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New Collections Available on the Jisc DAC Purchasing Scheme!
Dear British Online Archives Subscriber,
British Online Archives (BOA) is delighted to be a part of the Jisc Group Purchasing Scheme for 2025. Group purchasing is a community-centred scheme that is based on a simple market principle: the more products that are purchased, the lower the price. Jisc members can expect to enjoy a minimum of a 20% discount on all featured products. There is also the potential for a discount of up to 30%, depending on uptake by institutions. The scheme runs until 31 July.
We thought now would be a good time to introduce you to one of BOA’s new primary source collections that is currently featured on the Jisc scheme: British Mercantile Trade Statistics, 1662–1809.
Containing over 47,000 images sourced from The National Archives (UK), this collection charts nearly 150 years of British trade and shipping in remarkable detail. Throughout this period, Britain’s increasing naval capabilities and the expansion of maritime trade networks fuelled economic growth. Frequently built upon exploitation and enslaved labour, the establishment of British trading outposts and plantations laid the foundations for a worldwide empire and secured access to key commodities, such as sugar, tobacco, and textiles. This comprehensive collection includes trade ledgers, registers, and indexes that supply statistical data on British trade throughout the “long eighteenth century”.
These official records catalogue the receipt and shipment of goods at ports across England, Scotland, and Wales. The sources likewise document Britain’s balances of trade with other countries and provide information on numerous vessels and their voyages.
This collection also boasts the official registers of “Mediterranean passes”. From 1662 until the early 1820s, these were issued to British ships by the Lord High Admiral. A form of diplomatic passport, passes granted immunity from Barbary privateers patrolling the waters of the Mediterranean, as well as those around North Africa, North America, and the West Indies. The registers detail which vessels were issued passes, their port of embarkation and destinations, as well as additional information on their size, crew, and defences.
British Mercantile Trade Statistics, 1662–1809, will appeal to those investigating the colonial, economic, and maritime dimensions of British history throughout this period. It should also interest those exploring broader themes, such as the development of the fiscal-military state. A rich and versatile resource, it forms a natural evidential counterpart to many of BOA’s collections relating to the theme of “Colonialism and Empire”.
You can now request your free 30-day institutional trial by visiting our landing page for British Mercantile Trade Statistics, 1662–1809. Alternatively, you can contact us for further information at info@britishonlinearchives.com.
Please visit the BOA website, where you can find a full list of our available primary source collections. You can also visit the BOA page on Jisc’s License Subscription Manager website.
Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925
Charting the course and consequences of pandemics over five centuries, Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925 collates archival materials relating primarily to the history of the UK. The collection concentrates on four diseases that have left a significant mark upon British history: plague, cholera, smallpox, and influenza.
This collection boasts over 79,000 images, meticulously sourced from four leading UK archives: The National Archives, British Library, University College London, and The London Archives. It has been curated along thematic lines—economics and disease, control measures, international relations, medicine and vaccination, and public responses. Owing to the complexity and sensitivity of this material, academics, archivists, and museum professionals were consulted throughout the curatorial process.
The collection opens with sources relating to the first state-mandated quarantine in England in 1517. It concludes with documentation regarding the devastating effects of the 1918 influenza pandemic (often referred to as the “Spanish Flu" pandemic). The material is rich and diverse. You will come across prayers to help safeguard populations from plague, records of attempts to transmit smallpox via infected letters, prosecutions of those failing to comply with government-imposed quarantines, registers of patented designs featuring vaccination and sanitation equipment, and sheet music to boost morale during the influenza pandemic that followed the First World War. This collection likewise contains sources drawn from the papers of some of the most influential figures in medical and social history, such as Edward Jenner, Edwin Chadwick, Florence Nightingale, and John Snow.
Given the eclectic nature of the material that it brings together, and its expansive chronological scope, Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925 will appeal to students, educators, and researchers working within a variety of scholarly fields, from the history of science and the history of medicine, to cultural and social history.
Dates Covered:
1517-1925
Contributors:
The National Archives
