During recent years there has sprung up among the country's leading universities a demand for courses in the history of business enterprise in the United States. Americans are coming to realize that one of their country's greatest contributions to civilization has been in the field of business administration and technology. With that realization has come a desire to know something of the background and meaning of America's achievements in these fields.

In connection with some research in the field of banking history the author recently came across the William Jones Papers, acquired a few years ago by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. These records, which are of unusual interest in many respects, are the basis of the present essay.

William Jones (1760-1831), as is generally known, was a Philadelphia shipping merchant and, during the War of 1812, both Madison's Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the Treasury pro tem. In 1816 he became, for political reasons, the first president of the second Bank of the United States, but he resigned as early as January, 1819, after an inefficient and unsuccessful administration.

The chamber of commerce, which today varies widely in the range of its activities and functions, has had a long and important history. As an association of business men, its history goes back at least to Roman times; the first such association to bear the name “chamber of commerce” was that of Marseilles, established in 1599. The organization we know as the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York was not only the first association of business men for the purpose of furthering their interests to be launched in America; it also ranks among the world's oldest of such institutions, established and conducted independently of government, which exist today.

When the Constitutional Fathers decided, during that hot summer of 1787, “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Time to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries,” they sought to establish a means of rewarding men for the products of their talent and ingenuity. But, in so doing, they also laid the groundwork for many a subsequent lawsuit. Not infrequently the true originator of an idea or device could not be easily determined. Often several inventors, though starting from different points, arrived almost simultaneously at similar discoveries.