Business News in the Atlantic World, 1620-1763

The concept of 'news' is something that we are all familiar with, and in today's society it exists in many forms. 'News' as we recognise it began to emerge in the early modern period, bolstered by the proliferation, availability, and affordability of printing. Previous studies of the history of news have, quite rightly, emphasised the 'print revolution' as essential in explaining the emergence of a variety of news conduits, including the newspaper.

This project focuses on a specific sub-type of news - business news. Many recent studies of the development of 'news' have considered news as one coherent genre, incorporating political, business, cultural and social news. Business news, however, was distinct in a number of ways; in its form and in how it was created, disseminated and used. Scholars know that commercial agents took advantage of the increasing availability of printed news to make decisions about their business, but although the rise of print encouraged the circulation of 'public' news, early modern commercial agents continued to exchange information through private letters, oral conversation and communications networks. Manuscript forms of business news proliferated throughout the seventeenth century and beyond despite the rise of print, in part because an increase in printed news led to conflicting data, issues of trust, and the need to deal with 'bad' or out-of-date information.

This project builds on my previous successful research, taking it in significantly expanded directions. I have published extensively on merchant networks and business in Britain, Europe and the Atlantic World in the early modern period, with my first monograph (2014) demonstrating that commercial agents - the merchants, manufacturers and consumers involved in trade - played significant roles in shaping international exchange. Further, I have shown that local conditions influenced the opportunities open to commercial agents. This fellowship project expands my work by looking specifically at the information used by commercial agents to make their decisions. The research to be undertaken during this fellowship has relevance for a broad range of scholarly enquiry. It will demonstrate the importance of understanding commercial and business news as a specific sub-type of news, it will emphasise the importance of manuscript circulation, and it will show that the production, reception, and use of business news varied depending on the societal and cultural context in which it was made and circulated.

The project's findings will be disseminated to a range of audiences, including scholars, students, school pupils and public audiences in the UK and the USA. The project showcases innovative methodological approaches to business and information history, generating a new sub-field of historical enquiry. In addition to producing high quality academic outputs, an international and interdisciplinary group of experts will discuss, test and disseminate the methodological and conceptual approaches developed during this fellowship, exploring the project's key questions from diverse perspectives. Understanding the strategies that previous generations adopted to share, customise, and profit from information will allow for intervention in public debates regarding freedom of the press, the role of consumers of news in circulating and producing news - a 'communications circuit' - and the tension between writing business news and the extent to which the audience can trust or understand it - 'business literacy'. The fusions between these issues in the historical past and the ways in which they relate to current debates on information overload and information anxiety - the consequences of living in an 'information age' - will be explored and disseminated through a programme of impact activities.

'News' as a concept and a genre of writing is one that non-academic audiences broadly understand in its modern incarnation. Today, news features prominently in public debates regarding press ethics, the bias of publications, and the development of instant news and the 24-hour news cycle. We live in a climate of 'information overload', as the world is understood through a media-tinted lens, and information - or mis-information - fuels understanding of different cultures and societies. With business news, 'business literacy' is a specific problem. The recent EU referendum debate is just the latest example of political engagement where business information and statistics have been central, but where questions of trust abounded in how that information was articulated and presented. The impact activities designed as part of this project will both challenge and develop non-academic perceptions of how business information has evolved over time, what we mean by 'news', and how news and information influences politics, economies and societies. Through further development of the PI's existing links to schools and museums, as well as the pursuit of new collaborations, the emphasis is not only on disseminating research arising from this project but on building long-term relationships that will foster future collaborative impact activities. This fellowship approaches impact through 5 strategic pathways, which have been designed to foster synergies between academic and non-academic sectors, and include cross-fertilisation between these sectors. There are strategies in place for measuring responses to these activities. All activities are elaborated upon in the attached Pathways to Impact statement.

1. Public and online exhibitions: the PI will write a briefing document as a starting point for design of an exhibition on the development of business news, which can be adapted by a range of museums. Channels of communication have been opened with the Newseum in Washington DC, USA, with a view to curating an exhibition, and my existing contacts with the Merseyside Maritime Museum and the Liverpool Athenaeum will be utilised. An online exhibition will also be curated (details in Pathways to Impact and Technical Plan);

2. Public lectures: a series of public lectures will accompany any exhibitions. Through the PI's existing collaborations, this will include the Davies Seminar, an annual public lecture held at the Merseyside Maritime Museum at the time of the annual conference of the Centre for Port and Maritime History;

3. Policy: the findings of this project will inform a paper, 'Business news and information', to be submitted to the website History & Policy at the culmination of the fellowship. The paper will outline the policy implications of this research, specifically its contribution to debates regarding business news, business literacy, and contribution-driven news content from those outside formal news production (for example re-dissemination of information through social media);

4. Project website and blog: the website will host FE and school teaching materials in addition to HE materials (see point 5), and the online exhibition. In addition, the website will serve as a forum through which examples of best practice in knowledge exchange, as well as research and teaching, will be shared;

5. Online Open Access teaching materials: in addition to materials for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, adaptable lesson plans will be produced through dialogue with local schools and FE providers, realised through personal contacts and through Keele University Outreach.

Building on the PI's experience of and commitment to developing impact and knowledge exchange activities (see CV), and taking into account her existing contacts, it is anticipated that additional opportunities for impact activities will arise, including delivering public lectures, contributing to exhibitions or websites, and making media appearances.