New England, early settled within its small slice of territory, has seen its influence spread to the Pacific as a nation's frontier gradually receded westward. Blocked by its barren soil from agricultural expansion and encouraged by proximity to the sea, the section quickly turned to commerce and manufacturing. New England goods handled by New England merchants flowed south and west, and its surplus capital aided in the development of the new areas.

History — and this includes economic history — has thrived on controversy. Is it a science? Is it a scientific method? Is it a mere jumble of uncoördinated facts deadly in a textbook and amusing to a trained antiquarian? Or perhaps its utility is in substantiating our religions like “progress” and the Hegelian “march of reason”?

Two collections of the Lord shipping records preserved in Maine since the colonial era have been presented to Harvard University and the Business Historical Society by Miss Mary Patterson Lord and Charles H. Taylor. Although considerable material on shipping is now contained in Baker Library, many invaluable manuscripts are still in private possession scattered along the Atlantic Coast. It is hoped that the extent and location of these documents will be made known for research in early American water transportation.

The groundwork for a study of American investment trusts is contained in a mass of documents presented to the Business Historical Society by Edgar Higgins, investment trust consultant of New York City.

In striking contrast to Sam Johnson's erratic dictionary commented on in the last issue of the Bulletin is the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences whose second volume appeared during October (Macmillan). The book covers parts of the alphabet letters “A” and “B” — beginning with an article on alliances by Professor Sidney B. Fay of Harvard University and ending with brigandage, by Carleton Beals.

European attempts to collect and preserve records of business history have been described in an article by Dr. Charles Schmidt, archivist of the National Archives of France. It was originally published in the May 15, 1926 issue of La Revue de Paris, and has now been translated into English.

Twenty small memorandum books, one kept in 1859, nine kept in the 60's, and ten kept in the 70's, contain the shrewd observations of a Yankee peddler on events which seemed important to him or merely interested him during his lifetime. On the flyleaf of the 1859 book appears the name of Morillo Noyes of Burlington, Vermont, and the notation “No. 9” on the book suggests that it was one of a series begun earlier. The books kept in the 60's are numbered, but he later abandoned the practice of numbering them, so that it only remains clear that the collection is fragmentary.

Among the heterogeneous mass of Baldwin engineering papers which have just arrived in Baker Library — and will be discussed in the next issue of the Bulletin — there is a copy of a Canadian bill which was introduced in 1859. It describes itself as “An Act for the Reform and Regulation of Female Apparel, and to amend and reform the Customs relating to Crinoline and other Artificial Superfluities and the Profusion thereof,” with powers, fines, forfeitures and penalties to be exercised for enforcement.