scholarly journals Conclusions

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-179
Author(s):  
Manuel Perez-Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Market Integration ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Spanish Empire ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Weak State ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Trade Routes

Abstract The Spanish and Qing empires were connected through the agency of merchants, the trade networks they created, and the circulation of goods which fostered local demand. Trade routes, mainly the maritime economic arteries such as the Manila galleons, connected and integrated Western markets and polities, in this case the Spanish empire with the Middle Kingdom. The constant inflow of American silver into China and the outflow of highly prized Chinese goods (i.e. silk, tea, porcelain) into European and American markets were the main features for such market integration between the Bourbon (French) Spanish empire and the Qing (Manchu, non-Han) dynasty. This surpassed the realm of official institutions of both empires along with their concomitant weak state capacity.

China After Mao

Worldview ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 22 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 19-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Buultjens
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Historic Memory ◽  
Second Chance

History rarely gives civilizations a second chance. The record of Egypt, Greece, Rome, Mohenjo-Daro, the Incas, the Khmers, Spain, Turkey, Britain, and many other nations suggests that civilizational excellence is impermanent and, once lost, remains beyond resurrection. Of all these great societies China appeared the most enduring. For close to two thousand years, from the Han Dynasty at the turn of the Christian era to the early Ch'ing Dynasty about two hundred years ago, the Middle Kingdom was one of the best governed and most advanced countries on earth. Cultural and technological achievements combined to make China a superpower among states for a longer period than that experienced by any other major nation. Eventually, however, the norms of history prevailed. Foreign intrusion and internal confusion brought decline throughout the nineteenth century. By the time China entered the twentieth century the Confucian order had collapsed—its greatness an historic memory, its claim to empire a semantic fiction.

THE MAIN ‘MIDDLE BYZANTINE PRODUCTION’ AND POTTERY MANUFACTURE IN THEBES AND CHALCIS

2014 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 379-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.Y. Waksman ◽  
N.D. Kontogiannis ◽  
S.S. Skartsis ◽  
G. Vaxevanis
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Kiln Furniture ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Concentric Circles ◽  
The Impact

The article relates the results of archaeometric and archaeological investigations of the relationships between some well-known types of Byzantine table wares and pottery manufacture in Thebes and Chalcis, focusing on the period from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries ad.We currently accept that several twelfth–thirteenth century types, such as ‘Green and Brown Painted Ware’, ‘Fine Sgraffito Ware’ and ‘Aegean Ware’, form part of a single, main, long-lasting production of Byzantine ceramics, called here main ‘Middle Byzantine Production’ (MBP), which was distributed and diffused in the whole Mediterranean area, and especially in its eastern part. The discovery of kiln furniture and pottery wasters in rescue excavations in Thebes and Chalcis gave the opportunity to define chemical reference groups for the two cities, and to test the hypothesis of a potential origin of the MBP in Central Greece. The results point to Chalcis, then the harbour of wealthy Thebes with a strategic location on maritime trade routes, as the place of manufacture of the MBP. Chalcis, which is now seen as a main pottery production site, is envisaged within its historic context. The persistence of the MBP after the Frankish conquest, without noticeable morphological changes, questions the impact of this conquest on both trade networks and dining habits.The political fragmentation of the thirteenth century gradually changed the conditions that facilitated the predominance of the MBP, and led to the establishment of a number of regional workshops whose ceramics were mainly destined to cover local markets. While continuing earlier techniques, they introduced new types, prominent among which was the ‘Sgraffito with Concentric Circles’ (previously related to ‘Zeuxippus Ware’). Thebes was one of these new workshops probably appearing from the mid-thirteenth century and continuing at least to the early fourteenth century. Chalcis eventually followed the same course, and its production may have carried on well into the Ottoman period.

A Study on the Coins and Their Uses in the Chinese Han Dynasty Excavated in Japan and Southern Part of the Korean Peninsula.

2019 ◽  
pp. 5-29
Author(s):  
Wook Taek Kwon
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Han ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Prestige Goods ◽  
Political Purpose ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
Intended Use

This study is focused on figuring out the changes in the coin use according to its inflow, use and disuse by comparing in what condition did the coins of Chinese Han(漢) era had excavated which have been found a lot in southern part of Korea and Japan. Also, this study suggests several possible causes of concentration of Huoquan(貨泉) in Japan. Since the 2nd century B.C., many polities have been formed in Korean peninsula and Japan and they started to obtain the relics of Han through Nakrang(樂浪) for their political purpose to strengthen their political power. Coins used in Han era are also thought to be obtained as prestige goods or souvenirs at first. To some point in 1st century B.C., coins are thought to be used in exchanging things for everyday life as a number of them were found in middle stops on coastal trade routes. Since it is assumed that there were times when these two forms of trade coexisted, coins must have been brought in various routes. Since the beginning of 1st century, some changes are found in the condition of coins being excavated, which is no longer buried in tombs, but only in coastal areas, and a number of them are excavated in Japan. Especially in Japan, a great number of coins named Huoquan are found due to the intentional spread of Nakrang. It is assumed that Nakrang supplied Wangmang coins to the surrounding areas which had lost their value for currency after the collapse of the Xin(新). Refer to documents and ethnographic examples, it is believe that Huoquan which had supplied to Korean peninsula and Japan might have been used for other uses, not for intended use. There are three possibilities for use: First, they could have been used for other purposes such as passes when Samhan(三韓) people trade with Nakrang, secondly, for foreign currency of Nakrang, and third, they might have lost their values so that discarded. Fourthly, they could be used to pray for the safety of the voyage.

scholarly journals Roads to Rule, Roads to Rebel: Relational State Capacity and Conflict in Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 002200272096367
Author(s):  
Carl Müller-Crepon ◽  
Philipp Hunziker ◽  
Lars-Erik Cederman
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
Weak State ◽  
Road Maps ◽  
State Capital ◽  
Conflict In Africa ◽  
Relational State

Weak state capacity is one of the most important explanations of civil conflict. Yet, current conceptualizations of state capacity typically focus only on the state while ignoring the relational nature of armed conflict. We argue that opportunities for conflict arise where relational state capacity is low, that is, where the state has less control over its subjects than its potential challengers. This occurs in ethnic groups that are poorly accessible from the state capital, but are internally highly interconnected. To test this argument, we digitize detailed African road maps and convert them into a road atlas akin to Google Maps. We measure the accessibility and internal connectedness of groups via travel times obtained from this atlas and simulate road networks for an instrumental variable design. Our findings suggest that low relational state capacity increases the risk of armed conflict in Africa.

Trade by Rulers and States

2020 ◽  
pp. 226-248
Author(s):  
Ron Harris
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Geographic Scale ◽  
Chinese State ◽  
Chinese Empire

This chapter examines the formation, weaknesses, and demise of two ruler-owned trade enterprises. It describes the mercantile endeavors of early Ming China and sixteenth-century Portugal. The two were radically different. The Chinese state was based on Confucian ideology, on extensive learned bureaucracy, on a worldview of being the Middle Kingdom, and on its huge geographic scale and huge population. In many eras the Chinese Empire had no ambitions with respect to overseas trade, and in others it allowed either foreign or local merchants to trade but was not involved in trade directly. Portugal was a small and young kingdom on the margins of the Iberian Peninsula. Its state capacity was limited, but its exposure to seafaring was significant due to its location on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

Distant Tyranny

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Grafe
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Domestic Market ◽  
Spanish Empire ◽  
International Economy ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Steady Improvement

This chapter discusses how domestic market integration in Spain was much slower than it's integration with the international economy over the long run, and its progress was regionally extremely diverse. Poor transport technology and bad roads did not help matters and provide some of the background for understanding Spanish markets. Still, transport itself exhibited a trend toward slow but steady improvement over the century and a half under consideration here. Moreover, there is little evidence that Spain's political economy suffered from the sort of expropriatory failings of supposedly centralizing, all-powerful “absolutist” states that earlier literature had diagnosed. As historians of the Spanish Empire have long pointed out, in the Spanish monarchy, even in its European core, absolutism was merely a political aspiration.

A Reconsideration of Wangara/Palolus, Island of Gold

1981 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Keech McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Niger Delta ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Niger Delta Region ◽  
Inland Niger Delta ◽  
Alternative Identification ◽  
Major Urban Centre

There is a general consensus among West African historians that the Island of Gold, known to Arab geographers as Wangara and to European cartographers as Palolus, refers to the Bambuk/Bure goldfields. This article examines the evidence for an alternative identification of the Island of Gold with the Inland Niger Delta, where the place name Wangara would be derived from Soninke long-distance traders (Wangara). Many of the details on the Island of Gold provided in the original sources can be shown to apply more convincingly to the Inland Niger Delta than to Bambuk/Bure. Until now, this hypothesis has not received serious consideration, partly because of the belief that the Inland Delta and its most important entrepot, Jenne, did not play a significant role in long-distance trade networks until the fourteenth century. This is contradicted by archaeological evidence for a major urban centre at Jenne-jeno by 900 a.d.The existence in the later first millennium a.d. of the Soninke town of Jenne-jeno, and the oral traditions which maintain that the western Inland Delta was the heartland of the Soninke trade diaspora, combine to indicate that commerce along the Middle Niger was substantial by the early second millennium. Indirect confirmation of this trading activity is found both in al-Bakri's discussion of riverine trade routes along the upper Niger Bend and in al-Idrisi's account of the Wangara along the Middle Niger. The continuing identification of the Inland Niger Delta region as the Island of Gold from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries implies that part of this trade involved gold. A possible early gold source in Lobi is suggested.

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