Several Listmates have asked me to explain the reason for the lack of interest in the Portuguese naval archives, as opposed to the national archives, and suggest a solution - if one is needed. First, it seems the world is Eurocentric, and wants to know what Europe did in the age of sail and exploration. There is less interest - so they tell me - in what Asia did during the same age. I'll know more about this when I begin the tour of Asian archives. My research is along the standard lines too, so I'm part of the general trend. I'm interested in testing economic theories on the formation of governments by the five major European powers - Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Britain - in the old and new worlds. Standard stuff. What sort of economy do we see from the various legal systems? But, economists are also interested in competition, in this case, competition from Asian ship owners. Why can we not find evidence of Asian owned, manned, and mastered ships? Did they not come, or are we not looking in the right place? In the Portuguese archives, the latter is true, and until I asked the question, no one had ever raised the issue, as far as they could remember. The archivists jumped at the opportunity to see what their resources could tell us about Asian shipping activity, and asked me to brief their personnel on my interest in the subject. That leads to the final issue: what can or should archivists do about this? My first thought was the archivists might draw upon other fields to give them a better insight into what it is they have in those dusty boxes. Archivists are good at preserving stuff, but have not yet - in those countries - begun to advertise to the world. Economists, in particular, will love it there, and can propose a structure to the archival material that will allow easier understanding and searching. As other fields are drawn to the Iberian archives, and their insights illuminate the uses of the data, both the presentation and the use of the information will increase. So, I suggested a symposium at their archives bringing in researchers from other fields to learn about the data there and suggest uses for the data in their own fields. I volunteered to raise some money and drag some of the Dismal Gang along to Lisbon. Lisbon's a nice town and the archives are in a beautiful building. * * * * * J B K * * * * * San Francisco A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>