Catalogue description Central administrative records

Central administrative records of the Board of Trade and successors.

Comprises:

• Minutes, BT 5
• Correspondence, BT 1-BT 3
• Miscellanea, BT 6
• Registers and indexes, BT 4 and BT 19
• Maps, BT 9
• Economic Affairs Office, BT 195
• Board of Trade confidential reports on activities, BT 196
• Iron and steel nationalisation papers, BT 231
• War risks insurance records, BT 365
• Parliamentary Branch files, BT 132
• Posts and telecommunications files, BT 229 and BT 363
• Specimens of series of documents destroyed, BT 900

A system of registration of the papers coming into the Board was instituted in 1808 and continued until 1864. The registers, in BT 4, record each paper with a registered number. But until 1839 the references in the minutes in BT 5 often make them an easier means of access to the papers than the registers. The registered numbers of the relevant papers appear in the minutes from 1832 as well as the bundle and paper numbers. But after 1839 the only means of reference to the papers is the register. For 1832, and from 1834 to 1864 there are indexes to the registers.