While sitting in their comptoir (office), merchants in early modern Holland were able to manage their plantations in the West Indies or, nearby, their seigniories in the Netherlands because they could make use of records spanning space and time. The merchants knew that information was not only instrumental in running their own business, but was also effective on a larger scale in exercising knowledge, control, and power. The performative power of records—that they may make, and in fact do make a difference in status before and after—was used in the management at a distance. From the seventeenth century, women became involved in business. They got access to the office where records supported business outside the home, but as part of everyday life.

中文翻译：

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荷兰书局作为信息中心

坐在早期的荷兰办公室中，现代荷兰的商人能够管理他们在西印度群岛或附近的荷兰种植园，因为他们可以利用跨越时空的记录。商家知道，信息不仅有助于经营自己的业务，而且在行使知识，控制权和权力方面也具有更大的作用。记录的执行力（它们可能在事实上和前后确实会造成状态变化）在一定距离的管理中被使用。从十七世纪开始，妇女开始从事商业活动。他们可以进入办公室，那里的唱片为家庭以外的业务提供了支持，但只是日常生活的一部分。