Cambridge Archive Editions is a UK-based publisher of historical document collections mainly researched from governmental archives. We consult widely in all possible fi le classes to create as varied a research product as possible, including top secret papers. We publish these primary source documents in facsimile in order to keep the veracity of the original. Without examination of primary historical sources our understanding of history can become obscure. Secondary sources will always move us away from fresh personal judgement of the events under review even while they may be opening up our imagination to a new perspective. History, it is said, is written by the “winners” and so we must always bring our critical faculties to bear upon all sources of information. Obviously these collections of British Government documents are not without their bias and strategic concerns, we expect that. However, from the late 1700s the British Empire established consulates wherever possible: Turkey, China, Japan, and in Russia, all in the effort to extend trade and kept contemporaneous records wherever it made treaties or engaged in governing local populations. The broad range of countries covered and the tremendous detail create a unique opportunity to examine past events closely