In discussing this topic I have chosen to consider only the original records of American business concerns. To be sure, there is a wealth of printed materials, primary and secondary, which are invaluable to research in the history of business, such materials as legal records, reports of government investigations, and trade publications; the indispensable research material for the study of business administration and operation, however, is the inside record of the individual company. It is, therefore, the availability of that record which I shall deal with here.