A contemporary account of the Boston Riot of August, 1765, was found in the letter book of Henry Lloyd, a Boston merchant of the time. Though opposed to any trade restrictions that would hamper his business activities Lloyd had no sympathy for rioters. It is surprising, however, that in a letter book filled with correspondence of the period, there should be only one letter which refers at any length to the riot. This description, though brief, makes those prerevolutionary activities seem, once more, strangely alive:

The problems of banking which upset the business world of 1834 were inextricably bound up with politics. The second Bank of the United States had been incorporated in 1816 in order to aid the government in its financial operations and to check the overissue of notes by state banks. While the Bank was able to force state banks to resume specie payment as early as February, 1817, in doing so it made many lasting enemies. In following years the Bank, in turn, resented efforts on the part of various states to tax its branches, for one of the valued privileges of the Bank, as chartered, was exemption from taxation.

In these days of complex industrial organization it is hard to realize that the time ever existed when a complete manufacturing process, together with specifications for equipment, might be described in two pages. The following account of the process for making potash is taken from the letter book of Henry Lloyd for the years 1765–1767:

Two letters from an interesting old letter book of Henry Lloyd, a Boston merchant, bring to mind the importance played by the Boston Light in the early history of lighthouse service in America. The Boston Light, built in 1716, was the first lighthouse built on this continent. The responsibility for its erection and maintenance was assumed by the General Court of the Province; The following letter written by Henry Lloyd to Mr. Hugh Hall Wentworth, who possibly lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, gives the original cost of the structure, and, further, points out that it served as a model for other lighthouses along the coast:

When an English merchant set out to collect a debt from a recalcitrant colonial across the water, he was evidently put to it for a type of statement sufficiently imposing in appearance to bring the desired results. One document, bearing the date 1729, among the Society's acquisitions, illustrates the point. The reproduction of the first page which appears opposite gives evidence of the formality followed.

A new volume published by the American Geographical Society and edited by John K. Wright will be of special interest to New England.

From Smith College word comes, to the Business Historical Society, of a new series of studies to be made in the field of business and economic history. Concerning this project the director, Dr. Esther Lowenthal, professor of economics at Smith College, notes in The Smith Alumnae for November, 1932:

The following paper was prepared by Mr. Tinsley, Vice-President and General Manager of the Crompton & Knowles Loom Works, to be delivered at the annual meeting scheduled for December 8, 1932. With his consent it is printed here.

Summaries of the various annual reports prepared for the meeting scheduled for December 8, 1932, which was unavoidably postponed, are as follows:

There have come to Baker Library, from two different sources, six account books of modest proportion which have, packed within their pages, the complete record of the investments of one of Boston's outstanding citizens—outstanding both for his ability and his public spirit. His well-ordered accounts should constitute a mine of information for research students. Even the most hasty review of the records brings to light information of great interest.

The Business Historical Society calls to the attention of its members a recent publication which should be of greatest value and interest. This is the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, which has been published jointly by the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the American Geographical Society of New York.

A nation acquiring new territory is not in every sense of the word in an advantageous position. There are always administrative problems which require information outside the experience of that nation. This was surely the case at the time of the acquisition of Louisiana. The territory had been handed back and forth between the French and Spanish since 1719—the French holding the territory up to 1766 when the Spanish came into power. They governed the territory until 1801 when Napoleon succeeded in gaining control for France once more. But Napoleon found it impossible, because of war on all sides at home, to realize the dream of power in the New World. In 1803 Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France.

There is occasionally preserved, in a mere handful of papers, a story surprisingly complete. This is true of one small group of manuscripts found in the Baldwin collection — a collection frequently mentioned in previous numbers of the Bulletin. The papers here referred to concern the organization of a business enterprise undertaken by Cyrus Baldwin and that astounding old adventurer, Nathaniel Appleton.