Selling Paris: The Real Estate Market and Commercial Culture in the Fin-de-siècle Capital

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-789
Author(s):  
Alexia Yates
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Real Estate Market ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
History Of

“Selling Paris” explores the cultural, economic, and spatial parameters of private construction in the French capital at the turn of the twentieth century. In contrast to the state-centered accounts that currently characterize our understanding of Paris as a capital of modernity, this project looks to private property owners, real estate brokers, and speculative developers, as well as the moral economy in which their projects took place, in order to understand the elaboration of the built landscape of the modern metropolis. I argue that new classes of market intermediaries—namely estate agents, market-oriented architects, and small-scale joint-stock firms—emerged in this period to build and market residential spaces, establishing apartments and buildings as merchandise and tenants as clients. Focusing on the activities of these commercial actors reveals the existence of a French culture of commerce centered on speculation and risk-taking, a business culture that profoundly affected the production of residential space during of one of the city's greatest periods of expansion. Thus, in contradistinction to scholarly accounts of both French entrepreneurialism and Parisian urban development, this project reconstructs the activities of a dynamic capitalist class whose uncoordinated projects were the main authors of the capital city's urban fabric. Tracing the manner in which housing and property operated as a commercial object during a crucial period of urbanization, moving between and among the economic activities of investment, speculation, production, and consumption, this project seeks to present a research agenda for both the cultural history of markets and the economic history of cities.

scholarly journals Revisiting currency swaps: hedging real estate investments in global city markets

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-209
Author(s):  
Philipp Bejol ◽  
Nicola Livingstone
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Real Estate Market ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Net Worth ◽  
Individual Asset

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to re-examine currency swaps as an effective hedging technique for individual asset performance in today’s global real estate market, by considering hypothetical prime office investments across six different cities and five currency pairs. The perspective of a risk-averse, high net worth, non-institutional, smaller-scale Swiss investor is paired with investors from five additional national markets. Design/methodology/approach The study examines currency swaps in key office markets across three continents (Frankfurt, London, New York, Sydney, Warsaw and Zurich) and extends previous work on the topic by adopting both Monte Carlo (MC) and Latin Hypercube (LH) techniques to create stochastic samples for individual asset performance analyses. This is the first paper to apply LH sampling to currency swaps with underlying real estate assets, and the validity of this method is compared with that of MC. Four models are presented: the experience of the domestic investor (no exchange rate (ER) fluctuations); an unhedged direct foreign investment; hedging rental income and initial purchase price via a currency swap; and hedging rental income and anticipated terminal value. Findings The efficacy of a swap depends on the historical framework of the ERs. If the foreign currency depreciates against the domestic one, hedging the repatriated cash flow of a property investment proved superior to the unhedged strategy (EUR, GBP, PLN and USD to the CHF). An investor would benefit from exposure to an appreciating foreign currency (CHF to the EUR, GBP, PLN and USD), with an unhedged strategy clearly outperforming the currency swap as well as the domestic investor’s performance, while a historically sideways fluctuating ER (AUD to the CHF) also favours an unhedged approach. In all scenarios, unexpected economic or market shocks could cause negative consequences on the repatriated proceeds. Practical implications This research is of interest to small-scale, non-institutional investors aiming to develop strategies for currency risk mitigation in international investments for individual assets; however, tax-optimising strategies and the implications on a larger portfolio have not been taken into account. Originality/value There is no recent academic work on the efficacy of currency swaps in today’s global office market, nor has the position of smaller-scale high net worth investors received much academic attention. This research revisits the discussion on their validity, providing contemporary insight into the performance of six markets using LH as an alternative and original sampling technique.

Cuba Through A New Lens

2008 ◽  
Vol 81 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 265-270
Author(s):  
Jean Stubbs
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
New Haven ◽  
Yale University ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

[First paragraph]The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered. Samuel Farber. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. x + 212 pp. (Paper US$ 19.95)Cuba: A New History. Ric hard Gott . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. xii + 384 pp. (Paper US$ 17.00)Havana: The Making of Cuban Culture. Antoni Kapcia. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2005. xx + 236 pp. (Paper US$ 24.95) Richard Gott, Antoni Kapcia, and Samuel Farber each approach Cuba through a new lens. Gott does so by providing a broad-sweep history of Cuba, which is epic in scope, attaches importance to social as much as political and economic history, and blends scholarship with flair. Kapcia homes in on Havana as the locus for Cuban culture, whereby cultural history becomes the trope for exploring not only the city but also Cuban national identity. Farber revisits his own and others’ interpretations of the origins of the Cuban Revolution.

scholarly journals Urban Heritage as Ethos in Resource-Based Small-Scale Property Management

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5354
Author(s):  
Ingrid Martins Holmberg
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Real Estate Market ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Real Estate ◽  
Construction Market ◽  
Urban Heritage ◽  
The Real Estate Market ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Right

This study puts urban heritage in the setting of property owners’ small-scale and resource-based management of ordinary old buildings. This phenomenon indicates a need not only to reconceptualize urban heritage in its actual complex web of negotiations over constraints of the regulation (urban planning, including preservation) and economy (the real estate market) but also to pay attention to the emergence of a new ethos. The case concerns a Swedish second-city context and the specific moment in time: When the 1990s recession had disarmed the real estate market. Based upon ethnographic fieldwork, this study used an assemblage perspective to allow for a following of entanglements of material and matter. The study sheds light upon the emergence of a small-scale and resource-based management in the midst of managerially defined cycles of investment. Important for the output was 1) the set-up of a network of skilled craftsmen, antiquarians, and entrepreneurs ‘of the right mindset that enabled for the authentic material result but that also helped navigate regulation and financial parties, 2) the “alternative market for reverential maintenance and repair” that guaranteed the appropriate supply of materials, products, and skills that differed from the mainstream construction market. For the means of understanding the ethos involved, the study introduced the notion of “factual life-span of buildings”. The overall aim of this article was to contribute to research on heritage urbanism by adding a resource management perspective that focusses on the entanglements of material and matter.

The French Conversion

Worldview ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 20-21
Author(s):  
Servan-Schreiber
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Jugular Vein ◽  
Brute Force ◽  
Political Strategies ◽  
Industrial Countries ◽  
History Of ◽  
Oil Embargo ◽  
New Phase

Has Machiavelli been translated into Arabic?" From this question, Servan- Schreiber goes on to cite the ways in which the oil embargo exposed Western European vulnerability and “isolated the only power which, in this hellish game, is to be feared, namely, America.” Combined with this, the October war in the Middle East brought new supremacy to Soviet arms and “upset the ratio of forces.” The effect is that “all the industrial countries have been grabbed by their jugular vein.” Servan-Schreiber cites the French analyst, Jean Fourastié, who claims: “A new phase of economic history, of the cultural history, of ideologies and political strategies declared itself in October, 1973. It started with a blockade … there remains only force.” The consequence may be the rule of brute force everywhere in domestic and international life. The Planet of the Apes. Servan-Schreiber contrasts Fourastié's view with that of Samuel Pisar, an American, who sees a collective progression of the planet through conflict. The course of reason may be a supreme challenge, but it is not superhuman. Servan-Schreiber admits to being torn between the two scenarios offered by Fourastié and Pisar.

Problems of Japanese Economic History

1963 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-628
Author(s):  
Sydney Crawcour
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Research Institutes ◽  
American Counterpart ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The economic history of the underdeveloped areas of the world, insofar as it has been written at all, has been written mainly by Western scholars. In the field of economic history, at any rate, Japan is far from underdeveloped. She has more economic historians per thousand academics than any other country in the world. Roughly a quarter of all faculty members of departments of economics are economic historians. Others are to be found in departments of history, in social science research institutes, and in faculties of agriculture, law, and even engineering. Even the local amateur antiquarian is far more interested in the economic activities of his forebears than is his European or American counterpart.

Principal Currents in the Economic Historiography of Latin America

1971 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 222-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley J. Stein ◽  
Shane J. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Economic History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
French School ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Function

It will perhaps clarify the remarks that follow if we observe at the outset that the economic history of Latin America is in its infancy. This is not to say that the development of economic institutions, the operation of economic systems, the formation and growth of economic activities and attitudes, and the formulation and execution of economic policy have gone unnoticed in the history of Latin America. It is only to state that the formal discipline of economic history, even the use of economic history as part of a title, are of recent date. As in the historiography of most areas of the world, political developments and personalities in Latin America have constituted the core of historiography, and even today the “new” interdisciplinary history of half a century ago in the United States or the more recent French school of “total” history have drawn few adherents to Latin America. Many factors may be adduced to explain the delayed interest in economic history, but one may hazard the guess that there is a positive correlation between the degree of criticism of the nature and function of an economy and both the quantity and quality of economic historiography. At least in the United States, economic history owes no small debt to a muck-raking tradition. In Latin America, on the contrary, the nature of the literate elite and the limits on education have tended to stifle until recently the development of a body of economic literature of protest and, by extension, of economic history.

A (New) Economic History of the American Revolution?

2018 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-128
Author(s):  
Emma Rothschild
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Point Of Departure

The article suggests that The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution can be the point of departure for a new economic history that combines the history of economic thought, economic-cultural history, especially of long-distance connections, and the history of ordinary exchanges in economic life.

scholarly journals Organizational structure and economic activities of the cooperative publishing house «Kultur-Liga» in the context of the study of economic history problems

2019 ◽  
pp. 110-122
Author(s):  
Yevhenii Kostyk
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Difficult Situation ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
History Of

The subject of research is the organizational structure and economic activities of the cooperative publishing house «Kultur-Liga». The aim of the study is to study the development of the organizational structure and economic activities of the cooperative publishing house «Kultur-Liga» in the context of economic history. Methods of research. All components of the study are based on fundamental principles – scientific, historicism, objectivity, system, development, priority of concrete verity, pluralism; and also the methods of knowledge of social and economic processes of social development – analysis, synthesis, problem-chronological, comparative analytical, archaeological, retrospective, statistical, a systematic and integrated approach. Research methodology. In the process of investigating this problem, the fundamental principles were based on economic history and history of economic thought, the Ukrainian and foreign scientists’ works and experts in this area. Results of the study. In the study, we tried to consider the development of the organizational structure and economic activities of the cooperative publishing house «Kultur-Liga» in the context of economic history. The field of application of results. The results of this study can be used in studying issues of economic history and the history of economic thought. Conclusions. Thus, noting the fact that we considered above – the development of the organizational structure and economic and economic activity of the cooperative publishing house «Kultura-Liga», permits to characterize the features of the formation organizational structure of a publishing house, to consider social and professional founders and members, to analyze a system of cooperative management based on a share company. It should be noted that in Ukraine at the present stage of development of the market economy where is dominated by various forms of ownership, a national publishing industry is in a difficult situation. The search of an effective model of the national book publishing is an important today, and so in the study particular attention is paid to own historical experience.

scholarly journals Zrnosko. Cultural Landscapes and Social Economy of a Village in Mala Prespa

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Nicola Carnevale ◽  
Petya V. Dimitrova ◽  
Bogdan D. Dražeta
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Social Geography ◽  
Mapping Method ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Productive Activities ◽  
History Of

This paper shows the first results of a preparatory fieldwork carried out in Zrnosko, a Macedonian-speaking village in the border region of Mala Prespa, Albania. Through observations and interviews collected around the concept of cultural landscape, it offers some insights into the history of the local social economy. Among these, the longue durée role of the forest and Prespa lake in the more general social geography of the region, the heritage of the collectivistic organization under the socialist regime of Enver Hoxha, and the contemporary marginalization of the village. The transformations in productive activities (such as small-scale agriculture and husbandry), as well as in the social organization of the local community, seem to reproduce and reshape local cultural landscapes. The widespread narratives about the lack of jobs offer a broader understanding of the village's social geography, its historical transformations and current condition. In a similar way local toponymy, as a result of an identity-building process, seems to reflect the cultural history of the environment, its productive activities and socio-cultural configurations. The participative mapping method, carried out in dialogue with locals, offers further explorations of the influence on toponyms in villagers' spatial practices, and in local identity narratives concerning ethnic and linguistic borders. Both productive activities and local geography seem to influence perceptions on the organization of space and time among inhabitants, revealing their cultural forms of appropriation and socialization of the land, as well as the current perception of its increasing abandonment. A synchronic-diachronic research on productive activities and the changings in space orienting elements mutually suggest a problematic, and ongoing, process of transition to an alternative productive model, which alternates subsistence economy with peripheral and ephemeral market-oriented efforts.

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