Only tables are transcribed; the running text, photographs, the map and the appendix documents (treaty, rescripts, proclamations) are not. Every text page was read. The book's errata slip (pp. 46-51) is noted on the tables it affects. Printed totals that do not add up are kept as printed and noted; every such table was transcribed a second time independently, and disputed cells went to a third reader (agreement settles a cell; otherwise it is marked unreadable). The one-sentence context notes are written by the transcriber from the surrounding text.