This section includes material that has a general focus on commerce, business, and the economic situation in Colonial America. Some titles have a wider scope than Colonial America, but we have tried to explain what is contained in those titles that may be of interest. Also, many of the titles included can be quite old but have been included as they are referenced extensively and are important titles to know about for this time period.
To research more specialized topics related to the business, commercial and economic situation of Colonial America that are not currently covered in this guide, we recommend using some of the more general sources included here, in combination with focused searches of those topics in books, journal articles, and databases.
We have not included general histories or books about colonization though those sources can be helpful in understanding the economic and commercial activities in Colonial America. While we also did not generally include contemporary materials related to voyages which can offer insight into the period, we did include some material related to Richard Hakluyt.
Many titles that offer a more detailed picture of business and commerce in the colonies are likely to be focused on a particular town, city, state, or region. This means that some books with a limited geographical focus will be important sources for those looking for information on crops, activities, or other topics that were concentrated in particular areas. Many of these types of collections can be found in local and state historical societies.
For those researchers that need go even deeper there are original records of various departments of the various governments which, in general, are not included in this guide. For example, the British government departments of interest include the Colonial Office, the Treasury Office, and the Exchequer. Materials from the House of Commons and the House of Lords may also prove useful and informative in some situations. While many of these records may be held and/or accessed in the UK's National Archives (sometimes seen as Public Records Office) or the British Library, often there are alternative access points via databases and microform collections in other institutions.
The following materials link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to digital content are provided when available.
Agricultural History Series
America's Economic Heritage by American Business Corporations Before 1789 by 
American Colonial Wealth : Documents and Methods by American Economic Thought in the Seventeenth Century by Annals of commerce, manufactures, fisheries, and navigation, with brief notices of the arts and sciences connected with them; containing the commercial transactions of the British Empire and other countries from the earliest accounts to the meeting of... by 
The Atlantic Frontier of the Thirteen American Colonies and States by Business history of the United States about 1650 to 1950's by The Cambridge Economic History of the United States by 
Capitalism and Slavery by 
Charles McLean Andrews collection concerning colonial history, 1663-1800.Andrews was a noted historian and writer on Colonial America. The materials in this collection are chiefly transcripts of manuscripts in various repositories in England. The material relates to admiralty courts and cases as well as trade and political matters. Good to use in tandem with his books like Colonial Period of American History External , the four volume title Colonial Period of American History, Connecticut's Place in Colonial History, Colonial Background of the American Revolution, Boston Merchants and the Mon-importation Movement, etc. One title of note is British Committees, Commissions, and Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1622-1675 (1908) which contains five sections: control of plantations under James I and Charles I; control of plantation during Interregnum; proposals of merchants Noell and Povey; committees and councils under the Restoration; and plantation councils of 1670 and 1672 a digital copy of which can be found at the Internet Archive. External See also another record related to councils of trade and plantation.
A Collection of Papers and Other Tracts, Written Occasionally by 
Colonial America: an Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History by The Colonial Merchant; Sources and Readings by Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution, 1763-1776 by 
The Coming of Age of American Business; Three Centuries of Enterprise, 1600-1900 by 
The Common Law in Colonial America by A Documentary History of American Industrial Society by The Early Chartered Companies (A.D. 1296-1858) by 
The Early Modern Atlantic Economy by The Economic Rise of Early America by 
The Economy of British America, 1607-1789 by 
The Economy of Early America by 
The Emergence of Capitalism in Early America by 
Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic World by 
The Foundations of the American Economy by 
French East India Companies by Guide to Business History; Materials for the Study of American Business History and Suggestions for their Use by Guide to the Manuscript Materials for the history of the United States to 1783 by The Hakluyt Handbook by A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860 by 
The History of Corporate Finance by History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the United States by 
History of the American Economy (Book Only) by 
A History of the Anglo-American Common Law of Contract by Industrial life in the colonies. In their Colonial America by Journal of Economic HistoryThe Memoirs, Life and Character of the Great Mr. Law and his Brother at Paris : Down to this Present Year 1721, with an Accurate and Particular Account of the Establishment of the Mississippi Company in FranceThe Mississippi Bubble : a Memoir of John Law by 
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics by 
Overseas Trade and Traders by 
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History by Records of the British Colonial Office, class 5 by Richard Hakluyt : a Guide to his Books and to those Associated with Him, 1580-1625 by Smuggling in the American Colonies at the Outbreak of the Revolution, with special reference to the West Indies Trade by 
This Is Who We Were: Colonial America, 1492-1775 by 
United States Business History, 1602-1988 by Wealth of a Nation to Be by William and Mary QuarterlyThe William and Mary Quarterly.
