scholarly journals The beginning of the early modern times in the West and cardinal geopolitical changes in the East of Europe in the second half of the 15th-16th centuries

Author(s):  
T. V. Chernikova

.

Author(s):  
Federico De Romanis

This book offers an interpretation of the two fragmentary texts of the P. Vindobonensis G 40822, now widely referred to as the Muziris papyrus. Without these two texts, there would be no knowledge of the Indo-Roman trade practices. The book also compares and contrasts the texts of the Muziris papyrus with other documents pertinent to Indo-Mediterranean (or Indo-European) trade in ancient, medieval, and early modern times. These other documents reveal the commercial and political geography of ancient South India; the sailing schedule and the size of the ships plying the South India sea route; the commodities exchanged in the South Indian emporia; and the taxes imposed on the Indian commodities en route from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. When viewed against the twin backdrops of ancient sources on South Indian trade and of medieval and early modern documents on pepper commerce, the two texts become foundational resources for the history of commercial relationships between South India and the West.


1947 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 155-171
Author(s):  
T'ai-ch'u Liao

Editor's Note: For the student of business history China has had a peculiar interest. It has illustrated forms and stages of business policy, organization, and technique which have nearly disappeared in the western world but which flourished there in medieval and early modern times. China, in a sense, has been somewhat in the nature of a contemporary ancestor of modern business as we know it. China's town economy, still generally prevailing in the great interior, is reminiscent of the town of medieval and early modern Europe with its small artisans and tradesmen and its market places which characterize the town and petty capitalist system of business; while China's commercial cities have marked the survival of the sedentary merchant and mercantile capitalism, long the great and coordinating business of the East as indeed it was of the West until about a century ago.


Author(s):  
Elia Nathan Bravo

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. On the one hand, it offers a general analysis of stigmas (a person has one when, in virtue of its belonging to a certain group, such as that of women, homosexuals, etc., he or she is subjugated or persecuted). On the other hand, I argue that stigmas are “invented”. More precisely, I claim that they are not descriptive of real inequalities. Rather, they are socially created, or invented in a lax sense, in so far as the real differences to which they refer are socially valued or construed as negative, and used to justify social inequalities (that is, the placing of a person in the lower positions within an economic, cultural, etc., hierarchy), or persecutions. Finally, I argue that in some cases, such as that of the witch persecution of the early modern times, we find the extreme situation in which a stigma was invented in the strict sense of the word, that is, it does not have any empirical content.


Author(s):  
Brandon Shaw

Romeo’s well-known excuse that he cannot dance because he has soles of lead is demonstrative of the autonomous volitional quality Shakespeare ascribes to body parts, his utilization of humoral somatic psychology, and the horizontally divided body according to early modern dance practice and theory. This chapter considers the autonomy of and disagreement between the body parts and the unruliness of the humors within Shakespeare’s dramas, particularly Romeo and Juliet. An understanding of the body as a house of conflicting parts can be applied to the feet of the dancing body in early modern times, as is evinced not only by literary texts, but dance manuals as well. The visuality dominating the dance floor provided opportunity for social advancement as well as ridicule, as contemporary sources document. Dance practice is compared with early modern swordplay in their shared approaches to the training and social significance of bodily proportion and rhythm.


1977 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Earl J. Hamilton

Wars in early modern times, although frequent, generated little price inflation because of their limited demands on real resources. The invention of paper currency and the resort to deficit financing to pay for wars changed that situation. In recent centuries wars have been the principal causes of inflation, although since World War II programs of social welfare unmatched by offsetting taxation have also fueled inflationary flames.


The history of war is also a history of its justification. The contributions to this book argue that the justification of war rarely happens as empty propaganda. While it is directed at mobilizing support and reducing resistance, it is not purely instrumental. Rather, the justification of force is part of an incessant struggle over what is to count as justifiable behaviour in a given historical constellation of power, interests, and norms. This way, the justification of specific wars interacts with international order as a normative frame of reference for dealing with conflict. The justification of war shapes this order and is being shaped by it. As the justification of specific wars entails a critique of war in general, the use of force in international relations has always been accompanied by political and scholarly discourses on its appropriateness. In much of the pertinent literature the dominating focus is on theoretical or conceptual debates as a mirror of how international normative orders evolve. In contrast, the focus of the present volume is on theory and political practice as sources for the re- and de-construction of the way in which the justification of war and international order interact. The book offers a unique collection of papers exploring the continuities and changes in war discourses as they respond to and shape normative orders from early modern times to the present. It comprises contributions from International Law, History and International Relations and from Western and non-Western perspectives.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document