Showing 285 results

Manuscript notebook containing details of supply granted by Parliament for 1740, with the votes from 17 Nov 1739 to 10 Mar 1740 authorising it. Includes details of the resolutions of the Ways and Means Committees from 26 Nov 1739 to 11 Mar 1740.

Manuscript volume containing a paper entitled 'A state of the trade to Sweden before and since the Prohibition', presented to the House of Commons as a petition for the relaxation of restrictions on trade with Sweden, 1717-1718.

Records, 1869-1967, of John Swire & Sons Ltd, comprising the bulk of known surviving material stored in the London Office, covering the development of the firm from about 1870 to 1947, and including series of correspondence coming in and out of the London Office; legal material including original deeds and leases; accounts; organisation papers; and photographs. The importance of the collection lies in the comprehensiveness of the nineteenth and twentieth century correspondence in illustrating the development of the firm and its subsidiaries from the London side where policies were decided, and from the Eastern side where they were implemented. It also gives a good picture of leading figures and firms involved in the Far Eastern trade at that time such as Jardine, Matheson & Company, the China Merchants Company and Holt's, and reveals aspects of Chinese trade and British business philosophy at the end of the Victorian era.

Records of T Wiggin and Company, merchants, comprising ledgers 1858-74; waste books 1864-72; out-letter book 1865; correspondence and accounts 1865-72.

Tariff Commission reports and memoranda; agendas and minutes for meetings of the Commission and its committees; evidence presented by witnesses; questionnaires distributed to the industrial and agricultural sectors; indices to the reports and evidence; correspondence received by the Commission; unpublished reports and papers; notes, drafts, rough papers, statistics and lectures arising from the Reports and investigations of the Commission and used as reference material; financial and legal papers; published material other than that produced by the Commission, including books and articles by W A S Hewins; and minute books and financial papers of the Tariff Reform League.

Mainly letters written and received between 1770 and 1835 by Simon Taylor, his family and heirs, and his friends, agents and business partners, relating to their Jamaican estates and business interests. Over a quarter are contained in Simon Taylor's letterbooks. Though the majority of the correspondence consists of letters either to or from Simon Taylor up to his death in 1813, there is also correspondence of other family members, like his brother Sir John Taylor (1741-1786) and his widow Lady Elizabeth Haughton Taylor (1758-182[?2]), their son and his heir Sir Simon Richard Brissett Taylor, and his cousin and business partner Robert Taylor. Subject matter ranges from the domestic (illness, family quarrels, disinheritance, bigamy) to business (slaves, sugar, trade and shipping, the effects of hurricanes, the introduction of a steam engine on an estate), to the Maroon and French wars and the politics of Abolition. The collection also includes correspondence of George Watson Taylor, 1815-1819, and detailed reports on the estates made for Anna Susannah Watson Taylor in 1835. Genealogical tables for the Taylor, Haughton, Brissett and Hibbert families have been added to the collection at a later date.

This is a collection of records of various companies involved in the trading of Ceylon [now Sri Lanka] and Indian teas. It consists of import registers for an un-named company, auction catalogues for private trade teas and photographs of tea plantations, possibly in Ceylon, and the offices and staff of R.M. Holborn and Sons Limited, tea and coffee merchants.

Holograph drafts of speeches, 1765-1784, to be made in the House of Commons (but apparently not delivered) on subjects including American internal taxation, trade with Canada, the window tax and defence of the current administration.

Legal and business papers of Thomas Vyse and Sons, merchants.

Records of Thorne and Company Limited, merchants, including letter books; financial records; partnership deeds; share certificates; insurance policies and papers relating to land leased by the company in Shanghai.

Manuscript volume containing transcripts of two tracts [by Sir Thomas Culpeper], [1673], mainly concerning banking and usury, entitled 'A familiar conference between three friends, Civis, Rusticus and Veridicus, concerning the late practice of the bankers and our present rate of interest for money', and 'The familiar conference continued between three friends concerning the present deadnesse of our markets'. These works were attributed to Culpeper by Halkett and Laing.

Manuscript volume containing a catalogue of books, pamphlets, business papers and parliamentary papers relating to the East India Company, [1813-1819], dating from the seventeenth century to 1813. There are additions in pencil throughout, the latest of which is dated 1819.

Information regarding the value of the trade of Britain and Ireland, 1698-1765.

Manuscript volume containing the second part of a treatise on English trade and commerce attributed to Sir William Sanderson, 1629, entitled 'A treatise of state marchant (merchant) and of marchandizing state, consisting of commerce, trade and traffique, and upheld by the King's Royal Exchangers Office', with a dedicatory epistle to King James I.

Manuscript volume containing a treatise entitled 'The means of a most ample increase of the wealth and strength of England in a few years', 1706, including sections concerning the economic history of England, government regulation of trade and the East India Company. Includes a dedicatory epistle to Queen Anne.

Manuscript copy of Reflections on the importation of bar-iron, from our own colonies of North-America, printed in 1757, possibly by Joseph Sykes, in response to The case of the importation of bar-iron (1756), written by the Reverend Josiah Tucker on behalf of the Iron Manufacturers of Great Britain. The volume also includes copies of 2 letters, of 29 April 1765, from Joseph Sykes in Hull to the Master Cutler [Sheffield], and of 1 May 1765 from David Barclay & Sons, London, linen merchants, to Mr [William] Dixon [in Sheffield], both concerning the debate on the import of American as opposed to Swedish iron and proposals for additional duty upon Swedish iron before the Board of Trade.The above items are bound with a printed version of The case of the importation of bar-iron (1756), by Josiah Tucker.

Copy of a treatise by Sir Patience Ward entitled 'Scheme of the trade as it is at present carried on between England and France in the commodities of the native product and manufacture of each country, calculated as exactly as possible in obedience to the command of the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for the treaty of commerce with France...28th November 1674'. Tables included in the manuscript list quantities and prices of commodities exported to France and imported from there, and a comparison of these figures should enable their lordships...'easily [to] discerne ye great prejudice ye English nation hath sustained and the great advantage ye French have and doe dayly make by holding this treaty in suspense...'.

Manuscript volume containing 18th century transcripts of two treatises relating to European trade, 1697 and 1699, namely a treatise on the trade and navigation of the Dutch, 1699, written in Amsterdam and ascribed in a different hand to Camille Tallard, Marquis de la Baune-d'Hoston; and a historical treatise on European trade in Africa, Asia and America, 1697, ascribed in a different hand to Claude Le Blanc, who produced it for Louis, Duc de Bourgogne.

Records of East India and general merchants Tribble, Pearson and Company. The records comprise partnership and tenancy agreements 1914-1957, financial records 1940-72, records of sales and purchases, including correspondence and ledgers, 1929-72, correspondence regarding finance and insurance 1933-70, correspondence with customers 1941-1975, records relating to trade, including papers regarding trademarks, specification books of products and a trade association membership certificate, 1900-1970, correspondence regarding the destruction of the company office 1941-1943, advertising material c 1942 and c 1950, cable books, telegraphic code book and postage book 1897-1959.

The collection also includes a register of members of the International Produce Exchange (1926) Limited 1926-1927 and 1955-1956; its connection with the firm is unknown.

Manuscript volume containing a collection of documents relating to a proposal for a Union between England and Scotland, 1604, namely 'Articles agreed by the Commissioners to be propounded to the parliaments of both kingdomes at the next sessions', 6 Dec 1604; 'Objections against the change of the name or stile of England and Scotland into the name or stile of Great Brittayne, to be moved and debated in the conference between Lords and Commons, and to that end, by the comitties of the House of Commons, collected, reviewed and reduced to order for their better instruction', [1604]; 'The arguments used by the merchants in nother house of Parliament against the Union in Commerce', initialled R.C.B., [1604]; 'An Act authorizing certain commissioners of this realm to treate with commissioners reciproque of Scotland, tuching the weale of both realmes', [1604]; a copy of the King's letter to the House of Commons relating to the proposed Union, 2 May 1604; tract beginning 'The dangers to be considered in this proposition of free commerce', [1604]; extracts from chronicles and charters illustrating Anglo-Scottish relations and royal style of rulers of England from A.D. 100 to 1460, [1604]; extracts from charters of King Edgar relating to the foundation of Worcester Cathedral dating 964, and Ely Cathedral [dating 973], giving the royal style (both are quoted as authorities for the use of the word Britain, [1604].

Manuscript volume containing [transcripts of] papers relating to the union of England and Scotland, 1707, including the proceedings of the Commissioners of both kingdoms concerning freedom and intercourse of trade between England and Scotland in 1667 and 1668; a copy of the articles of the intended union between England and Scotland in 1604.

Papers of Van Ommeren (London) Limited, comprising Charter Party guard books, 1940 to 1944, 1949 to 1952, 1955 to 1965; a commission book, 1965 to 1969, and a brokerage book, 1968.

Papers of Wallace Brothers and Company Limited, East India Merchants, bankers and London agents, later known as Wallace Brothers and Company (Holdings) Limited. Most of the records emanate from the core business of the Wallace Brothers partnership and its successors; but some emanate from the business of associated or subsidiary companies which were based in London. The latter include the records of Wyer and Hawke, London agents of Bombay Company Limited, who operated from the London office of Wallace Brothers between 1912 and 1968.

The archive does not hold the papers of Wallace Brothers' associated or subsidiary companies based overseas. No lists of the papers of these companies are held, and their whereabouts and accessibility are unknown. However the archives transferred to Guildhall from Wallace Brothers' London office include a considerable amount of information about the activities of many of these companies, including numerous copy and original documents sent to London by the companies concerned.

Besides papers created or received in the course of business, the Wallace Brothers archives include some memoirs of partners, directors or members of staff, and notes of research into the history of Wallace Brothers and its associates and subsidiaries.

The business papers date from 1862 to 1989, and relate to all aspects of Wallace Brothers' operations, although few banking records are held, and only formal business records survive from the period ca. 1966-1989.

Access is subject to a 45-year closure period (70 years in the case of personnel records). Annual reports and other published documents are not subject to closure.

The associated and subsidiary companies whose activities are known to be reflected in the Wallace Brothers archives are (provisionally) listed below, in the order in which the records will be arranged in the catalogue:

• Arrancan Company Limited, Burma rice merchants;
  • Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Limited;
  • subsidiaries and associaties of Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Limited: Amalgamated Saw Mills Limited, Anamallais Ropeway Company Limited, Bombay Burmah Plantations Limited, East India Rubber Corporation Limited;
  • subsidiaries and associates of East India Rubber Corporation Limited (Bombay-Java Trading Company, Indo-Java Rubber Planting and Trading Company Limited), Joint Timber Company Limited, Thailand, North Borneo Timbers Limited;
  • subsidiaries and associates of North Borneo Timbers Limited (Wallace Bay Limited), Rangoon Mining Company, Sumatra Petroleum Company, Thai Tapioca Limited;
  • Bombay Company Limited;
  • subsidiaries and associates of Bombay Company Limited: BCL Limited, BMD Agency Limited, Dymes and Company, cotton mill owners and oilseed processors, Madras, Karachi Company Limited (formerly the Karachi branch of Bombay Company Limited; established as a separate company in 1952), Lakhshmi Cotton Manufacturing Company, Sholapur, India, Wyer and Hawke, London agents of Bombay Company Limited;
  • Chrestian and Company, mica producers, India;
  • DP Investments Limited;
  • subsidiaries and associates of DP Investments Limited: Development Participations Limited;
  • Glazebrook, Steel and Company Limited, textile manufacturers, Manchester;
  • Hermes Securities Limited;
  • subsidiaries and associates of Hermes Securities Limited: Hermes Credit Corporation Limited;
  • Kerosene Oil Company Limited;
  • Leslie and Anderson Limited;
  • Malaysian Company Limited;
  • Tannadine Company Limited, Sumatra;
  • Wallace and Adam Limited, agricultural equipment importers, Kenya;
  • subsidiaries and associates of Wallace and Adam Limited: Kiu Estate Limited, Ol Pejeta Ranching Company Limited, Pyrita Limited;
  • Wallace and Company, Bombay;
  • Wallace Brothers Developments Limited;
  • Wallace Brothers Finance Limited;
  • Wallace Brothers Nominees Limited;
  • Wallace Evans and Company Limited (known as Wallace Brothers Commodities Limited from 1967).

Records of Wallace Brothers concerning Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Limited, including memorandum and articles of association; board minutes; annual reports and accounts; agreements; papers relating to shareholders; correspondence; financial records; and papers relating to branches in Rangoon, Moulmein, Bangkok and Borneo.

Board of Trade papers mainly connected with labour exchanges, national insurance, overseas trade and war time administration.

Records of Westways Greetings including sale catalogues and unused greeting cards published by Lip Productions Limited, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America and imported by Westways Greetings for sale in the United Kingdom. The cards depict gay and Christmas themes mainly marketed to the gay and lesbian community. Some of the cards depict Black people / people of African descent and other ethnic origin.

No administrative records of the firm are known to survive.

This collection was catalogued by Ros Hamner, volunteer, as part of Speakout London project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, supervised by Sally Bevan and Richard Wiltshire, Senior Archivists.

Records of Whiffen and Son Ltd, manufacturing chemists, 1752-1972, including history of the company; articles of partnership and other contracts and agreements; legal documents relating to property; correspondence; circulars; financial accounts; papers relating to shares and shareholders; stock records; newspaper cuttings; photographs; staff wages books and pensions papers; records relating to staff associations and sports clubs including minute books; reports on chemical manufacture, laboratory notebooks and chemical analyses; papers relating to sales; papers relating to imports and foreign suppliers; advertisements; registers of product labels; samples of packaging; rules, regulations and legislation regarding factories and safety measures; papers regarding the Second World War including war damage to factories and papers relating to staff on active duty.

Also records of Saint Amand Manufacturing Company Limited including ledgers, letter books and journals.

Records of Whitbread and Company Limited, brewers, relating to advertising, memorabilia and personal records, including substantial albums and guard books with Whitbread and Company advertising and labelling from 1935 through to 1980, newscuttings book of adverts commissioned (1921-1996), photographs of premises (1930-1979) and correspondence relating to advertising campaigns. Also included are published histories of the Company from both the nineteenth and twentieth century. This collection also includes the Whitbread Archivist's research files on public houses in the London area, subsidary companies and individuals associated with Whitbread and Company.

Records of Whitbread International Limited, a subsidiary company of Whibread and Company Limited, brewers. Records include ledgers detailing Whitbread exports and ship stocks from the 1920s through to the 1970s along with advertising from the launch of various Whitbread products abroad most notably that of Mackeson Stout and Whitbread Premium Draught Beer.

William MacKinnon and Company records comprise: partnership deeds, 1919-25 (Ms 27849); and copy minute of an agreement, 1885 (Ms 27850).

Letters and accounts, mostly concerned with the cloth and clothing trade, between 1755 and 1763. The material was created by both Benjamin Wilson and Jonathan Dickinson, who appear to have been business partners.

Collection of manuscripts relating to the wine trade, comprising:

1. Indictment made by Edmond Trimer at the Middlesex Quarter Sessions held at Hicks Hall, 7 Jul 1658, to the effect that George Taylor, victualler of South Mimms, Middlesex, had sold 60 pints of wine (French, white, and Spanish sack) since 7 Aug 1657, contrary to the Act. Taylor had forfeited £600, and was to appear in court to answer the charge. Trimer claimed half the fine.
2. Letter from John Hunter, British Consul at Seville and San Lùcar, 16 Mar 1790, to Henry Dundas, Treasurer of the Navy, enclosing a 'Proposal for a supply of wine for the British Navy to be shipped in San Lucar, and delivered in Portsmouth', and a 'Proposal for a deposit of wines in the Isle of Wight'. Both proposals are signed by John Hunter, 16 Mar 1790.
3. Two letters from James Rannie, written at Leith, Scotland, including a covering letter dated 9 Mar 1795 to Henry Dundas, then Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, for a petition from the 22 'merchants, importers and dealers in foreign wines in Leith', against the proposed retrospective increase of duties on stocks of wine held by merchants on 24 Feb 1795 (wanting); and a letter from Rannie to Dundas dated 9 May 1795 concerning wines shipped to Dundas and wines reserved for him. (Rannie is spelt 'Rennie' in the endorsements.)
4. Memorandum endorsed 'Attorney General's [Sir John Willes] opinion...Wine imported in flasks or bottles, whether the officers may accept the duties where no fraud appears', dated 29 May 1736.
5. Draft of a bill to repeal the Acts of 1727 and 1745 setting duties on wine, endorsed 'A clause about wine imported in flasks or bottles'.

Petition to Henry Pelham, First Lord of the Treasury, presented by glass makers giving 'Reasons against importing French Wine in Bottles', dating from either 1743 or 1754. Signed by Richard Ricardi, Gerard van Horn, William Jackson and Samuel Lowe.

Records of Wolton and Attwood Limited, wholesalers in beer and spirits, including papers relating to the acquisition of the Company; memorandum and articles of association; balance sheet; copy board and extraordinary general meeting minutes; draft service agreements; stock transfer forms and financial accounts.

Letter from Arthur Young to the Rt Hon Lord Sheffield [1st Earl of Sheffield], Sheffield Place, East Grinstead, Sussex, [Aug 1790]. Refers to Young's last journey to France and Italy in 1789. The Duc de Liancourt entertained him in Paris for three weeks; he wishes to buy "some capital Sussex oxen" for Liancourt and enquires whether Lord Sheffield has any "of the first rate". States that France is absolutely ruined in point of trade and manufactures. Mentions a conversation with Lord Hawkesbury [Charles Jenkinson] 'on ye new corn bill wch appar. will be a governt. one - & so not too good for ye L Int. [landed interest]".

Autograph, with signature. Written on the blank pages of a printed questionnaire asking for information from corn growers in relation to the Corn Laws, for use in Young's 'Annal of Agriculture'; answers to the questions are filled in in MS.