New eresources: more newspapers, early modern, modern and global history collections

In line with the Bodleian Libraries’ strategy to enhance our collections, we committed substantial funding to a set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University.

I am therefore delighted to announce access to the following new eresources which are of interest to Oxford historians. They will be most relevant to early modern, modern and global historians. Usage of some of these resources will be reviewed in the course of the next 3 years to assess which will be permanently retained.

All databases can be found in SOLO and Databases A-Z. Oxford researchers should use SSO to gain remote access. Non-Oxford historians are welcome to register with Bodleian Libraries to gain access to these resources and many others.

New online newspaper and magazine resources: British & US

Screenshot of the landing page of Punch Historical Archive 1841-1992

Screenshot of the landing page.

The Independent Historical Archive 1986-2016: Ever since it was launched in 1986, The Independent has enjoyed a reputation for quality and innovation, something Andreas Whittam-Smith and his two co-founders, Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds, made as a guiding principle when they conceived the idea of a new, upmarket British newspaper.

International Herald Tribune Historical Archive, 1888-2013: Sold in over 160 countries and read worldwide, the International Herald Tribune is one of the most innovative and original newspapers, famous for its objective and clear coverage. Bringing an international perspective, it provides a valuable counterpoint to the Anglo-American press, adding a new dimension to research. This resource features the complete run of the International Herald Tribune from its origins as the European Edition of The New York Herald and later the European Edition of the New York Herald Tribune. The archive ends with the last issue of the International Herald Tribune before its relaunch as the International New York Times.

The Jet Magazine Archive: Covers the civil rights movement, politics, education, and other social topics with an African American focus. It includes over 3,000 issues providing a broad view of news, culture, and entertainment from its first issue in 1951 through to 2014. Users can search across the articles using full-text search, or select specific issues, years or themes. Each article is indexed with relevant keywords. Researchers can also view images and advertisements within each issue. Current coverage covers in the 1980s decade, with additional issues being released over the next coming months.

The Listener Historical Archive, 1929-1991A weekly magazine which was established by the BBC in 1929 under its director-general, Lord Reith. It was developed as the medium for reproducing broadcast talks, initially on radio, but in later years television as well, and was the intellectual counterpart to the BBC listings magazine Radio Times. The Listener is one of the few records and means of accessing the content of many early broadcasts. In addition to commenting on the intellectual broadcasts of the week, the Listener also previewed major literary and musical shows and regularly reviewed new books.

Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957: The Picture Post Historical Archive comprises the complete archive of the Picture Post from its first issue in 1938 to its last in 1957—all digitized from originals in full colour.

Picture Post’s innovative use of photo-journalism captured the imagination of the British people, with readership at its peak estimated at 80% of the population. In the era before television, it became the window on the world for ordinary people, bringing the major social and political issues of the day into popular consciousness.

Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992: From 1841 to 1992, Punch was the world’s most celebrated magazine of wit and satire. From its early years as a campaigner for social justice to its transformation into national icon, Punch played a central role in the formation of British identity—and how the rest of the world saw the British nation.

We have also purchased access to additional years of newspaper content for the following:


New online newspaper resources: global

Screenshot of the landing page of Caribbean Newspapers 1718-1876

Screenshot of the landing page

Afghan Central Press Digital Archive: The Afghan Central Press collection brings together four national, Kabul-based publications of Afghanistan whose long runs and prominence provide a concentrated vantage point for understanding developments in Afghanistan for much of the twentieth century. The English-language Kabul Times is presented alongside Pushto publications Anīs (انیس, Companion), Hewād (هیواد, Homeland), and Iṣlāḥ (اصلاح, Reform). Together, the archives of these newspapers provide a chronicle of events from the fall of the Kingdom of Afghanistan, the establishment of the People’s Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the Soviet invasion, the rise of the Mujahedeen, the establishment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, invasion by the United States and the ensuing period of reconstruction from the view of the capital.

Al-Ahram Digital Archive (1875-2020): Founded in 1875, Al-Ahram (الأهرام‎) is one of the most prominent Arabic newspapers in the Middle East, with a legacy as Egypt’s most authoritative and influential national daily. Al-Ahram established itself as a high-quality journalistic venture during the mid-20th century reporting across the political, social, economic and cultural scope of the nation. After President Nasser nationalized the Egyptian press in 1960, readers generally considered the paper the de facto voice of the central government. Al-Ahram has long featured contributions from many of the Arab world’s most important literary figures and intellectuals: Naguib Mahfouz, Edward Said, Yusuf Idris, Taha Hussein, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, and Azmi Bishara among them, as well as nationalist leaders such as Mustafa Kamil and Saad Zaghlul. Influential forward-leaning contemporary writers such as Sabah Hamamou are also affiliated with the paper. The newspaper over its history successfully expanded to circulate content from around the world, printing international editions as well as Arabic-language editions of the daily. The Al-Ahram Digital Archive features full page-level digitization, with page-views and searchable text. It offers scholars Arabic and English interfaces, options to download or print pages in high resolution, and features to crowd-source improvements to the OCRed text.

Caribbean Newspapers, Series 1, 1718-1876: Created in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society, this collection gives scholars access to more than 150 years of Caribbean and Atlantic history, cultures and daily life. Featuring more than 140 newspapers from 22 islands, it chronicles the region’s evolution across two centuries through eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative information, letters, poetry, advertisements, obituaries and other news items. Most titles are in English but a number of Spanish, French, and Danish language titles are also provided. Also included are newspapers from the North Atlantic island of Bermuda.

Cumhuriyet Digital Archive (1924-2020): Established in May 1924, Cumhuriyet (“The Republic”) is the oldest secular Turkish daily newspaper and is widely considered one of the last remaining opposition newspapers in Turkey. Founded by journalist Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu at the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Cumhuriyet was the first newspaper of the Turkish Republic and promoted a belief in democracy, secularism and the rule of law.

Since its foundation, Cumhuriyet has stood witness to the changing landscape of Turkey’s political, social and economic environment. Despite the challenges of these times, the institution of Cumhuriyet has sustained its coverage of domestic and international news, providing critical documentation of Turkey’s dynamic history and its relations with the global community. The newspaper has a daily circulation of over 30,000 and receives roughly 25 million visitors to its website each month. It is one of the most influential newspapers in Turkey and is regarded by domestic and foreign readers as a reliable source for impartial, intelligent news reporting.

Latin American Newspapers, Series 2 (1805-1922): This second series of digitised Latin American Newspapers significantly expands the number of searchable titles made available from this region in Series 1. It provides issues from more than 250 additional titles and contains newspapers published in English, Spanish and Portuguese from 20 countries, including some countries and cities not represented in the first series. Together, both series offer unprecedented coverage of the people, issues and events that shaped this vital area during the 19th and early 20th centuries. [Through eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative information, letters, poetry, advertisements, matrimony notices and obituaries, this unique collection chronicles the evolution of Latin American culture and daily life across two centuries. In addition, these newspapers provide a wide range of viewpoints from diverse cultures.]

Kavkaz Digital Archive (DA-KVZ): ‘The newspaper Kavkaz (Кавказ, The Caucasus) was published during 1846-1918. It was the first Russian-language newspaper in the Caucasus, published in Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia. The main purpose of the newspaper was, on the one hand, to promote the Russian culture and Russian influence in the Caucasus, and on the other hand “to acquaint the Russian public with the life, habits and traditions of the tribes populating the province of the Caucasus.” Kavkaz published official documents of the Russian Empire, as well as many historical, cultural and archeological writings by prominent public and cultural figures of the local intelligentsia.’
Kavkaz Digital Archive is available on the Universal Database (UDB) platform and the Global Press Archive (GPA) platform; they provide a slightly different viewing experience but include the same content.

Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers Premium Collection (CRL-WIDE1): The MENA Premium collection package complements the freely available Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers Open Access collection. Comprising five prominent in-copyright newspapers from across the region, the MENA Premium collection spans the period of 1956-2019 and represents a collaboration between East View and the publishers of each title to make current, in-copyright material available to a global audience. MENA Premium Collection Titles include al-Akhbār (االخبار ,Lebanon, 2006-2019), al-Dustūr (الدستور ,Jordan, 1967-2000), al-Jumhūrīyah (الجمهورية ,Egypt, 1962-1986), al-Riyāḍ (الرياض ,Saudi Arabia, 1972-1996) and Filasṭīn (فلسطين , Israel/Palestine, 1956-1967).


Tip: To learn more about our newspaper eresources and how best to locate and find them, check out the Newspapers and other online news sources from the 17th – 21st centuries (LibGuide)


Modern British and US history

Screenshot of landing page of Archives of Sexuality and Gender I

Screenshot of landing page

Archives of Sexuality and Gender, part I: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 This resource spans the sixteenth to twentieth centuries and is the largest digital collection of historical primary source publications relating to the history and study of sex, sexuality, and gender research and gender studies research. Documentation covering disciplines such as social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) communities around the world are included, as well as rare and unique books on sex and sexuality from the sciences to the humanities to support research and education. Oxford only has access to part I.

Chatham House Online Archive: Module 1: Publications and Archives of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1920-1979 contains the publications and archives of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the world-leading independent international affairs policy institute founded in 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference.The Institute’s analysis and research, as well as debates and speeches it has hosted, can be found in this online archive, subject-indexed and fully searchable.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Politics and Society: The British Politics and Society archive of Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) is packed with primary source documentation that enhances a greater understanding and analysis of the development of urban centers and of the major restructuring of society that took place during the Industrial Revolution. The archive is composed of a number of individual collections, drawn together from a variety of sources.

Foreign Office Files for Japan: Module II: Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952: Published in three parts, this collection makes available extensive coverage of British Foreign Office files dealing with Japan between 1919 and 1952, shedding light on Anglo-Japanese ties in a time of shifting alliances. This second module covers the Occupation period (1946-1952). Following surrender at the end of the Second World War, Japan was occupied by Allied Powers for the first time in its history. The files for this period offer a British perspective on the creation of a democratic state in Japan and the enforcement of a new constitution. They include key British communications and reports covering topics such as war crime trials, reparations, and Japan’s economic recovery. They conclude in 1952, the year the Treaty of San Francisco normalised Anglo-Japanese relations and the first post-war British Ambassador to Japan, Esler Dening, was appointed. The majority of documents in this section are sourced from FO 371, with a smaller number from FO 262.

Topics covered include: disarmament, war crime trials, Japanese economy, trade and industry, occupational forces, liberation and the New Constitution, Japanese Post-War Political Parties, Peace Treaty and reestablishing diplomatic ties.


Global history

Screenshot of East India Company Catalogue of Original Correspondence, vol 1 1602-1613.

Screenshot of page 1, East India Company Catalogue of Original Correspondence, vol 1, 1602-1613, Adam Matthew Digital.

Cambridge Archive Editions Online: presents a wealth of historical reference materials in the form of many thousands of original documents of the National Archives (UK) represented in facsimile, including numerous maps, on the national heritage and political development of many countries. The value and discoverability of this content is enhanced immeasurably through CAE’s document-level citations and rich indexing. For many years CAE has specialized in the history of the Middle East, Russia and the Balkans, the Caucasus, Southeast Asia, and China and the Far East. Now, through collaboration between Cambridge University Press and East View, these materials are made searchable and accessible in e-book form.

Includes China Political Reports, 1911-1960 and China Political Reports, 1961-1970, which draw together the periodic political reports sent by British officials based in China back to the British Foreign Office.

Chatham House Online Archive: Module 1: Publications and Archives of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1920-1979 (see above)

Database of Chinese Classics 中國基本古籍庫 (Erudition): includes 10,000 titles in 12,500 editions from the pre-Qin period through to the Republican period. All texts are provided in full text and image format, allowing for a direct comparison both between digitized text and original text image, and in some cases between different editions of the text. The full-text and images from a variety of subject areas organized into four sections: Philosophy and Science, History and Geography, Art and Literature, and General Works.

Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library: Literature, Grammar, Language, Catalogues, and Periodicals: Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library (1475-1900) is the first full-text searchable digital library of early printed books in Arabic script. It is presented in 3 modules with this module (number 3) including periodicals, folktales, pre-Islamic literature (Antar, Bani Hilal, Imru’l qays), Islamic poetry and prose (al-Burdah), poetry and prose (maqamat), Kalilah wa-dimnah, Luqman, proverbs and sayings, Thousand and one nights, later literature, poetry and prose, general literature, as well as language and lexicography, dictionaries, grammar, syntax, rhetoric, ‘ilm al-bayan, catalogues and manuscript catalogues amongst others.

East India Company Part IV which covers the correspondence of the early voyages and formation and conflictbetween 1600 and 1858. This module consists of 793 volumes, comprising original, draft and abstracted correspondence from IOR Class E plus their associated H- and Z-class indexes, and the Z-class indexes for the Madras and Bombay Presidencies.

It includes correspondence between the East India Company and the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, the Company’s various settlements and Presidencies throughout Asia, government departments, and European houses of agency. The records offer a fascinating insight into the early voyages of the Company and its shifting interests from trade to the gaining of territorial power, and are interspersed with a number of petitions, reports (including quarterly ‘Narratives of Proceedings’ produced by regional administrations), financial accounts, inventories and other documents.

Oxford now has East India Company (Modules I-IV).

Foreign Office Files for Japan: Module II: Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952: (see above)

Grand Secretariat Archives: The archives of the Grand Secretariat currently housed at the Institute were originally kept at the Grand Secretariat Storehouse in the Ch’ing imperial palace. They were removed from the Storehouse when it underwent renovation in 1909. After the overthrow of the Ch’ing, these archives changed hands several times, and were, at one point, even sold to a paper recycling factory. Eventually, the Institute purchased them from Li Sheng-to, a book collector, in1929 thanks to the efforts of Fu Ssu-nien, the Institute’s first director.
There are over four thousand Ming (1368-1644) documents and more than three hundred thousand volumes of Ch’ing (1644-1911) archival materials in this collection, including imperial decrees, edicts, memorials, tribute document, examination questions, examination papers, rosters of successful examination candidates, documents from the offices of the Grand Secretariat, documents from the offices for book compilation, and old documents from Mukden. Memorials make up the bulk these documents.
The archives contain valuable source materials for institutional, social and economic historians. They record general administrative activities and legal cases, many of which cannot be found in Ch’ing legal compendia.
Related links:

New Bodleian History Books: September 2019 – Economic History

New Bodleian History Books: Economic History

Adam Smith’s 1776 Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is generally considered to be the first modern work of economics, and economic history as a discipline is even younger, tracing its origins only to the late 19th and early 20th century. As a discipline, economic history can be variously defined as the study of the economic aspects of societies and individuals in the past, or the history of the economic use of resources such as a land, labour and capital, or the examination of the past performance of individual economies. It thus includes a number of different sub-disciplines such as financial and business history, or demographic and labour history, and asks questions about such diverse issues as the demand and supply of goods and services, production and costs of production, trade and trade routes, levels of income, distribution of wealth, or volume and direction of investment. But since historical economic phenomena have no existence independent of the social, political, cultural, religious and physical environment in which they occurred, economic historians will also draw on the areas of political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and might consider a wide variety of  factors including crime, education, the family, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, science, and the environment.

This blog entry is not the place to get involved in the great debate of the exact relationship between economics, history and economic history (does any study of economics involve a component of economic history so that the two are inseparable? Or does economic history constitute its own field separate from mainstream economics? Does economic history belong into the History Department or into the Economics Department?) – without taking any sides, the History books newly arrived at the Bodleian I have chosen to highlight in this month’s blog are simply studies on any aspect of economics from a historical perspective, from discussions of a single historical person’s individual wealth or influence on economics, to the trade and industries of towns and cities, the economic situations and influences of larger regions, and finally global economic issues.

Individual economics

Economic history asks questions about some of the fundamental aspects of people’s lives in the past – how and where they lived, how they were born and died, how they worked and earned and spent their money. The factors that influence these include anything from climate and geography to political instability and form of government, the availability or discovery of natural resources, the size and health of population and availability of labour, the existence of natural or artificial infrastructure, and the development or invention of technology. Forces like these are usually understood to be outside the control of single, individual actors – but on the other hand an influential individual, be it a king or queen, politician or economic theorist, businessman or inventor, can certainly singlehandedly change the shape and direction of their society’s economy.

Bernard Allorent’s La fortune de la Grande Mademoiselle examines the personal fortune and property of Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (1627-1693), which most certainly qualified as “un enjeu politique”, “a political issue” of 17th century France.  One of the greatest heiresses in history, she died unmarried and childless, leaving her vast fortune to her cousin, Philippe of France, the younger brother of Louis XIV. The documentary evidence examined throws light not only on her fortune (and varying fortunes!) and its management, but also on the debt market of 17th century France, the general economic situation of her times, and the influence of the king in the management of her affairs which resulted in the ultimate transmission of her vast fortune to the royal family. An even greater influence by one individual on the economic affairs of two countries if not a whole continent, this time towards the end of the 20th century, is documented by Mathias Haeussler in his study Helmut Schmidt and British-German Relations. In his office as West German chancellor from  1974 to 1982, Schmidt clashed heavily and repeatedly with his British counterparts Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, and Margaret Thatcher – Schmidt’s competing vision of and incompatible strategy for post-war Europe and the issue of European integration not only influenced contemporary market forces, but had long-reaching repercussions on the shape of the European economy as it is today.

Urban economics

The influence of a place’s geography on its economy can be clearly seen in coastal towns and cities whose harbours ensured their development into and situation as major trading centres, often for centuries or even millennia. Venice is one of the great examples of these (see more on this in the next section), but Cyprus has a claim to a similarly long history in the city of Famagusta, the deepest harbour of the island, which dates back to the 3rd century BC, and developed from the early Middle Ages into one of the major trading ports of the Mediterranean in the possessions of Genoa, Venice, the Ottoman Empire, and finally the British Empire. The collection Famagusta maritima offers essays on a wide range of various economic aspects of the port’s history, from its relationship with both the Papal court and the Islamic world to the trade of such diverse merchandise as soap, olive oil, and slaves, to the modern economic boom brought by tourism in the British colonial and postcolonial era. Rather more northern coastal cities are the subject of a second collection of conference proceedings, “Hansisch” oder “nicht-hansisch”, which examines the smaller cities of Livland in the eastern Baltic. Hanseatic traders established trading posts in larger cities there already in early days of the League in the 12th century, but the present collection examines questions of membership and economic and political influence of Livland’s smaller towns, as well as the relationship of the entire region to the great organisation of the Hanseatic League.

Regional economics

Widening the focus from the individual and the urban space of the city, four of the newly arrived books deal with the economic situation of larger regions. Kaufhäuser an Mittel- und Oberrhein im Spätmittelalter presents the proceedings of a conference on the subject of late medieval trade emporia, “Kaufhäuser”, the forerunners of the modern shopping centre, in the Middle and Upper Rhine valley – rather than dealing with individual establishments, the focus of the contributions is on the overall regional impact and operations,  including the influence of trade centres located in smaller towns. Medieval and early modern economics of Western Europe are the subject of Cultures fiscales en Occident du Xe au XVIIe siècle – Denis Menjot has a long distinguished career in the area of the financial, economic, social and political history of Castile and the towns and regions of medieval Spain, and the 28 contributions collected here in his honour touch on issues of taxes, fraud, the redistribution of resources, and financial government and its social effects in medieval and early modern Europe, with a focus on both the idea of the common good in the Middle Ages and that of fiscal citizenship today.

Renaissance economic history, more specifically the economic influence of Venice and it surrounding region on Old Regime Europe, with a special focus on the issue of economic inequalities, is then the subject of Guido Alfani’s and Matteo di Tullio’s The Lion’s Share. Comparing data from the Venetian Terraferma and the rest of early modern Europe, the two authors argue for the rise of the fiscal-military state (with its disparities in wealth increasing through taxation destined to fund war and defence rather than social welfare) as the root cause of modern inequality and social stratification. A second Festschrift, this one in honour of Philippe Mioche whose areas of interest include industrial history and the history of the European Union, moves us into the modern age: the studies in Industrie entre Méditerranée et Europe, XIXe-XXIe siècle explore contemporary industrial history of Europe and the Mediterranean region through the analysis of its main actors, from the human managers and workers to factories and companies, from family businesses to large international groups, and from mines to furnaces. They trace the influences of international and European policies on these industries, as well as their evolution and their heritage, from the 19th century to the present day.

Global economics

Finally, the last newly arrived book I would like to highlight this month moves us onto the stage of global or world economics: in The Anxious Triumph: A Global History of Capitalism, 1880-1914 Donald Sassoon looks at the establishment of the modern political frameworks all over the world which enabled the globalisation and dominance of capitalism as a system, from the unifications of Italy and Germany to the establishment of a republic in France, the elimination of slavery in the American south, the Meiji Restoration in Japan, and the emancipation of the serfs in Tsarist Russia. Sassoon’s study analyses the impact of capitalism on the histories of many different states as well as its chronic instability, the “anxious triumph” of his title, focusing on the role of the state as an “overseer” of the capitalist “war of all against all” – necessary to develop a welfare state, to intervene in the market economy, and also to protect it from foreign competition.

You can find more books on the subject on our online LibraryThing shelf tagged with economic history or economic conditions.

New: online access to Deutsche Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger 1819-1945

Oxford reseachers now have access to the digitised Deutsche Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger 1819-1945. It is listed in Databases A-Z and will soon also appear in SOLO.

The Deutsche Reichsanzeiger and Preußische Staatsanzeiger was a newspaper that appeared until April 1945 and acted as the official press organ of the state of Prussia and then the German Reich. The history of the newspaper goes back to 2 January 1819, changing title and scope in the course of time. Included in this online resource are:

  • Allgemeine Preußische Staats-Zeitung, 1819 (1) (2 January) – 1843 (179) (30 June)
  • Allgemeine Preußische Zeitung, 1843 (1) (1 July) – 1848 (119) (30 April)
  • Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, 1848 (1) (1/3 May) – 1851 (179) (30 June)
  • Königlich Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, 1851 (1) (1 July) – 1871 (116) (2 May)
  • Deutscher Reichs-Anzeiger und Königlich Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, 1871 (1) (4 May) – 1918 (267) (9 November)
  • Deutscher Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger, 1918 (268) (12 November) – 1945 (49) (14 April)

The content also changed over time. Alongside interesting government-controlled editorial sections, the value of this resource lies in an enormous treasure of orderly gathered microdata.  While the gazette published official government notices, in the course of the second half of the 19th century it also published details relating to trade and commerce (e.g. bankruptcies) and between 1873 and Deb 1943 also stock market information.

Königlich Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, no. 3, 4 January 1871

This resource will also be of interest to those engaged in genealogical studies in Germany in as far as it published extensive lists of casualties during the First World War and expatriation lists during the Third Reich.

Deutscher Reichs-Anzeiger und Königlich Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, no 137, 13 June 1916

The text is in German Gothic script. You can zoom in and out to enlarge the text and easily create a snippet image to save or print out. Full-text searching is possible also.

Also of interest:

Trial until 15 March: ZEDHIA – historical business information from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and post-war Austria

Oxford researchers are now invited to trial ZEDHIA. The trial can be accessed from OxLIP+.ZEDHIA resource provides historical business information from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and its successor and partly neighbouring states. This includes the areas of modern Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and many more until 1945 and more complete information restricted to Austria afterwards. It currently covers 1812 to 2003.

The backbone of the database are the Compass yearbooks covering 1868- 2000 and the Zentralblatt für die Eintragungen ins Handelsregister (commercial register entries) covering 1904-2001. It gives access to depth-structured, digitised, full-text resources in the fields of Central European financial, economic and trade history and genealogy. There is also much information on local villages, town, their geography and population.

Amongst others, the Compass periodical also includes

  • calendars of national and international importance, e.g. solar eclipses, innovations, religious calendars.
  • directories and dates of markets in Germany, Austria, Hungary
  • information on the postal system, e.g. how post is sent from Austria to any part of the world and how much it costs.
  • information on the finances, branches and staffing of the Austrian national bank and other financial institutions
  • information on transport companies (rail, shipping), their finances, staffing and official notices
  • information customs and excise procedures

Zentralblatt für die Eintragungen ins Handelsregister is particularly useful to trace any retail, financial or commercial enterprise and its owner(s).

Also included in ZEDHIA is Der Tresor: Revue, Statistik und Archiv für Volkswirtschaft und Finanzwesen (1872-1919), a weekly periodical which focused on Austro-Hungarian stock companies and government securities. There were regular and highly detailed financial, statistical and economic analyses as well as in-depth reports on economic and political developments in Austria-Hungary and around the world. Der Tresor is also selectively freely available online at ANNO (Austrian Newspaper Online).

As well as finding information relating to business and commerce, the digitised periodicals also include interesting advertisements of banks, businesses, schools, products for industry agriculture or the home, etc.

You can search and browse in many different ways, applying filters to narrow down your search. The interface can be displayed in either German or English though all the content and the metadata describing the publications are in German.

Please send feedback to isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk by 15 March 2018.

More titles on Cambridge Histories Online available: Cambridge World History and many more

CHO - WWII coverI’m pleased to report that Oxford readers can now access more titles in the online Cambridge Histories Online portal. The newly added ebooks of interest to historians are:

  • The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy (2 vols.)
  • The Cambridge History of Witchcraft and Magic in the West
  • The Cambridge History of the Second World War (3 vols.)
  • The Cambridge Economic History of Australia
  • The Cambridge History of Capitalism (2 vols.)
  • The Cambridge History of China, Volume 5 (part 2) & Volume 9 (part 2)
  • The Cambridge History of Scandinavia (to be complete in 2 vols.)
  • The Cambridge World History (to be complete in 9 vols.)

The catalogue records for these ebooks will appear in SOLO in due course. In the meantime you can find these by searching Cambridge Histories Online in SOLO.

Historical statistics and censuses on the web: suggestions

I’ve had occasion to research some online resources for historical statistics, usually digitised statistical series rather than proper databases. They tendcover vital statistics, population & demographic, economic and finance data. Some also include census data and census reports.

Screenshot from Annuaire statistique (1914-15): population numbers by region. (from Gallica: bibliothèque numérique, 3 April 2012)

Below is a listing of some of the findings. It is not comprehensive! Do make suggestions for anything important that I’ve missed.

Great Britain

Economic and Social Data Service: History (now part of UK Data Archive, use Discover to limit searches to History)

The Economic and Social Data Service is a national data archiving and dissemination service which came into operation in January 2003. The service is a jointly-funded initiative sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Includes data from UK Data Archive.

The data typically tends to be focussed collection, created often as part of research. ESDS is free to HE but requires individual registration first. More 100+ datasets are available and cover all periods.
Examples:
Trans-national Database and Atlas of Saints’ Cults, c.700-2000
Glasgow Householders, 1832-1911
Wage Negotiations, British Coal Industry, 1870-1914
Aberdeen University Students, 1860-1920
British Speeches, 1870-1914 and German Speeches, 1871-1912
Interwar Trade Dataset, 1900-1939
etc.

Histpop – The Online Historical Population Reports Website

The Online Historical Population Reports (OHPR) collection provides online access to the complete British population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1937. The collection goes far beyond the basic population reports with a wealth of textual and statistical material which provide an in-depth view of the economy, society (through births, deaths and marriages) and medicine during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These 200,000 pages of census and registration material for the British Isles are supported by numerous ancillary documents from The National Archives, critical essays and transcriptions of important legislation which provide an aid to understanding the context, content and creation of the collection.

A Vision of Britain through Time

An e-portal to over 12 million facts about places and lives in Britain, including new-to-view historic boundary maps, a land use survey that helped to defeat Hitler, unemployment and wage records, farm surveys from 1866. Includes two centuries’ worth of facts, figures, surveys, maps, election results and travel writing showing how 15,000 UK places have changed.

Ireland

Census of Ireland 1901-11

View the Irish 1901 Census and perform a variety of searches under forename, surname and county as well as more advanced searches including religion, occupation, Irish language proficiency, specified illnesses and literacy status. Includes household returns and ancillary records for 32 counties for 1901-1911

HNAG Database of Irish Historical Statistics

The Database is intended as a common resource for all scholars working in the field of Irish economic history, covering largely 19th and 20th economic and social history.

Data sets are available for the following:
agriculture
finance
industry
labor
population
finance
trade

Germany

Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1880-1941/2

The digital version of an important publication of German economic and trade statistics.

Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland

The website of Germanys’ national Statistisches Bundesamt. Not so much historical statistics but useful for contemporary historians. Check out the GENESIS-Online database.

Historische Datenbank (Lehrstuhl für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Universität Münster)

Provides access to a wide selection of historical statistics on the economic history of Germany since 1850. You will need to download the excel file with the index and click on a data set to get the statistics.

Switzerland

Statistik Schweiz – Bundesamt für Statistik

The website of the Swiss governmental department for statistics.

France

Annuaire statistique (France) 1900-35

Digitised version of Annuaire statistique / Ministère du commerce, de l’industrie, des postes et télégraphes, Office du travail, Statistique générale de la France.

La Statistique Générale de la France
This survey includes the following historical statistical datasets relating to France:

Les recensements de 1901 à 1921.
Les mouvements de la population de 1836 à 1925.
L’enseignement primaire et secondaire de 1865 à 1906.
La statistique industrielle de 1861 à 1896.
Les recensements de 1851 à 1921.
Les mouvements de la population de 1800 à 1925.
L’enseignement primaire de 1829 à 1897.
Territoire et population de 1800 à 1890.

Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE)

The website of the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies which is responsible for the production and analysis of official statistics in France. It collects and publishes information on the French economy and society, carrying out the periodic national census. Located in Paris, it is the French branch of Eurostat, European Statistical System. The INSEE was created in 1946 as a successor to the National Statistics Service (SNS) created under Vichy during World War II.

Spain

Anuarios Estadísticos de España 1858-1997

Online statistical yearbooks for Spain covering 1858-1970. A link is provided to yearbooks for 1997-.

The yearbooks compile, with a great richness of content, statistical information from various sources, with the aim of offering a quantitative reflection of the economic, social and demographic reality of Spain and of its territories – both peninsular and insular – overseas provinces and all other territories over the last 150 years.

With the publication of these works, the INE offers an interesting radiography of Spanish contemporary history to all its users.

Unfortunately, the series of yearbooks presents big gaps in its first years of history, producing jumps that in some cases correspond to periods of more than 20 years, during which yearbooks where not published. In this way, we come across an interval of 24 years from the first yearbook of 1888 to the following, which was carried out in 1912. The series has not been interrupted since 1943.

Italy

Serie storiche

A beta version of historical statistics for Italy. The data, available in a downloadable format are organized into 22 subject areas. For some topics – such as health, justice, demographics, foreign trade – the time series ranging from 1861 to today. Each series is accompanied by a history of sources.

Netherlands

Dutch Censuses 1795-1971 (Volkstellingen)

The Volkstellingen 1795-1971 (Dutch Censuses) website enables you to view or download most of the Dutch census tables, published in the period 1795-1971. The original records were scanned and digitized and are now freely available as images as well as MS Excel tables. In addition to the Excel record tables, this site includes many of the original census documents in Adobe PDF format.

Since 1997, the digitization of the data was accomplished during the course of three projects: Dutch Census Digitization 1795-1971, Dutch Census Data and Life Courses in Context. As a result of these three projects over 40,000 record pages were made digitally available to the public. [from EHPS]

Dutch National accounts, 1800-1914

The website reconstructs national income data concerning income, prices, foreign trade, production, employment and capital formation from 1800 to 1913. As well as offering an interpretative research report, the website gives access to statistics in html and downloadable as excel files.

Denmark

Dansk Demografisk Database (Danish Demographic Database)

In the Danish Demographic Database you can search for information in different sources.
Censuse: Danish census records from 1787 and onwards.
Emigrants: Information from the Copenhagen police on emigrants from Copenhagen or via Hamburg
Censuses from St. Croix
Probate Index from the counties: Thisted, Viborg, Aalborg, Randers
Other databases in Danish:
Dansk Ostindiske Personalia
Dannebrogsmænd: Personer nævnt i festskrift og fra 1864
Kirkebøger: Database med indtastede kirkebøger. Kirkebøgerne er opdelt efter begivenhed.

Sweden

Historical Monetary Statistics of Sweden 1668-2008 (Historisk monetär statistik i Sverige 1668-2008)

A website which reconstruct historical monetary statistics of Sweden from 1668 (the founding year of the Riksbank) to the present. A preliminary version of a database is now online. Some of the time series stretch back to the early Middle Ages. The database is organised around the following sections: Prices. A Consumer Price Index is presented for the whole period 1290-2006 – Wages, from 1540 onwards. – Exchange rates. Contains exchange rates between various currency units existing in Sweden 1291-1834 and foreign exchange rates from 1658 onwards. – Money supply and closely related-related aggregates from 1871 onwards – Stock exchange and interest rates from 1856 onwards. – Central government loans from 1668 onwards.

Historia.se – Historicalstatistics.org

Historicalstatistics.org is a portal for historical statistics, incl. National accounts 1800-2000 with the main focus on macroeconomic data on Sweden in the 19th and 20th centuries. Series are presented, for example, on GDP, inflation, employment, interest rates, exchange rates, population, money supply, capital stocks, worked hours, wages, profit rates and business cycle indicators.

Includes links to both Swedish and international data on historical statistics.

Related links:

Historical Statistics of the US [available to Oxford users]

European History Primary Sources: statistics