The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has in its files many collections of manuscripts, a great number of which pertain to the business records of Philadelphia merchants and institutions, both commercial and municipal. The collections are as varied in content as they are in size and in periods covered. Any student of Pennsylvania industrial, commercial, or financial history, from the earliest days of the colony to the more familiar recent years, will find many contemporaneous records to assist him.

Much has been written in the history of the Pacific Northwest of the missionaries and pioneer settlers of the Columbia and Willamette Valleys. The romantic episodes of the years 1830 to 1850 have been subject for fiction and drama, and much applause has justifiably been accorded those who ventured the journey in the covered wagon across “The Great American Desert,” or by ship and pack-horse via the Isthmus route, or by the long and dangerous sea voyage around the Horn, to establish missions among the Indians, and homes in the wilderness. But with the decade of the 'fifties came another type of pioneer: the business man from New England whose cautious nature was not attracted by the gold flurries of California's “forty-nine,” but rather by the inducements of sober trade in the rapidly growing communities of the Oregon country.

Among the recent accessions of the Society is an interesting letter written in 1883 by a member of one of the firms which later became Armour & Company, Inc.

The annual meeting of the Business Historical Society will be held at the Harvard Business School on Wednesday, April 22, 1936, at twelve noon. Final arrangements have not yet been completed, but the program will include a short business meeting, a subscription luncheon at the Faculty Club; and two addresses on topics related to business history. During the business meeting the officers for the ensuing year are to be elected, including the Treasurer, the Clerk, and the seven members of the Council. Members are reminded that both General and Affiliated Members are now entitled to vote, as a result of the changes in the Constitution and By-laws voted last May, and that they may attend the meeting by proxy. Individual notices will have been mailed to members before the appearance of this issue of the Bulletin.

There is a good deal of doubt as to which was the earliest business corporation in America. One view is that a whale-fishing company established in New York City in 1675 was the first, but, although a joint-stock company (a kind of partnership), there is no evidence that it was also a corporation. A second view is that the first was The New London Society United for Trade and Commerce, chartered, apparently, in Connecticut in 1732. The life of these and other colonial concerns was short. Claims might be made for the priority of other colonial companies but our main interest is in existing companies. And this interest does not lie in the age of the concern itself but in the priority of its incorporation.

Very little, apparently, has been written on the China trade during the three decades from 1840 to 1870. But, in reality, these years constitute one of the most picturesque and glamorous eras in the annals of the Eastern trade. As a result of the growing demand for a more speedy delivery of tea, especially, from China, the “Clipper Ship” period began about 1843; and, gaining impetus through the discovery of gold in California in 1849 and in Australia in 1859, it ended, approximately, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. During those years, our merchants and sea captains vied with each other in building fast ships of which the Houqua, the Samuel Russell, the Oriental, and the Sea Witch were the pioneers of a numerous fleet. So much activity in shipbuilding would naturally imply an active and growing trade to make use of these fast carriers.

It is natural to wish to account for success of any kind hy ascribing it to some freak of fortune, to the chance discovery of some magic formula. This attitude of mind would place success potentially within the grasp of almost anyone, even without the possession of unusual mental or physical endowments, and without the necessity of exerting oneself to cultivate the endowments one actually may possess. Since economic success is one of the most widespread of human desiderata, it might be expected that legends ascribing it to various fortuitous happenings of a romantic or even magical character would be widespread. This is actually the case, as witness Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, Ali Baba and the key-phrase “Open, Sesame!”, Jack and the beanstalk, Dick Whittington and his cat. Nor is it necessary to resort to the fabulous Orient or to medieval Europe for specimens of such tales. About the head—or rather, the money-bags—of John Jacob Astor I have sprung up myths which probably exceed in number and influence those clustering about any other single business man. And, Astor is near enough to our own time so that we need not entirely despair of following the footprints of the myth-makers, one of whom, indeed, left an unmistakable trail.

The Oldest business concern in America is not a railroad nor yet a canal or turnpike. It is not a bank nor an insurance company. It is not a tavern, at least not so far as I know. It is not even a publishing firm, although such firms have seen long life.