‘Technical Co–operation’ Between the League of Nations and China

1979 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Osterhammel

When in August 1933 the German Minister to China, Dr Oskar P. Trautmann, reported to Berlin, ‘daβ die Völkerbundsmelodie politisch hier ausgespielt hat’, he had jumped to a conclusion too soon. When two years later the Journal Round Table commented, ‘to-day the League of Nations is no longer a political factor in the Far East’, this assessment was vindicated by evidence of every description. The two years between had witnessed the peak and decline of the League of Nation's ‘technical co-operation’ with the National Government of China. This episode plays its part as one of the major accomplishments of the League during the dismal second decade of its existence. It figures, however, only marginally in the history of twentieth-century China. Western works on modern Chinese history tend to neglect it altogether, and the most comprehensive scholarly treatment of China's foreign relations during the Republican period does not even deem it worth a reference in passing. On the other hand, the one authoritative textbook on modern Chinese economic history published in the People's Republic of China devotes ample space to the denunciation of the League's Chinese enterprise.

1973 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 811-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Keith Aufhauser

In the last few years, the controversy over the economic history of slavery has centered about two positions. On the one hand, Genovese has argued that the slave mode of production was fundamentally antagonistic to the bourgeois mode and that the conflicts between the two systems doomed slavery to a nineteenth-century grave. On the other hand, Conrad and Meyer spawned many studies which, on the whole, denied that any specifically economic difficulties resulted from the fact that the American south was based on slave labor. Against Genovese's original claim that “the material basis of the planters' power was giving way,” the statistical evidence indicated that the profits of the slave plantation were as high as those on non-slave business investments, and that the diffusion of technological changes was rapid enough to cause a rate of productivity increase equal to that of all but the most rapidly growing sectors of the free economy. Sheer volume supplemented the elegance of the early discussion and our knowledge of the slave economy expanded considerably.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-146
Author(s):  
Andreas Langenohl

Abstract Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology has been written with the intention to offer lessons from the historical trajectory of economic redistribution in societies the world over. Thereby, the book suggests learning from the political-economic history of ‘social-democratic’ policies and societal arrangements. While the data presented speak to the plausibility of looking at social democracy, as understood by Piketty, as an archive for learning about the effects of redistribution mechanisms, I argue that the book, or future interventions might profit from integrating alternative archives. On the one hand, its current line of argumentation tends to underestimate the significance of power relations in the international political economy that continued after formal decolonization, and thus form the flip side of social democracy’s success in Europe and North America. On the other hand, the role of the polity might be imagined in a different and more empowering way, not just-as in Piketty-as an elite-liberal democratic governance institution; for instance, it would be interesting to explore the archive of the French solidaristes movement more deeply than Piketty does, as well as much more recent interventions in economic anthropology that deal with ‘economic citizenship’ in the Global South.


Naukratis ◽  
2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Moller

In accordance with the hermeneutical principles laid down in the introduction, this chapter will be devoted to an account of the theoretical models underlying the analysis and interpretation of the source material. Karl Polanyi’s empirical observations resulted in a series of ideal-types such as can be employed for the evaluation of the evidence from Naukratis in the following chapters. Polanyi’s works do not form one single, complete theory of economy; rather, they should be seen—as Sally Humphreys has put it so aptly—as sketches of areas within largely unexplored territory. It is of course true that George Dalton went to great lengths to develop Polanyi’s ideas further; the fact nevertheless remains that they continue to be far from accepted as paradigms for all further research in the field of economic anthropology or economic history. Indeed, such continuations of Polanyi’s approach have served only to limit unduly the openness that is the very advantage of his ideal-types. It is for this reason that one should return to Polanyi himself and employ his original ideas. His work has been taken up by only a few within the realm of the economic history of classical antiquity, something due partly to his own—problematic—statements on the subject of Greek history, and partly to lack of interest shown for anthropological approaches within ancient history. Polanyi disagreed with the view that markets were the ubiquitous form of economic organization—an attitude regarding the notion of the market as essential to the description of every economy—and also with the belief that it is the economic organization of any given society which determines its social, political, and cultural structures. For his part, Polanyi contended that an economy organized around the market first came into being with the Industrial Revolution, and that it was not until then that the two root meanings of the word ‘economic’—on the one hand, in the sense of provision with goods; on the other, in the sense of a thrifty use of resources, as in the words ‘economical’ and ‘economizing’—merged.


1991 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abla Amawi ◽  
Michael R. Fischbach

Many works on Transjordan during the Mandate period are based almost exclusively upon British, American and Israeli archival material, as well as reports published by the Mandatory government, such as those sent annually to the League of Nations from 1921 to 1938. These records are important; however, they should not be used in isolation from indigenous Jordanian records. Such records do exist, are accessible, and are absolutely essential for a thorough study of the country. We herewith offer details of two relatively unknown and under-utilized bodies of Jordanian documents from the Mandate period, the records of the central office of the Jordanian Department of Lands and Survey and those of the Amman Chamber of Commerce, as examples of the types of indigenous sources which are available in Jordan today.


2005 ◽  
Vol 181 ◽  
pp. 190-192
Author(s):  
Timothy B. Weston

In A Bitter Revolution, Rana Mitter offers a broad-brushed interpretive essay intended for a general reader rather than a focused academic study. Because of his target audience and the expansiveness of his topic, Mitter's prose is informal and he frequently inserts textbook-style passages. Mitter intermittently offers his own illuminating readings of primary source material and throughout the work he engages with an impressive range of recently published scholarly research findings but, in the main, this book's originality lies in its integrative and sweeping narrative reading of China's modern revolutionary history.Mitter's account is organized around a number of biographical sketches (most prominently of Zou Taofen and Du Zhongyuan) and several key historiographical contentions. Cumulatively, those contentions serve to open modern Chinese history to a range of new approaches and questions. First, Mitter argues that Chinese historians must resist the habit of centring their interpretive focus on the Communist story given the relative brevity of the Communist revolution and the fact that three very important decades have passed since its high point. This leads to the second contention – namely that in important ways contemporary Chinese politics and society share more in common with the May Fourth period than they do with the Maoist era. As Mitter sees it, the May Fourth movement, and the political and cultural pluralism of the pre-war Republican period more broadly, have remained highly relevant over the course of modern Chinese history. For this reason, he chooses to weave his narrative around that generation's passage through life during the 20th century. Thirdly, interpreters of modern Chinese history must do more to foreground the complex and multiple ways that the broader international political environment influenced China's revolutionary process over the course of the 20th century. And fourthly, it is as important to understand daily life and how it has changed over time as it is to study the large, abstract forces that shape society. In recent decades these historiographical ideas have steadily gained ground within the field of modern Chinese history, yet Mitter is among the first to build a sustained narrative statement on 20th-century China around them. In presenting this synthetic account, Mitter has performed an important and very useful service to the field.


1979 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cho-yun Hsu

In this essay, I will survey recent scholarship on several major issues in the political, social, and economic history of ancient China, from the beginning of the Shang Dynasty to the end of the Han Dynasty. Archaeological aspects will be discussed only when their historical significance requires it, since the archaeological discoveries of recent decades have already been the subject of Professor Kwang-chih Chang's state-of-the-field article in The Journal of Asian Studies.


1986 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 793-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitsuhiko Kimura

Feeling strong pressure from Western Powers Japan abandoned her seclusion policy in 1854 and inaugurated serious efforts to modernize her society and economy after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. She, in turn, forced Korea who had been keeping the seclusion policy on her own to open the door in 1876. The feudal Korean government (the Yi Dynasty, 1392–1910) was impelled to embark on social and economic reforms by opening the door. Yet, after nearly thirty years’ struggle to make reforms and to secure the independence of the country, Korea was converted into a protectorate of Japan in 1905 and was officially annexed to her in 1910. The Japanese government recognized that the creation of modern monetary and banking systems in Korea was the precondition for trade expansion between the two countries (for Japan, rice imports on the one hand and textile exports on the other) and thus started its colonial rule over Korea by establishing a central bank, development banks and financial cooperatives. This paper aims at setting forth an analysis of a more or less unexplored field in the study of the economic history of Korea, that is, the financial aspects of her economic growth under Japanese rule. Particularly, emphasis will be placed on quantitative analysis of major financial variables represented by money, interest rates and bank credit. Before proceeding to the main subject, it may well serve to review some of the financial problems in the late Yi Dynasty period.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.S. Ippolitov

Российская гуманитарная деятельность периода Гражданской войны на территориях, подконтрольных антибольшевистским режимам, и в эмиграции является малоизученной областью отечественной исторической науки, интерес к которой в среде профессиональных историков не ослабевает. Статья посвящена изучению источников различного происхождения, позволяющих сформировать источниковую базу исследования российской гуманитарной деятельности: от фондов Российского общества Красного Креста в Сибири до воспоминаний деятелей Белого движения, от документов Министерства снабжения и продовольствия Омского правительства и его местных органов, касавшихся ситуации с поставками хлеба, до протоколов с именами репрессированных в Крыму сестер милосердия РОКК, хранящихся в Отраслевом государственном архиве Службы безопасности Украины. Особое внимание обращено на богатейшую коллекцию документов Русского заграничного исторического архива в Праге (РЗИА), переданного нашей стране в 1945 г. Корпус документов из состава Пражского архива хранится сегодня в Государственном архиве Российской Федерации. В результате проведенного исследования автор пришел к выводу, что в условиях деградации государственных и муниципальных институтов, развала политической жизни, острого гражданского конфликта, экономического кризиса, охватившего всю территорию бывшей Российской империи, дефицита предметов первой необходимости и продуктов питания российская гуманитарная деятельность не только не была свернута, но и пережила на коротком отрезке времени расцвет. Поэтому определение и описание корпуса источников для изучения этой исторической области по-прежнему остается актуальной задачей.The bulk of sources on Russian humanitarian activity during the Civil War period had been accumulated in the collections of the Prague Archive, a collection of documents that originated in Prague as an institution with the Cultural and Educational Department of the Prague Zemgor in 1923. Later it was called the Russian Historical Archive Abroad in Prague. Thanks to the financial support of the Czechoslovak government and a developed system of representatives, the Archive annually replenished its collection of documents that reflected the activities of Russian emigrants in different countries of the world. And if documents of the government of Admiral Kolchak and his military staff are presented in a fair number, the funds of personal origin are extremely small. Thus, documentary collections, allowing to at least fragmentarily complement the canvas of Russian humanitarian activity during the Civil War are of great value. The Fund of M.L. Kondakov, a representative of the Russian Red Cross Society during the rule of Admiral Kolchak in 1918, contains draft documents and personal correspondence of the author on the Russian Red Cross Societys recovery humanitarian activity in Siberia and the Far East. Among the few funds of personal origin that preserve sources on the history of humanitarian activity during the Civil war and emigration, is the Fund of Vissarion Gurevich, a lawyer and a public figure, who was a member of the Siberian Zemstvo and City Union and a member of the Economic Meetings under the Chief Representative of Admiral Kolchak during the war. Domestic archives have more funds of personal origin of political and public figures, who, to some extent, participated in the activities of the governments of A.I. Denikin and later P.N. Wrangel and managed to evacuate and take out their papers during the Crimean evacuation. The situation with the supply of bread was reflected in the documents of the Ministry of Food Supply and Consumption and its local authorities, as well as the various organisations involved in the procurement. Therefore, the documentary materials created during the daily activities of these agencies are an important source for studying both the humanitarian and financial policies of the White Siberian authorities and the economic history of the region during this period. The Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine has a significant array of documents for the study of Russian humanitarian activity. In 1998, a collection of documents The Legislative Activity of the White Governments of Siberia (JuneNovember 1918) was published. Attempts to carry out human rights activities in Soviet Russia, as part of the ceneral humanitarian canvas of the post-revolutionary era, are reflected in the publication Two Episodes from the Life of Literary Organisations: Report of Deputies of Literary Organisations on a Trip to Moscow in the Case of Arrested Writers and Scholars. The source tells about the events of 2829 August 1919 when the leaders of the so-called National Centre were arrested in Moscow and the lists of members of this organisation were seized.


Author(s):  
Seth Anziska

American policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict has reflected dueling impulses at the heart of US-Middle East relations since World War II: growing support for Zionism and Israeli statehood on the one hand, the need for cheap oil resources and strong alliances with Arab states on the other, unfolding alongside the ebb and flow of concerns over Soviet influence in the region during the Cold War. These tensions have tracked with successive Arab–Israeli conflagrations, from the 1948 war through the international conflicts of 1967 and 1973, as well as shifting modes of intervention in Lebanon, and more recently, the Palestinian uprisings in the occupied territories and several wars on the Gaza Strip. US policy has been shaped by diverging priorities in domestic and foreign policy, a halting recognition of the need to tackle Palestinian national aspirations, and a burgeoning peace process which has drawn American diplomats into the position of mediating between the parties. Against the backdrop of regional upheaval, this long history of involvement continues into the 21st century as the unresolved conflict between Israel and the Arab world faces a host of new challenges.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
One-Soon Her

Abstract It is controversial whether a classifier (C) or measure word (M) in Chinese forms a constituent first with Num (numeral) or N in a [Num C/M N] phrase. This paper reviews evidence for the [Num C/M] constituency from modern Chinese and then provides evidence from historical and typological perspectives. Under the [Num C/M] constituency, not only the C/M word orders attested in Chinese history, but also all those attested elsewhere, can be straightforwardly accounted for by the head parameter, while such simplicity is unattainable under the [C/M N] constituency. In addition, fresh evidence is obtained from the internal word order within a complex numeral; e.g. san-shi ‘30’ is base-final, with n (3) and base (10) entering into a multiplicative function, 3×10. The same multiplicative function exists between Num and C/M, e.g. san-duo hua ‘3 C flower’ = 3×1 flower, and san-da hua ‘3 dozen flower’ = 3×12 flower. C/M and bases are thus unified as multiplicands, an insight further supported by the consistent correlation between the base-final order and the C/M-final order throughout the history of Chinese. A closer examination of the 103 classifier languages in Greenberg (1990[1978]) further reveals that, among the 52 languages whose numeral systems and C/M word orders can be obtained, the synchronization between the numeral base and C/M is nearly universal. The base-C/M unification as multiplicands and base-C/M synchronization in word order strongly suggest that Num and C/M form a single constituent.


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