After something more than a year of existence, The Business Historical Society is practically established in its new quarters at the Baker Library, one of the fine group of buildings for the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, made possible by the gift of Mr. George F. Baker, whose name the library bears.

The budget in all its forms is attracting so much attention at the present time that we are inclined to think of it as exclusively a twentieth century institution. A small pamphlet belonging to the Business Library, however, is evidence that it had its origin at least as long ago as 1744. This very early example of a family budget, “An Estimate of the necessary Charge of a Family in the middling Station of Life, consisting of a Man, his Wife, Four Children, and One Maid-servant,” occurs in a pamphlet interesting in itself, being “An Apology for the Business of Pawn-Broking, By a Pawn-Broker.”

Four volumes of this comprehensive view of the Western Hemisphere, written in 1795 by an English dissenting minister, are among the many curious items which are continually being added to the collection of the Society.

A fifteenth century quittance, the oldest business document so far acquired by the Society, has come recently from Professor David Eugene Smith of Columbia University. Professor Smith is himself an enthusiastic collector, particularly in the line of the history of mathematics, and early Arabian literature on astronomy and mathematics.

A recent acquisition of The Business Historical Society includes, among other things, nearly a hundred old railroad documents and a few pamphlets relating to industrial companies, bridges, canals, and early roads. These comprise annual reports, mortgages, law cases, acts of incorporation, guide books, and other miscellaneous papers.

The historian of business encounters difficulties which are in some respects more baffling than those of other historians, especially if he attempts to penetrate the “dark ages” of seventy-five or a hundred years ago. The chronicler of political events has his party platforms, his speeches and private letters, his electoral votes, and the like. The literary historian has his books, pamphlets, and a flood of other material.

Revival of interest in maritime affairs is marked not only by such things as Shipping Boards and Emergency Fleet Corporations but also by the many collections of ship models, ship pictures, and other things pertaining to the sea now being made by private persons.

The moving pictures, however much critics and doctors of divinity may lament their prevalence, as corrupters of the public taste or morals, are come upon us as an established fact. The Harvard Business School recognized the state of affairs by arranging a course of lectures for the students, given by some of the most prominent men in the industry; and our Secretary has recently come upon some timely information about its origin, through Mr. A. C. Rulofson, of San Francisco, one of our members.