, “The Sales Tax in the American States,” by Robert Murray Haig and Carl Shoup.

Since this issue of the Bulletin marks the eighth anniversary of the publication, it provides a fitting time to review the activities of the Society in the last eight years.

There has developed within the city limits of Pittsburgh, and the adjoining territory that rounds out the boundaries of Allegheny County, and for more than a score of miles along the three rivers that converge at the Point, a region that is known as “the workshop of the world.” The tremendous industrial and commercial expansion of this area in recent years is well known, but “the roots of the present lie deep in the past” and the origin or background of this development is somewhat shrouded in obscurity.

Business may connote a humdrum, monotonous routine, and yet it need not necessarily do so. Romance and adventure were tied up closely with the shipping business of the middle nineteenth century. Especially was this true when that shipping business happened to center around romantic Hawaii as was the case with the James Hunnewell enterprise, the papers of which are available in the Baker Library.