Theme

Business, Trade, and Economic History

Featured Items

Detail from book cover shows flower pattern with red details.

Descripçaõ da arvore assucareira

Hipolito Jose da Costa
1800
Printed document shows details of a sugar plantation with manuscript notes.

Particulars of two valuable sugar plantations, St. Kitts . . .

Brettell, Rupert Street, Haymarket
1828
Detail of a printed book shows a page with text in French and an illustration on the opposite page.

Code Noir: ou Recueil d’edits, déclarations et arrets concernant les Esclaves Nègres de l’Amérique

1743
Detail of a printed book shows a circular illustration and text in Spanish.

Suma de geographia...

Martin Fernandez de Enciso
1546
Detail of engraved, hand colored print of Quebec City shows fortifications, churches and cathedral, statehouse, ships, and dwellings. Also includes title reading "Quebec, the Capital of New France" and other text in English.

Quebec: The Capital of New France

Thomas Johnston
1759
stained title page of a printed pamphlet with a blue cover

Calendrier pour l’année 1807

1806-1807
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 an engraved map shows mountainous topography and text in Italian.

Descrittione di tutto il Peru

Paulo di Forlani
circa 1564-1572

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

Imaginary Geographies