This month is in a sense an anniversary season for The Business Historical Society, for although it was founded in October, 1925, it was not until the following June that it became an active organization. The field which the Society entered four years ago was almost unknown, and since that time its work in collecting and organizing material, and in enlisting the interest of the community has already given business history a definite place among subjects for scholarly study and research.

“Manila lies between the richest countries in the East and West Indies. One can find here the silver of Peru and New Spain, diamonds from Golconda, topaz, sapphires and cinnamon from Ceylon, pepper from Java, cloves and nutmeg from Molucca, rubies and camphor from Borneo, pearls and costly carpets from Persia, benzoin, rubber and ivories from Camboja, musk from Lequios, silks and cotton goods from Bengal, porcelain and fabrics and other luxuries from China.” So runs an eighteenth-century description of the wealth carried by the yearly treasure ship which sailed between Acapulco, in Mexico, and Manila.

Several years ago the Business Historical Society received as a gift a copy of the oldest printed treatise on accountancy written by the Franciscan friar, Lucas Pacioli, and published in Venice in 1494. The system of bookkeeping by double entry which Pacioli described very clearly and accurately, was already in use in northern Italy more than a century and a half before the friar composed his famous treatise.

It has proved to be a difficult task to decipher the Medici records, particularly the account books. Three articles of agreement, various letters, and the oldest account book have been transcribed and translated. These materials throw not a little light on the trade of Florence with the Levant. It is expected that the work already begun by Dr. Gertrude Richards will be finished during the coming academic year.

A Northern man's impression of Richmond and Petersburg, only two months after the surrender of Lee, is preserved in a letter to Frances Stabler, daughter of James P. Stabler, who was Superintendent of Construction on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1831 and '32. The friend who is writing begins with a eulogy on Lincoln, whose assassination is the news of the hour, and then continues with an account of a trip to Richmond which he had just made with his father and someone he refers to as “Brother Eddy,” whether in the literal or the Quaker sense is not clear.

A very valuable collection of business papers of the Barberini and Sciarra-Colonna families of Rome was acquired by the Society last year through the generosity of Mr. Edward J. Frost of Boston. Among the documents is a huge ledger relating to the administration of Monte Libretto, a village in the Sabine Hills, which the Barberini owned for more than a century. A photograph of this volume appeared in an earlier Bulletin. The entries in the ledger are for the closing years of the eighteenth century.