The first major financial crisis occurred in Mexico, in December 1994, when the bottom fell out of the stock market […]

Weighed anchor about five morn, and plied till about noon, and then anchored. This day, at morn, went about the general to council: the result was, the fleet should ply near, as with convenience, to the Texel, to prevent a conjunction of those ships there with Admiral [Maarten] Tromp; […]

The shores of the rivers and creeks are chiefly planted with coffee, to the distance of about 30 miles from the sea; thence 30 miles farther up, the soil becomes clayey and more fit for sugar[-]canes.

As the nineteenth century and the Queen's reign ended, new players and new attitudes were to sweep away a lot of the characteristics of Albertopolis, including some of its small-town qualities, the nepotism, its interwoven employment and its interests — what we might call its 'cronyism'.