scholarly journals The Portuguese Royal Treasury: management, taxation and accounts control in the Johannine period (from 1814 to 1820)

Author(s):  
Claudio Nascimento Pedroso ◽  
José Paulo Cosenza ◽  
Alberto Donoso-Anes

In November 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte's troops were about to invade Portugal. To escape, the Queen of Portugal, Maria I, her son, future King Juan VI, Prince Regent at the time, as well as civilians and military men, had to embark and move to Brazil urgently. The transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil transformed the then colony of Portugal into the seat of the Portuguese monarchy, giving the country a significant role in the economic, social, and political issues of the Portuguese Empire, between 1808 and 1821. Among the changes made by the Portuguese Crown in Brazil in the process of reorganization of the State apparatus, we highlight the creation of the Royal Treasury, similar to the one existing in Lisbon since 1761, which was responsible for the collection and accounting entries of the income generated throughout the Portuguese domain. This paper examines the balance sheets of the ledger book of the 2nd Royal Treasury General Accountancy from 1814 to 1820, based on historical and documentary research conducted in the collections of the Brazilian National Archive. The purpose of this study is to analyze the quality of the accounting information recorded in the annual balance sheets, comparing it across different periods and determining its functionality as a tax control tool. The paper contributes to the literature with information on this special historical period in which Rio de Janeiro provisionally became the capital of the Portuguese Kingdom, maintaining a vital role in the political, economic, and social context of the time. The results of the study enable us to infer the economic conception of fiscal control that the Royal Treasury exercised in its administrative and accounting organization, showing the role played by accounting in the management of the Portuguese Royal House, given that accounting records reveal the ascendancy of the environment over accounting and the influence of accounting on the environment.

Antiquity ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (282) ◽  
pp. 827-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sila Tripati

The Lakshadweep Islands lie on the sea route between west Asia and Africa on the one hand and south Asia and the Far East on the other. In maritime history, these islands have played a vital role by providing shelter, fresh water and landmarks to navigators through the ages. Recent discoveries made during marine archaeological exploration and excavations in the Lakshadweep have revealed evidences of early settlement and shipwrecks. The findings suggest that the islands had been inhabited much before the early historical period.


2011 ◽  
pp. 446-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francois Fortier

There is a technology that was said to have the “power to disband armies, to cashier presidents, to create a whole new democratic world — democratic in ways never before imagined, even in America” (From Daniel Boorstin’s The Republic of Technology, cited in Winner, 1996, p.20). This technology was none other than television, whose potential for low-density mental reformatting is today more widely recognised than its affinity with democracy — in America as elsewhere. In fact, “Dreams of instant liberation from centralised social control have accompanied virtually every important new technological system introduced during the past century and a half” (Winner, 1986, pp.95-96). Collective memory is short, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) are now on the leading float of the technophile carnival. For many, the new technological artefacts promise to end the alienation of labour and industrial apocalypse, to leapfrog the so-called Third World into post-industrial informationalism, and to cast the foundations of slave-less, gender-balanced Athenian democracy (see notably Cairncross, 1997; Burton, 1997; Negroponte, 1995; Bissio, 1996; Annis, 1991; Lipnack and Stamps, 1986). Yet, beyond the hype of the so-called Information Revolution, ICTs are having other implications, more tuned to neo-liberal substance than classical utopia. Those implications call for a critical political economic analysis and precocious system planning and deployment. On the one hand, this chapter compares the overall political impact of the technology in relation to the immediate advantages it is said to confer. On the other hand, the analysis shows that the development and implementation of ICTs, far from serving democracy, does in fact consolidate social injustice through ideological homogenisation, restrictive controls, and an enhanced capacity for surveillance. In search of alternatives, the last section of the chapter focuses on the technological conditions and political strategies through which information systems could be more relevant to progressive social forces and grassroots emancipation.2 A matrix of relevant political issues is proposed in an effort to construct strategies of progressive community networking.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (25) ◽  
pp. 58-71
Author(s):  
Sergio Ramón Rojas Cardoso

El artículo presenta los hallazgos de una investigación hecha sobre el proceso de la génesis del campo artístico paraguayo y el fenómeno de grupos de vanguardia antagónicos, entre los años 50 y 60’s. Se utilizó el sistema teórico de Pierre Bourdieu, cuya puesta a prueba dejó ver que sus conceptos definen, simultáneamente, una interpretación conceptual específica y unas funciones metodológicas precisas en la reconstrucción de casos particulares: por ejemplo, mantener una perspectiva relacional, ejercer la ruptura con las prenociones y los datos preconstruidos, como también estabilizar un modelo analógico para la comparación entre casos ya establecidos. Esto significa que, si bien se estudiaron las propiedades singulares del caso, el objetivo radicó en inscribirlo en una serie de casos históricos semejantes mediante el razonamiento por analogía. El artículo presenta tres dimensiones estrictamente interrelacionadas: a) dimensión epistemológica; b) dimensión histórica; y c) una dimensión de análisis. Las proposiciones teóricas hacen inteligible que las tomas de posición de los grupos Arte Nuevo y Los Novísimos constituyeron unas específicas articulaciones entre la ética, la estética y la política en el arte paraguayo. This paper shows the research finding of the Paraguayan artistic field genesis process and the phenomenon of the avant-garde antagonistic groups around the 1950s and 1960s. Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical system was utilized for the purpose of construction and reconstruction: the deployment of concepts in this case showed that they define a specific conceptual interpretation and very precise methodological steps simultaneously. This means that, even if the singular properties of the case have been studied, the main aim resided in inscribing it in a series of similar historical cases through the reasoning by analogy. Furthermore, the logic of the investigation was composed of historical analysis, epistemological vigilance, and socio-analysis for the sake of reaching the rigorousness that characterizes sociology. The paper is structured by three interrelated dimensions: and epistemological dimension; a historical dimension; and a dimension of the analysis.Naturally, the Paraguayan artistic field has displayed singular properties like a particular case. But the heuristical power of Bourdieu’s theoretical propositions has allowed inscribing the Paraguayan case in the model of symbolic revolutions and in the specific struggle which revolved around the proper definition of art that was carried out by avant-garde groups. At the same time, the political context was a fundamental element: as Stroessner’s power was increasing (with the support of international cooperation like Brazil or the United States contributions), local artists, writers, and intellectuals were defining the structure and the autonomy of the cultural production field. Primarily, the importance of the actions of the group called Arte Nuevo was fundamental in the relative rupture with postulates of academic art; but later, Los Novísimos’ irruption played as a trigger of ethic and aesthetic investments that modified the field structure as it was emerging. Results show, on the one hand, the interrelations between ethics, aesthetic and political issues in the Paraguayan artistic field during the historical period studied and, on the other hand, the theoretical force of Bourdieu’s concepts. Finally, the approach applies a dispositionalist theory to study the process of symbolic production.


Author(s):  
Munawar Haque

Abstract  The purpose of this article is to explore the views of Sayyid Abul AÑlÉ MawdËdÊ[1] on ijtihÉd.[2] It intends to trace the origins of MawdËdÊ’s ideas within the social, cultural and political context of his time, especially the increasing influence of modernity in the Muslim world.  The study will show that MawdËdÊ’s understanding of ijtihÉd and its scope demonstrates originality.  For MawdËdÊ, ijtihÉd is the concept, the process, as well as the mechanism by which the SharÊÑah,[3] as elaborated in the Qur’Én and the Sunnah[4] is to be interpreted, developed and kept alive in line with the intellectual, political, economic, legal, technological and moral development of society.  The notion of ijtihÉd adopted by MawdËdÊ transcends the confines of Fiqh[5] (jurisprudence) and tends therefore to unleash the dormant faculties of the Muslim mind to excel in all segments of life.   [1] Sayyid Abul AÑlÉ MawdËdÊ was born on September 25, 1903 in Awrangabad, a town in the present Maharashtra state of India in a deeply religious family.  His ancestry on the paternal side is traced back to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).  The family had a long-standing tradition of spiritual leadership, for a number of MawdËdÊ’s ancestors were outstanding leaders of ØËfÊ Orders.  One of the luminaries among them, the one from whom he derives his family name, was KhawÉjah QuÏb al-DÊn MawdËd (d. 527 AH), a renowned leader of the ChishtÊ ØËfÊ Order. MawdËdÊ died on September 22, 1979. See Khurshid Ahmad and Zafar Ishaq Ansari, “MawlÉnÉ Sayyid Abul AÑlÉ MawdËdÊ: An Introduction to His Vision of Islam and Islamic Revival,”, in Khurshd Ahmad and Zafar Ishaq Ansari (eds.) Islamic Perspectives: Studies in Honour of MawlÉnÉ Sayyid Abul A’lÉ MawdËdÊ,  (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation,1979), 360. [2]  In Islamic legal thought, ijtihÉd is understood as the effort of the jurist to derive the law on an issue by expending all the available means of interpretation at his disposal and by taking into account all the legal proofs related to the issue.  However, its scope is not confined only to legal aspect of Muslim society.  MawdËdÊ’s concept of ijtihÉd is defined as the legislative process that makes the legal system of Islam dynamic and makes its development and evolution in the changing circumstances possible.  This results from a particular type of academic research and intellectual effort, which in the terminology of Islam is called ijtihÉd.  The purpose and object of ijtihÉd is not to replace the Divine law by man made law.  Its real object is to properly understand the Supreme law and to impart dynamism to the legal system of Islam by keeping it in conformity with the fundamental guidance of the SharÊÑah and abreast of the ever-changing conditions of the world.  See Sayyid Abul AÑlÉ MawdËdÊ, The Islamic Law and Constitution, translated and edited by Khurshid Ahmad, (Lahore: Islamic Publications Ltd, 1983), 76.[3] SharÊÑah refers to the sum total of Islamic laws and guidance, which were revealed to the Prophet MuÍammad (peace be upon him), and which are recorded in the Qur’Én as well as deducible from the Prophet’s divinely guided lifestyle (called the Sunnah). See Muhammad ShalabÊ, al-Madkhal fÊ at-TaÑ’rÊf  b alil-Fiqh al-IslÉmÊ, (Beirut: n.p., 1968),.28.[4]Sunnah is the way of life of the Prophet (peace be upon him), consisting of his sayings, actions and silent approvals. It is also used to mean a recommended deed as opposed to FarÌ or WÉjib, a compulsory one.[5]  Originally Fiqh referred to deliberations related to one’s reasoned opinion, ra’y.  Later the expression Fiqh evolved to mean jurisprudence covering every aspect of Islam.  It is also applied to denote understanding, comprehension, and profound knowledge. For an excellent exposition on the meaning of Fiqh, see Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Theories of Islamic law: The methodology of ijtihÉd, (Delhi: Adam Publishers & Distributors, 1996), 20-22.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Bond

<p class="p1"><span class="s2"><strong>Abstract </strong></span>| The challenge of interdisciplinary intellectual and strategic work in the extractive industries is particularly acute at the interface of research and social activism. Numerous social movements which are dedicated to sustainability fail to ‘connect the dots’ between their campaigns and broader political-economic and political-ecological visions<span class="s3"><strong>. </strong></span>This is becoming a critical challenge in Africa, where the extreme damage done by mining and fossil fuels has generated impressive resistance<span class="s3"><strong>.</strong></span>However, the one obvious place to link these critiques from African activists was the Alternative Mining Indaba in Cape Town in February 2015, and a survey of narratives at that event leads to pessimism about interdisciplinary politics. The potential for much greater impact and deeper critiques of unsustainable extractivism lies in greater attention to combining social reproduction and production (as do eco-feminists), and to tackling social, economic, political and ecological factors with a more explicit structuralist critique and practical toolkit<span class="s3"><strong>. </strong></span>Areas such as energy, economics and climate are ripe for linkages<span class="s3"><strong>. </strong></span>One reason for optimism is a climate justice declaration made by leading civil society activists in Maputo in April 2015.<strong></strong></p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wan Ma ◽  
Li Jia ◽  
Qingqing Xiong ◽  
Yunfei Feng ◽  
Huahua Du

Iron plays a vital role in the metabolism of adipose tissue. On the one hand, iron is essential for differentiation, endocrine, energy supply and other physiological functions of adipocyte. Iron...


2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110227
Author(s):  
Yingzi Wang ◽  
Thoralf Klein

This paper examines the changes and continuities in TV representations of Chinese Communist Party’s revolutionary history and interprets them within the broader context of China’s political, economic and cultural transformations since the 1990s. Drawing on a comparative analysis of three state-sponsored TV dramas produced between the late 1990s and mid-2010s, it traces how the state-sanctioned revolutionary narratives have changed over time in response to the Party’s propaganda imperatives on the one hand, and to the market-oriented production environment on the other. The paper argues that while recent TV productions in the new century have made increasing concessions to audience taste by adopting visually stimulating depictions and introducing fictional characters as points of identification for the audience, the revolutionary narratives were still aligned with the Party’s propaganda agenda at different times. This shows the ongoing competition between ideological and commercial interests in Chinese TV production during the era of market reforms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Fackelmann ◽  
Mark A. F. Gillingham ◽  
Julian Schmid ◽  
Alexander Christoph Heni ◽  
Kerstin Wilhelm ◽  
...  

AbstractIn the Anthropocene, humans, domesticated animals, wildlife, and their environments are interconnected, especially as humans advance further into wildlife habitats. Wildlife gut microbiomes play a vital role in host health. Changes to wildlife gut microbiomes due to anthropogenic disturbances, such as habitat fragmentation, can disrupt natural gut microbiota homeostasis and make animals vulnerable to infections that may become zoonotic. However, it remains unclear whether the disruption to wildlife gut microbiomes is caused by habitat fragmentation per se or the combination of habitat fragmentation with additional anthropogenic disturbances, such as contact with humans, domesticated animals, invasive species, and their pathogens. Here, we show that habitat fragmentation per se does not impact the gut microbiome of a generalist rodent species native to Central America, Tome’s spiny rat Proechimys semispinosus, but additional anthropogenic disturbances do. Indeed, compared to protected continuous and fragmented forest landscapes that are largely untouched by other human activities, the gut microbiomes of spiny rats inhabiting human-disturbed fragmented landscapes revealed a reduced alpha diversity and a shifted and more dispersed beta diversity. Their microbiomes contained more taxa associated with domesticated animals and their potential pathogens, suggesting a shift in potential metagenome functions. On the one hand, the compositional shift could indicate a degree of gut microbial adaption known as metagenomic plasticity. On the other hand, the greater variation in community structure and reduced alpha diversity may signal a decline in beneficial microbial functions and illustrate that gut adaption may not catch up with anthropogenic disturbances, even in a generalist species with large phenotypic plasticity, with potentially harmful consequences to both wildlife and human health.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ákos Mojzes ◽  
Barnabás Tóth ◽  
Péter Csavajda

Abstract Since the beginning of the 20th century, logistics has undergone a huge technological development, which has, however, resulted in many negative effects as well. The industry, particularly in the packaging industry has been a massive waste producer, although recently it has forced the use of new materials and it started to focus on environmentally friendly technologies. During the transportation of finished and semi-finished Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) sensitive products, the product packaging system has a vital role. These kind of packaging materials must be suitable to both logistic (protection against mechanical and environmental stresses) and special ESD protection requirements. During the transportation of printed-circuit electronic products, ESD defense is then of primary significance. However there is a huge disadvantage for the use of various shield bags. Namely, this kind of associated packaging is particularly pollutant, it causes a lot of inconvenience in the form of waste. In order to rule out these materials from the packaging system, new innovative solutions have to be found. The investigated TPS (thermoplastic starch biodegradable foam) is subjected to a validation, a long process to certify that this material unites properties of two types of packaging materials at the same time. On the one hand, this packaging foam has to meet the requirements product defense. On the other hand, the material must be anti-static under the logistic stress effects. In case it is found suitable, it can be an alternative of the conventional materials. In this article, we investigate the ESD characteristic of TPS foam. As this material sensitive for environmental parameters during transportation, we make the relevant Surface Resistance (Rs) tests on different temperature and humidity conditions. Based on result, the decision of the application can be done, as an ESD packaging material.


2021 ◽  
Vol X (2) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
Kakha Gabunia ◽  
◽  

The purpose of this article is to compile and group the list of problems that hinder the integration of ethnic minorities in the political, economic and cultural life of the country, based on research conducted by various organizations over the past 10 yearს. According to these studies, the main problem is, on the one hand, the language barrier and, on the other hand, ethnic-nationalist tendencies and stereotypes. These national mythologies and notions play one of the crucial roles in the formation of national self-identification. Ethno-nationalist tendencies are strong both in minorities and in ethnic Georgians. There are several factors behind the emergence of the ethnonationalism in Georgia First of all, it is the legacy of Soviet totalitarianism, as well as the result of the current socio-political situation. Understanding these two factors will give us a better answer as to why ethnic-nationalist sentiments are still prevailing in Georgia and why the integration of the ethnic minorities is hindered, despite being repeatedly declared by the state. The language barrier of ethnic minorities is also an important problem in the process of integration into society. The education system should make the knowledge of the state language accessible to ethnic minorities and, at the same time, ensure the protection of minority languages. To do this, the state must maximize and encourage local staff; The general system of education should ensure the upbringing of the citizen of the country and not put any group (even the majority) in an advantageous situation. show the advantage of any (even the majority) group.


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