Once vigorously creative in adapting to environmental deficiencies or change, Rhode Island businessmen became increasingly passive and defensive as the nineteenth century progressed. The evolution of this initially dynamic spirit and the effects of its erosion on Rhode Island's economy form a suggestive study of the interaction of businessmen and their environment over time.

As an important business figure in the development of the West, Micajah Williams' career well illustrates the interlocking character of public and private economic interests during the early nineteenth century. This article suggests comparable functions of entrepreneurs such as Williams in public-works agencies and profit-oriented firms, and argues that the state canal enterprises served to recruit and train a significant number of western business leaders.

In developing techniques and guides for many of the regular or routine activities of managers, the Systematic Management movement of the late nineteenth century performed an important service for American business. The movement's response to breakdowns in the internal co-ordination of manufacturing firms was especially significant and forms the basis for Professor Litterer's analysis of the relevant literature.

The success of Balfour, Guthrie and Company in mobilizing British and American capital for productive investment contributed importantly to the economic development of the Pacific-coast region of the United States. The changing economic patterns of that region emerge through Professor Rothstein's analysis of the firm and its managers' actions and responses, from which a broader understanding of the problems and direction of foreign investment in the American West is possible.

To facilitate fruitful conceptualization and research in business history among scholars throughout the world, the Review herewith inaugurates a series of reports by our International Correspondents. These reports will supplement the American activities regularly recorded in our pages. It is our hope that comparative studies of common problems and the exchange of data and ideas will thus be encouraged.

In the manner of the Creole tradesmen of Louisiana, whose lagniappe to their patrons is legendary, the Editors offer a similar bonus to readers of the Review. Instead of trifling presents added to a purchase, however, our lagniappe will be documents illustrative of the evolution of business enterprise. It is hoped thus to provide a wider availability of the raw materials of business history to teachers and researchers.