Business in each decade has its own particular troubles, and it is interesting, often amusing, to read of bygone days. Modern communication, banking facilities, transportation, and business methods stand in vivid contrast to those of the early nineteenth century. To men in the East, able to obtain current news, the difficulties caused by the Embargo and Non-Importation acts were a sad worry; but to the merchants in the hinterland, often little more than agents for eastern firms, these regulations were a matter of utmost confusion and concern.

The Business Historical Society has recently received from the First National Bank of Boston several volumes of records of the Brighton Market Bank, later the National Market Bank of Brighton. The gift includes several books recording names of stockholders and transfers of stock, a book giving the minutes of stockholders' meetings, and a volume of directors' minutes. The directors' minute book begins with 1854 and ends in 1891.

The collection of George Peabody papers in the Essex Institute of Salem, Massachusetts, illustrates the value of private business correspondence in the study of economic history. Writers on the history of American commerce have complained of the lack of available business records, and students of capital movements have looked for more detailed information. The papers of George Peabody, merchant and financier, include material both on the importation of goods to the United States and on long-term investments during the period from 1830 to 1857.

The publication of an 800-page volume on the business man from ancient times to the New Deal is an event of considerable importance to those interested in the history of business. A comprehensive survey of the historical experience and development of business has long been needed. Such a volume would have a double meaning: it could both point out what is known of business in the past and, by the character of what it contains and does not contain, indicate where further study should be made.

The Harvard University Press has just published a history of The Massachusetts-First National Bank, 1784–1934, by N. S. B. Gras, Professor of Business History at the Harvard School of Business. This, the fourth work to appear in the series entitled Harvard Studies in Business History, has been made available to members of the Society through the generosity of the First National Bank of Boston.

Through the courtesy of Mr. W. M. Angle, of Rochester, New York, the Business Historical Society has acquired the papers of the recently liquidated Moseley & Motley Milling Co., of Rochester, which had ground wheat on the Genesee for almost a hundred years. The federal processing tax hastened the demise of this concern, but its end would no doubt soon have come for other reasons, for both capital and management could find more profitable employment in other industries in Rochester.

In the history of business one finds a universal inclination to oppose new techniques which threaten to undermine established enterprise. Today this tendency is seen in the United States in the fight against chain stores and mail-order houses; a hundred years ago the new auction system of wholesaling was under fire.

Kenneth Wiggins Porter's two-volume work, The Jacksons and the Lees: Two Generations of Massachusetts Merchants, 1765–1844, is the first of two studies in the history of business to be presented to the members of the Business Historical Society during the present year. The presentation of the first study is made possible by the courtesy and liberality of Mr. Henry Lee Shattuck. This work by Dr. Porter, who will be remembered as the author of John Jacob Astor: Business Man, is in the nature of a composite business biography of a group of merchants throughout the long period from 1765 to 1844.

The institutions and techniques for aiding the flow of capital and credit have had a long history. But it is a history which is not well known, especially in its earlier stages. In America the business of dealing in credit was at first chiefly in the hands of merchants, and, immediately after independence was established, chartered commercial banks took up the work. Some of the larger banks served as financial wholesalers, mobilizing credit and loaning it to small banks which were essentially retailers.

Every business concern has to use records of many types. They are expensive to prepare, they soon lose their current value, and they tend to accumulate in large masses. Modern business destroys great quantities of records and correspondence every day because storage often seems expensive and unnecessary and because the future reference value of such material is not appreciated. It is neither possible nor desirable to keep all business records indefinitely. A business concern has more important things to do, and must avoid unnecessary expense. But selected material should be permanently preserved by individual firms because the historical information which it contains is of definite educational value (1) to the firms themselves, (2) to historians who are trying to study important aspects of human experience, and (3) to the general public which is served by business and which ultimately governs the conduct of business.