Reaching back into history some two hundred and sixty-five years, the archives of the Hudson's Bay Company present an exceptionally fine review of the economic and business development of Canada. The Hudson Bay Company was organized in 1670, and since that date the Company has accumulated in London thousands of letter books, accounting records, and documents pertaining to its growth.

The usual approach to business or any other subject tends to emphasize the many changes that have occurred over a period of years and to neglect the fundamental factors that have remained constant. Evidence for this assertion may be found in a thirteenth-century Norwegian work, “Speculum Regale,” or “King's Mirror,” translated into English by Laurence Marcellus Larson. The purpose of “Speculum Regale,” written in the form of a dialog between a learned father and his son, was to provide a young man, planning a career in the higher professions, with a background of necessary information. In Volume III of Professor Larson's translation, there is a dialog on the commercial profession, containing bits of advice which might easily have been given by a modern father who was sending his son into the business world.

A recent paper by Everett E. Edwards, Associate Agricultural Economist for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, reemphasizes the need for historical materials on the farm industry of the United States. In the light of Mr. Edwards' discussion and the present agitation for more records on agricultural history, it seems timely to present a resumé of material in the Baker Library on the subject.