Theme

Business, Trade, and Economic History

Featured Items

Detail of an engraved map shows mountainous topography and text in Italian.

Descrittione di tutto il Peru

Paulo di Forlani
circa 1564-1572
Detail from book cover shows dark brown binding with a missing piece in the front and worn sides.

The Secretary's guide, or, Young mans companion

William Bradford
1728
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 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 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
Detail of a printed book shows a circular illustration and text in Spanish.

Suma de geographia...

Martin Fernandez de Enciso
1546
Detail of a hand-colored manuscript map shows small depth markers, forest, and a label "Nuevitas" and other surrounding landmarks.

Plano del Puerto de Nuevitas en la Costa Norte de la Isla de Cuba levantado para mejor conocimiento por orden del Dto. Maritimo

circa 1828
Detail of a printed book shows a full-page illustration on the frontispiece showing a child carrying the world on their shoulders.

Atlas des Enfans, ou nouvelle methode pour apprendre la geographie,...

1784

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

Map

Maritime History