Mathematical Treasure: Edward Hatton's Merchant's Magazine

The Merchant’s Magazine or Trades Man’s Treasury was published in London in the early part of the 18th century. The book was intended for merchants and provided instruction and advice on arithmetic, bookkeeping, and accounting, among other subjects.  Little is known about its author, Edward Hatton (born in 1664), other than that he eventually published other books on mathematics. This is the title page of the fifth edition of 1707. The book was in print as early as 1701 and as late as 1712.

These four pages provide tables of measurement conversion for several commodities of this period:

On pages 44 and 45, the author gave instruction on the operation of division:

These images are presented through the courtesy of the Dartmouth College Libraries, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Index to Mathematical Treasures