Elucidating needs,lifestyles,and community: researching a late eighteenth-century account book from Lexington,Virginia

This article deals with the search for the identity of the individual for whom an elaborate late eighteenth-century American account book was prepared. The article is also concerned with how the account book served the needs of this merchant and how the book reflects the socio-economic conditions of the times in which the merchant lived. This book shows his multifaceted activities as a merchant, importer, exporter and banker, highlighting the lack of specie and extensive use of barter at the time.