Theme

Business, Trade, and Economic History

Featured Items

Detail of calf-bound book shows worn spine, embossed detail, and stamped title.

Secrete resolutien van de edele groot mog...

Johan de Witt
1717
Detail of a hand colored manuscript estate plan shows a large compass rose and trees on the estate.

[Estate plan of 300 acres of land near Holetown, Barbados]

John Hapcott
1646
Printed book bound in red and green Morocco and blue silk with text in Spanish reading "Viva Agustin Primero" on the inner front cover and "emperador de Mexico" on the inner back cover.

Apuntamientos sobre la necesidad de promover el cultivo del azucar y otros frutos

1822
Detail from book cover shows flower pattern with red details.

Descripçaõ da arvore assucareira

Hipolito Jose da Costa
1800
Detail from an engraved, hand colored map shows vivid illustrations of celestial sphere with their constellations and zodiac signs around the sun. Labels in Dutch read "Taurus," "Orion," and "Saittarius."

The sea-atlas or the watter-world

Hendrick Doncker
1626-1699
Detail of an engraved, colored map of Jamaica shows Kingston Harbor outlined in a greenish blue color and St. Andrew. Other surrounding locations labeled in English.

To the King's most excellent Majesty, this map of the Island of Jamaica...

James Robertson
1804
Detail of a printed book shows text in Spanish reading "Los oficios de secretario, Contador, tesorero" and so on.

Ereccion del consulado de Montevideo

1827
Detail of a printed book shows a page with text in Dutch.

Pertinent en waarachtig verhaal van alle de handelingen en directie van Pedro Van Belle

1689

Related

Engraving showing whale fishery
Fellow's Talk

Baleação e Escravidão: Conexões Atlânticas entre New England, África e Brasil. Séculos XVIII e XIX (in Portuguese)

An eighteenth-century hand colored, engraved image of a ship unloading cargo and men from a boat, surrounded by other ships and backgrounded by a fortification, dwellings, churches, and a harbor.
Fellow's Talk

"To cease and yield the continual pretensions of the French:" The Spanish Establishment of Monte Cristi as a Free Port, 1750-1763

Image of Guaman Poma de Ayala scribe
In House

Recent Acquisition on Commercial Bureaucracy in the Spanish Empire

June 29, 2019
text and diagrams related to early printing

The Illustrated Colonial Printer: An Exhibition to Accompany The Colonial Printer by Lawrence Wroth

Winter 2012
handwriting sample with scrawls in the shape of a bird

Mind Your Business: Records of Early American Commerce at the John Carter Brown Library

Fall 2012
A view of the Strait of Magellan from the Agnese Atlas

Gateway to a New World

July-October 2019
worn, yellow-tinted pages of a 19th century almanac
In House

An almanac well-worn through regular use

July 27, 2018
photograph of dr. Christy clark-pujara at the John Carter brown library during a presentation

Watch "Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island"

May 1, 2017

See Also

Cosmography and Astrology

Ephemera