The Board of Trade papers contain correspondence, memoranda, printed material and other papers arising from WSC's activities as President of the Board of Trade, a position which he held from 12 April 1908 to 14 February 1910. The papers have been divided into correspondence and subject-based files, and are arranged chronologically.The Board of Trade material covers WSC's routine ministerial duties, as well as the specific issues of the period. These include: state unemployment insurance, linked with a network of labour exchanges; the regulation of wages in the "sweated industries" by the Trade Boards Act; the establishment of a Court of Arbitration in labour disputes; the centralization of London's electricity supply; the establishment of the Port of London Authority; labour disputes in the Lancashire cotton industry; the amalgamation of the Great Northern, Great Central and Great Eastern Railway Companies; commercial relations with France; patent law reform; tariff reform; the Suez Canal; economic conditions in Germany; the Baghdad [Mesopotamia, later Iraq] Railway and trade in Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf.The papers also include general reports on employment, trade and industry, from 1907 to 1910.