Business records have a wide usefulness. First and foremost they tell the story of business itself, but they also record much that is of value to other fields of historical study.

One of the best single sources for American social and economic history is the records of small-town or rural businesses. These institutions have had a vital place in the growth and expansion of the nation. Until recent years little systematic attention has been given to this aspect of American history. Historians have generalized about this subject, and time after time they have been content to quote as their sources material which long ago became trite.

Sir Andrew Freeport belonged to the same club as the better-known Sir Roger de Coverley. Sir Andrew was of the moneyed interest and a great sedentary merchant, while Sir Roger was the typical landed gentleman. Probably a hundred persons have heard of the gentleman to one person who knows about the merchant. But the two were alike in being the creation of Joseph Addison's imagination and in coming to light in the show-case window of The Spectator. Moreover, each was intended to be representative of his type and therefore worthy of unusual attention.

The Bulletin has received a short volume on the history of a bank in one of the large American metropolitan communities which has recently celebrated its hundredth anniversary. The book is unusually attractive in make-up and contains some charming drawings of the bank's home and of streets in its city. The emphasis of the text is on the development of the home city of the bank and its industrial hinterland and on events of national importance which affected banking. The officers and directors of the bank through the century are named, and a little is said of larger policies and of the success of the bank.

From its beginning, accounting has been shaped by the needs of the business man and has in turn affected the handling of business problems. A clear illustration of this is the contrast between the system of accounts found in the ledgers of Florentine cloth manufacturers and the system of accounts found in the ledgers of Venetian merchants of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Cloth manufacturers such as the younger branch of the Medici arranged their entries under a Wage account, a Wool account, a Cloth Sales account, and so on, because their main concern was to keep track of these materials or obligations. The Venetians, being mainly exporters and importers, were concerned chiefly with keeping track of wares shipped, wares received, and amounts owed by or to agents. Accordingly, the distinctive, key accounts in Venetian books are (a) the accounts opened for each kind or lot of merchandise received, and (b) the accounts debited when wares were shipped. The latter are best called shipment, or venture, accounts. For example, when a Venetian merchant bought Florentine cloth to ship it to Constantinople, he opened a Florentine Cloth account in which he entered as debits all the costs of the cloth including the cost of packing it for shipment.

In June, 1943, the Illinois Central began an investigation of the possibility of depositing the company's old records in the Newberry Library in Chicago. We sought all records available covering the period 1851 to 1906, which latter year was the end of President Fish's regime. Much interesting material has been located and most of it has already been sent to the Library, the first deposit having been made in November, 1944, following an exchange of letters between the late President Beven and Dr. Stanley Pargellis.