As a source of credit on residential real estate in North America, private individuals played a vital role well into the 1950s, especially in Canada. Rare national surveys, together with varied case studies in Canada and the United States, indicate that they provided land contracts, construction loans, and first and junior mortgages to a variety of people, including family and friends and many strangers. Contacts were arranged through social networks, agents, and brokers. By comparison with major lending institutions, their role and significance have been overlooked, their loans often unrecorded. In the early decades, lenders included men and women in a range of occupations, not least because many owners offered credit to buyers to facilitate sales. By the 1950s, women, professionals, and businessmen were the main investors, the chief beneficiaries being lower-income households in less desirable districts. Some personal lenders were ill-informed or exploitive, but most enabled families to realize their aspirations to own. This sector’s decline was a consequence of federal policies that promoted national mortgage markets, making the business more professional but displacing practices that had enabled many home buyers and builders.

It is with great sadness that we announce the recent death of this journal’s founding editor, Will Hausman. Will was not only Enterprise & Society’s first editor, but he was also central to its foundation. Will, then editor of the Business History Conference (BHC) annual proceedings volume, Business and Economic History, was at the core of a small group of BHC officers and members, including but not limited to Pat Denault, Glenn Porter, Phil Scranton, and Roger Horowitz, who recognized the potential to establish “a new journal that was dedicated to expanding the interactions between traditional business history and fields that might have seemed peripheral, but which had much to offer the study of business and its wider relationships.”1 Will not only helped to shape a vision of what the new journal should be but, as first editor, for Volumes 1 through 4 did much of the very heavy lifting involved in getting a new journal off the ground and underway. In addition to his work with Enterprise & Society, Will undertook many other roles on behalf of the organization, not least as President from 2006 to 2007. Will was also a very fine scholar in his own right, publishing extensively, especially in the history and economics of electricity and other power utilities. We will carry a fuller appreciation of Will’s life and career in a future issue. For now we wish to extend our deepest sympathies to Will’s family and friends. He will be very much missed by many.

Africa is known for its rich and diverse literary tradition, with English being a prominent language in many African countries. The study of African anglophone literature in China has gained momentum in recent years, as scholars and readers increasingly recognize its importance and value. This article aims to provide an overview of translation and research on African anglophone literature in China. It discusses the works of representative writers such as Damon Galgut, Chinua Achebe, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, examining the reception and influence of their works in China, exploring how Chinese publishers and scholars have engaged with this literature, and highlighting the translation of African anglophone literary works in China, as well as the academic research and criticism surrounding these works.

The reduction in the size of print collections in law firm libraries has become a significant trend in recent years. As digital resources become more prevalent and accessible, law firms are increasingly shifting away from maintaining extensive physical collections. But just how far has this gone, why has it happened and what’s the future for print collections in law firms? With these and other questions in mind LIM put together a survey which was sent to a number of information professionals working in leading law firms. Their responses are outlined below.

Social entrepreneurship is presented by its supporters as an alternative to traditional charity, viewing those who would be beneficiaries on a charitable model as customers instead. In this essay, I explore the idea of social entrepreneurship as an alternative model for service-provision by thinking about the specific service of women’s refuges. I ask whether it would be possible to shift women’s refuges out of the government or charitable sectors and into the market. I also consider two speculative proposals for market-based provision.

This article maps and analyzes the presence and non-presence of four classes of fineware ceramics in Late Roman Spain. It begins by mapping each of the classes spatially, before comparing their relative frequency in 15 specially constructed regions. It shows the inverse relationship between the presence of African Red Slip Ware and its local Spanish imitators; it then posits possible routes for Gallic imports and demonstrates that eastern Mediterranean imports were primarily restricted to the coast. It then analyzes the chronological pattern of ARSW imports across five horizons, showing a decrease in the number of sites that received these African imports in the mid-5th c. (60%) and the mid-6th c. (40%), especially inland and in the Guadalquivir Valley. The late 5th and early 6th c. was a period of stability and even expansion. By the late 6th c., however, few residents of post-Roman Spain had access to Roman-style dinnerware.