The opening up of the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries offered new opportunities for employment in terms of location and role. The documents in China, America and the Pacific can be used to examine a range of issues related to labour and employment, from regulations to the experiences of individual workers. 

There are valuable sources for big companies, such as the Hudson’s Bay Company. Deed Poll by the Governor and Company of Hudson's Bay with Respect to their Chief Factors and Chief Traders for Conducting their Trade in Rupert's Land and North America…; Hudson's Bay Company Deed Poll on Corporate Structure; Hudson's Bay Company Deed Poll on Updated Corporate Structure; and Standing Rules and Regulations of the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company Fur Trade Estimated by the Council for the Northern Department of Rupert's Land all outline the rules by which officers of the company were supposed to operate. More general regulations can be found in Hudson's Bay Company Fur Trade Post Manual.