Great Britain. Board of Trade

Founded in 1784. Responsibile for the merchant fleet 1854-1939. Absorbed by the Dept. of Trade and Industry in 1970, but continues as a legal presence.

From the description of Certificate of competency as master 1876. (The Mariners' Museum Library). WorldCat record id: 45671728

In 1851 it became compulsory for the masters and mates of foreign-going British merchant ships to hold the appropriate government licence, issued through the newly-created marine section of the Board of Trade, which also laid down the syllabuses.

From the description of OM90-84 Thomas Wilson Certificate of Competency, 26 Apr 1888. (Libraries Australia). WorldCat record id: 755756324

British government agency established to promote and regulate British overseas commerce.

From the description of Great Britain. Board of Trade records, 1682-1786. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70982976

The Lords Commissioners (Board of Trade) date back to the period.

just after the Spanish War. In various reports between 1624 and 1640 the Commissioners of Trade were concerned with disputes between the merchant adventurers and merchant staplers, and with the unfair treatment of English merchants abroad. Under William III steps were taken by Parliament to reconstitute a Board of Trade and Plantations--which had been dissolved in 1674--, but the group was actually reconstituted by the King in 1696. The new board, composed of eight paid commissioners and six officers of the State, performed an advisory rather than administrative function.

From the description of Complaints Against Colonial Governments, Reports, 1702-1707. (Temple University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 122582523

Agency History

The Companies Registration Office, England, had its origin in 1856 with the passage of one of the first of the Companies Acts. It contains the richest single collection of American economic history materials in Great Britain. The Bancroft Library has filmed the papers of those organizations operating in Western and Central America and Mexico during the latter half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The records filmed are miscellaneous and among other issues they include colonization, railroads, and land speculation.

Contained in this office are the official corporate records of each joint stock (public or private) company founded in England and Wales (as well as an index for those in Ireland and Scotland) since 1856, together with those of companies in existence in 1856 and which continued to operate thereafter. Included are all companies regardless of their location of business— whether in North or South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, or the various maritime areas. The law required (with but few vital alterations except for additional information required) the filing of:

All papers of the some 360,000 companies recorded since the founding of the office are intact and filed in numerical sequence. Each company file is contained in one ore more string binders with each document therein containing in addition to the company number, the sequence number of the document in the particular file. On the inside cover of each binder is a summary sheet listing by title the documents contained therein.

Records of chartered companies previous to 1856 are kept by the special office at Hayes, Middlesex, and few records of such companies are found in the Companies Registration Office unless the company continued to do business after 1856. The Bancroft Library has filmed a few of the papers from Hayes. Chartered companies were not required to submit reports or statements. There is an index of these on reel 40.

It is possible to trace from the records in this office a large part (and probably the most significant portion) of English economic penetration in every part of the world. Since all English companies, regardless of their position on the Stock Exchange, while of vital importance—and sometimes of greater importance for those companies whose securities were on the exchange—are secondary to those at Bush House. The researcher can investigate English corporations in any country, region, or continent, or any type of business, and by correlation of the Bush House records with those found in the archives of the Stock Exchange can frequently assemble an excellent picture of corporate operations.

The records in this office are only for companies organized in England and Wales. Those for companies founded in Scotland and Ireland are located in separate companies registration offices in Edinburgh and Dublin.

From the guide to the Archive of the Companies Registration Office, 1844-1951, (The Bancroft Library)