HOUGHTON, John (ed.).

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Husbandry and Trade Improv'd: being a collection First collected edition of these commercial almanacs by one of the first merchants elected to the Royal Society.John Houghton (1645-1705) was among the best-known apothecaries of his day, not least because of the wide range of exotic produce he sold from his shop in the City of London. With Robert Hooke's support, he was among the first merchants elected to the Royal Society, where he swiftly joined its committee for stimulating commerce. There, he applied his experience of international trade to produce two series of periodicals on commerce and agriculture, from 1681 to 1685 and from 1692 to 1703. These periodicals functioned as commercial almanacs, covering current prices, new innovations, and trading prices for joint-stock companies, among the earliest published stock exchange quotations. Houghton's correspondents ranged from such figures as Evelyn, Halley, and Flamsteed to country farmers and merchants, to whom he often sent complimentary copies in exchange for local information. Confusingly, it is the later 1692-1703 series that is collected in the first three volumes of this edition, while the fourth volume collects the material from 1681 to 1685. The first three volumes were also issued in 1727 by Woodman and Lyon under the title A Collection for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade: no priority has been established.

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