But students hate them and have a hard time appreciating how cases like the following are relevant to their lives:   * the sale of a silk mercer’s business circa 1773 England * payments for itinerant farming circa 1834 New England * a delayed rail transport for a mill’s crank shaft circa 1854 England * musty gambling loans circa 1859 Buffalo * the destruction by fire of a London theater circa 1863 * sailing ships lacking radio call letters plying for Liverpool… [read post]