The Exchange

The European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH) and GREThA ( Groupe de Recherche en Économie Théorique et Appliquée) at the University of Bordeaux will co-sponsor the third EABH Workshop for Young Scholars, to be held in Bordeaux in spring 2012. The topic will be "Public Policies and the Direction of Financial Flows." The call for papers states: Many times in history, public authorities have decided to pursue economic policies (mainly development policies) by directing the financial flows of the economy. The central idea of the workshop is to study this phenomenon using a comparative approach. The basic question to be addressed is therefore: Why and how did non-market forces (states, local authorities, international authorities, technical bodies) manage to direct financial flows so as to achieve specific goals, mainly related to economic development? . . . Such management of financial flows may be achieved with a great variety of instruments, from law...

The 2012 conference of the Economic History Society will be held March 30-April 1 at St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford. According to the call for papers , The program committee welcomes proposals on all aspects of economic and social history covering a wide range of periods and countries and, particularly, papers of an interdisciplinary nature. Preference may be given to scholars who did not present a paper at the previous year's conference. Those currently studying for, or who have recently completed, a PhD should submit a proposal to the  New Researcher session. The committee invites proposals for individual papers, as well as for entire sessions (three speakers [optimum], 1.5 hours duration; no more than four papers will be accepted for any one session).  Session entries should include proposals and synopses for each paper in the session, although the committee reserves the right to determine which papers will be presented in the session if it is a...

The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) has a Web exhibit of interest, entitled "Big Business: Food Production, Processing, and Distribution in the North, 1850-1900." The introduction explains, " This online exhibition features lithographs, chromolithographs, trade catalogues, trade cards, and product labels from the American Antiquarian Society’s collection that help shed light on major changes in the way Americans in the North produced and sold their food in the second half of the nineteenth century. " The exhibit categorizes materials under Farming, Seed Catalogues, Manufacturing, Trade Cards, Shopping, and Food Labels. Each section features descriptive text and images that illustrate some aspect of the process of getting food from farm to table in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The Economic and Business Historical Society (EBHS) will hold its next annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 26-28, 2012. Paper and panel proposals on any aspect of business or economic history are now being accepted. Proposals should include: an abstract of no more than 500 words a brief curriculum vita postal and email addresses telephone and fax numbers Panel proposals should also suggest a title and a panel chair. Submissions are welcome from graduate students and non-academic affiliates.    Proposals may be submitted online using the form at the EBHS site , via email to fred.gates@swosu.edu , or via mail to: Frederick Gates, 2012 EBHS Program Chair, Department of Social Sciences, SCI 101-A, Southwest Oklahoma State University, 100 Campus Drive, Weatherford, OK 73096. The deadline for submission of proposals is January 15, 2012 .

The Journal of Historical Research in Marketing (JHRM) has issued a call for papers for a special issue on "Remembering Female Contributors to Marketing Theory, Thought, and Practice," to appear in August 2013. Guest editors for this issue will be Mark Tadajewski, University of Strathclyde, and Pauline Maclaran, Royal Holloway, University of London. For submission procedures and suggested topics of interest, please see the full call for papers . The submission deadline is April 30, 2012 .

The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and Study of Business Enterprise , co-directed by Louis Galambos and Steve Hanke, is co-sponsor with the Center for Financial Stability , headed by Lawrence Goodman, of a new repository of historical financial data. Historical Financial Statistics went online a year ago, with the goal of providing "a source of comprehensive, authoritative, easy-to-use macroeconomic data stretching back several centuries. [The] target range of coverage is from 1492 to the present, with special emphasis on the years before 1950." The Johns Hopkins page further explains: The Historical Financial Statistics Project is designed to bring long-term perspective to current financial research, policy, and practice. The financial data that are being compiled and digitized by Dr. Kurt Schuler from the Center, and Dr. Steve Hanke and Nicholas Krus from the Institute, cover over 40 countries and include data from the 10th century...

The 17th Conference on Accounting and Management History will be held in Toulouse, France, March 22-23, 2012. The meeting is co-sponsored by the Association Francophone de Comptabilité (AFC), the Centre de Recherche en Management (CRM) at the University of Toulouse 1 Capitole, the Laboratoire Gestion et Cognition (LGC) at the University of Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, and the Management Research Centre-ESC Toulouse . The theme is "Images and Representations," intended to cover both the use of images and representations in accounting and management and the depiction of those fields in such media. Proposals that do not fit within this theme, but that cover some aspect of accounting and management in historical perspective, are also welcome. The deadline for submission is November 15, 2011 . Please note that full papers (in French or in English) and two abstracts (one in French and one in English) must be submitted in electronic form to jhcm2012@gmail.com . For complete informa...

The European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH) and the National Bank of Romania are co-sponsoring a conference, to be held 7-9 June, 2012, in Bucharest, on "Public Policies and the Direction of Financial Flows." The call for papers states: Many times in history, public authorities have decided to pursue economic policies (mainly development policies) by directing the financial flows of the economy. The central idea of the conference is to study this phenomenon using a comparative approach. The basic question to be addressed is therefore: Why and how did non-market forces (states, local authorities, international authorities, technical bodies) manage to direct financial flows so as to achieve specific goals, mainly related to economic development? The full announcement is available here . Proposals should be sent via email to info@bankinghistory.de by September 19, 2011 .

The 2011 meeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, on November 3-6. The preliminary program has now been posted on the meeting website , along with information about lodging, travel, and the Cleveland area. Registration information is also available, as well as details about tours and meals; the deadline for early registration is October 1, 2011 .    This year's SHOT meeting will be co-located with those of the History of Science Society and the Society for the Social Studies of Science . To facilitate interaction with colleagues in the other societies, there will be a three-society plenary and reception Thursday night and a joint book exhibit at the Renaissance Hotel where HSS is meeting.

SHEAR (Society for Historians of the Early American Republic) is meeting this week in  Philadelphia (July 14-17). The program includes several sessions of interest to business and economic historians of the early modern period. For example: Session 6. Laboring Others Aaron Marrs, chair and commentator Jay M. Perry: Irish Immigrant Secret Societies and Building of Indiana Canals Darla Thompson: Engineering Louisiana: Working Slaves on the Public Works Session 9. Materialism and Anti-Materialism in the Economic Development of New York City Rohit Thomas Aggarwala, chair and commentator Brian P. Murphy: Incorporation: Banking on the Future by Banking in the City, 1784–1792 Clifton Hood: Culture and Enterprise: The Roots of New York City’s Rise to Dominance James Lundberg: "Where Labor is Loathed and Luxury Coveted": Greeley in the Great Emporium, 1831–1860 Session 11. Economic Change and the War of 1812 Cathy Matson, chair and commentator Colleen F. Rafferty: ...

At its annual meeting in January, the American Historical Association (AHA) voted to accept the application of the Business History Conference to become an affiliate member of the AHA. We're happy to announce that the BHC affiliate page on the AHA site is now active. As the AHA affiliation application page explains: Currently, over one hundred different historical organizations are affiliated with the AHA. These affiliates are a diverse group that includes the American Studies Association, the History of Science Society, the North American Conference on British Studies, and the World History Association, to name just a few. The Association's goal in establishing this broad network of organizations is to promote collaboration and communication across the wide history community. Affiliate status confers certain benefits, including the opportunity to publish organization news and announcements in AHA Perspectives . BHC members Pamela Laird and Michele Alacevich col...

The World Bank has always collected huge amounts of data, some of which has been available through  fee-based subscription. Beginning in July 2010, the Bank launched an Open Data site , making—so far—7,000 of its datasets accessible to anyone free of charge. The Bank's original announcement of the policy change and a first-year recap of the program can be found on its website.    A Data Catalog provides "a listing of available World Bank datasets, including databases, pre-formatted tables, and reports." One can find general information sorted by country, topic, or economic indicator. (It should be noted that the project is ongoing, and a large amount of World Bank data and research remains to be added.) Health expenditure per capita (current US$) Data from World Bank In addition the Bank has released over 80,000 historical documents and reports. There is also a Microdata Library , which contains materials created by other contributing agencies as well as by the Wor...

As many in the business history community will have noted, IBM (International Business Machines) turned 100 last month (June 16, to be precise, marking the date that the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was founded). The company marked the occasion with  its own centennial website , featuring films, images, and essays about IBM's past and future. A great deal of other material about the history of the company can be found on the IBM Archives website, including interviews with Tom Watson, Sr. and Jr.    In addition, several newspaper and magazine columnists took note of the event: The New York Times published "Lessons in Longevity from IBM" The Economist published a lengthy substantive piece, "1100100 and Counting" Biztech2 imagined the world without IBM The Atlantic provided a "Heavily Illustrated Timeline" Forbes featured an interview with current CEO Sam Palmisano The WSJ published "100 Years of 'Think' " and a ...

Hagley Museum and Library Executive Director Geoff Halfpenny has announced that Erik P. Rau will assume duties as Hagley's Director of Library Services on July 1, 2011. Dr. Rau comes to Hagley from Drexel University, where he was an assistant professor in the Department of History and Politics.    According to Mr. Halfpenny, “As a historian of technology, information, and organizations, Dr. Rau brings to Hagley a keen understanding of the issues now facing independent research libraries and the insight to guide the Hagley Library into the future.”    Dr. Rau serves on the board as vice chairperson of the Delaware Humanities Council and is project director of their Delaware Industrial History Initiative , a digital humanities program of the Delaware Humanities Forum. The initiative includes Hagley’s “Industrial Brandywine” project. He earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in the Department of History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylva...