The Exchange

The John Carter Brown Library seeks proposals for a conference entitled “Sugar and Beyond,” to be held on October 25-26, 2013, in conjunction with a Fall 2013 JCBL exhibition on sugar in the early modern period. The call states, The centrality of sugar to the development of the Atlantic world is now well known. Sugar was the ‘green gold’ that planters across the Americas staked their fortunes on, and it was the commodity that became linked in bittersweet fashion to the rise of the Atlantic slave trade. Producing unprecedented quantities of sugar through their enforced labor, Africans on plantations helped transform life not only in the colonies but also in Europe, where consumers incorporated the luxury commodity into their everyday rituals and routines. “Sugar and Beyond” seeks to evaluate the current state of scholarship on sugar, as well as to move beyond it by considering related or alternative consumer cultures and economies. . . . This conference aims to serve as an occasio

The Journal for Historical Research in Marketing (JHRM) has issued a call for papers for a special issue on "Marketing and Consumption History in Ireland," to be edited by Bernadette Whelan. The call for papers states: Covering the period from the early modern to modern periods, several overarching themes are planned including the history of consumption, the development of consumer identities–the role of gender, age, politics, the history of marketing in Ireland, the marketing of Ireland in an international historical context, historical influences of international marketing and advertising strategies on the Irish advertising industry, the role of advertising in Irish commerce, the evolution of the advertising industry in Ireland and the role of the media. . . . specific topics might include but are not limited to historical perspectives on Ireland in a single country case-study or comparative approach. The submission deadline is June 30, 2013 . For more about

As the new academic year begins, we again offer a round-up of ongoing workshops, forums, and discussion groups in business and economic history. Please check each website for more detailed information; some groups, particularly those in non-US universities, may not yet have posted Fall 2012 information. In addition to their value for those able to participate directly, these groups often maintain mailing lists and sometimes make speakers' papers freely available.  Business History Forum , Columbia University Business History Seminar , Harvard Business School Business History Unit Seminars, LSE Business History @ Erasmus Seminars Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society (Hagley) Research Seminars Centre for Macroeconomics and the Historical Record (MEHR), University of Copenhagen Columbia University Seminar in Economic History CoreSeminar in Economic and Social History , University of Cambridge Economic and Social History of the Premodern World , I

The program for the 2013 meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA), which will be held January 3-6 in New Orleans, Louisiana, has now been posted. The Business History Conference, an affiliated society of the AHA, is sponsoring two sessions: Session 24 , "Skyscraper Index, Hemline Index, Champagne, Nail Polish, and the Dow Jones," chaired by Daniel Levinson Wilk; and Session 28 (co-sponsored with the German Historical Institute and the Labor and Working-Class History Association), "Ethnic Entrepreneurship in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans," featuring a paper by Juliet E. K. Walker.    Other sessions of direct interest include Session 15 : "Trash and Treasure: The Significance of Used Goods in America, 1880–1950," chaired by Susan Strasser; Session 47 : "God and Mammon: The Politics of Religion and Commerce in Mid-Twentieth-Century America" Session 117 : "Global Consumer Revolutions: Iroquoia, Japan, and South Africa in th

The European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH) e.V., in cooperation with the National Bank of Poland, the Kronenberg Foundation, and the National Bank of Poland Foundation, will hold its next annual meeting on June 6-8, 2013, in Warsaw, Poland. The theme will be "Foreign Financial Institutions and National Financial Systems." The call for papers states: Modern and contemporary financial institutions developed in a world of deep and increasing interconnection among national economies leading to what is now known as globalisation. Thus it comes as no surprise that they tended to cross borders since the early days of the building of the contemporary world economy. Correspondents, branches and affiliates played their roles as representatives or agents of foreign financial institutions for business, sometimes following the paths opened by trade and investment flows, sometimes following the attraction of the main financial centres of the world economy. Of co

"Mind Your Business: Records of Early American Commerce at the John Carter Library" has just launched; the physical exhibit will run from September through December 2012, and there is also a rich accompanying website. As the Introduction explains: This exhibition explores what it took to “mind” one’s business in the 18th and early 19th centuries. During that period, literacy and numeracy became critical skills for merchants and traders, and sophisticated methods of recording and analyzing transactions and investments enabled companies to more efficiently strategize their use of capital. Beyond being a boon to historical research, these accumulations of paper generated by clerks, bookkeepers and accountants did, indeed, make money. The exhibit was prepared by Kim Nusco, Reference and Manuscript Librarian, John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. The Web version contains well-illustrated and narrated sections on "Forming the Man of Business,&quo

The British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS) will hold its annual conference on January 3-5, 2013, at St. Hugh's College, Oxford. The theme of the meeting will be "Credit, Money, and the Market." Proposals are invited for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe, North America, and the wider world. Proposals are invited for full panels of three or four papers, for roundtable sessions of up to five speakers, for individual papers, and for ‘alternative format’ sessions. While proposals on all eighteenth-century topics are welcome, organizers would particularly welcome proposals for panels and papers that address eighteenth-century understandings of credit, money, and the market, and their workings and effects, broadly conceived, throughout the long eighteenth century, at all levels of society, and in any part of the world. These might include, but will not be confi

The 2012 edition of BEH On-Line , a series devoted to edited essays from the Business History Conference annual meetings, is complete. Readers may freely access all of the dozen essays in this issue, as well as any of the 217 previous essays.  A cumulative author index is available. Each year's issue also includes the program and paper abstracts from that year's meeting.  BEH On-Line is the successor publication of the BHC's Business and Economic History , print collections of papers from the annual meetings.  The complete run of Business and Economic History , 1962-1999, can be accessed from the BHC website, and includes a cumulative index as well.

The Hagley Museum and Library will hold a half-day conference on Friday, November 2, called "Talking Business: Oral History and the History of Enterprises." The program is as follows: 1:00-1:45: Keynote Address Robert Perks (British Library), “Corporate and Business Oral History: The Opportunities and Challenges” 1:45-3:30: Banking, Science, Entrepreneurship William Becker (George Washington University), “Oral History and the World Bank” David Caruso (Chemical Heritage Foundation), “Documenting Science-Based Businesses” Sally Hughes (University of California, Berkeley Regional Oral History Office), “Venture Capitalists” 3:45-5:00: Music and Food Mary Marshall Clark (Columbia University Oral History Office) “The Story of a Culture Business: The Apollo Theater Oral History Project” Amy C. Evans (Southern Foodways Alliance), “The Stories behind the Making of Southern Food” 5:00: Closing Address Doug Boyd (Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of K

The Association of Business Historians (ABH) will hold its next annual meeting on June 28-29, 2013, at the University of Central Lancashire, cohosted by the Lancashire Business School and the Lancashire Institute for Economic and Business Research. The theme for the meeting will be "Business History in the 21st Century." The ABH has issued a call for papers , welcoming innovative approaches to conducting business history in the new millennium. The conference committee invites proposals for individual papers or complete 90-minute sessions. Each individual paper proposal should include a short abstract and a brief CV of the presenter. Complete session proposals should include a cover letter with a session title and a description or rationale for the session, as well as individual paper abstracts and presenter CVs. As always, the ABH warmly welcomes proposals for research papers outside the stated conference theme.    Questions and proposals should be directed to Mitch Larso

Copenhagen Business School invites applications for a vacant associate/assistant professorship in history at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy . The position announcement states: The overall aim of the department is to undertake critical investigations of topics relevant to an understanding of business in society. The successful applicant will be positioned in the Business History group. The Business History group currently consists of two full professors, six associate professors and four Ph.D. students. A focus area in the forthcoming years will be entrepreneurship. It is the ambition of the group to enhance its position as an international oriented experimenting and creative research environment that integrates new fields, approaches and methods in research and teaching in the field of Business History. We therefore welcome applicants with background in history, economic history, history of technology, historical and economic sociology ethnographi

The thirteenth annual conference of the Library Company's Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES) will be held October 24-25, 2013. Proposals for papers on the theme "Ligaments of Colonial Economies" are invited. The call for papers asks,     "How did ordinary colonial people accomplish the daily buying and selling, producing and exchanging, that sustained their households? How did colonial traders put a ship of goods together, protect goods moving into foreign Atlantic empires, and communicate effectively with strangers during the early modern era? What kinds of skills and resources were necessary for ordinary colonists who circulated in local market places, or prosperous merchants who visited distant ports? This conference will explore the practical connections and mutual obligations between individuals in the early modern economies of local places and across the boundaries of frontiers and empires. Whether a widow tavern keeper in Montreal, or