Bahamian business has meant small business, for the most part, and has often meant family business. From barbers to fruit vendors, from dry goods merchants to funeral directors, from lawyers to farmers, from midwives to after-school tutors to shoe cobblers to fishermen, Bahamians across the islands have sought income in order to trade it for something else and so have been involved in doing business. The goods and services that they offered were basic ones rather than luxury ones, usually. They welcomed cash in exchange for their products and their services, but they welcomed barter too. The field of opportunity to enter into business and to stay there profitably was not flat, to be sure. Race mattered. So did social class. So did ethnic roots. Those factors shaped access to capital and with it the size to which a business could grow. The field of opportunity had enclaves as well as slopes: much business activity took place in communities that were isolated from one another geographically or were segregated from one another racially. Any who braved this field faced basic challenges, like transportation and distribution in an archipelagic community. They faced alliances and cartels and monopolies that made it hard for them to hold their own. But in spite of differences in circumstance, what was common to Bahamian businesses of all stripes was an ethos of building one’s community. That meant offering goods and services which people needed. That meant offering wares on “trust”, or credit, to help sustain clients in their moments of need. That meant working collegially rather than ruthlessly with ‘competitors’ in the same industry. That meant making places of business places of meeting, to share community news and test political ideas. That meant giving employment to strangers not because their labour was needed but in order to help them or their families. For decade upon decade, Bahamian business has meant business enterprise for the sake of building one’s community.