The Shanghai Mint and Establishing a Silver Standard in China, 1920–1933

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-146
Author(s):  
Austin Dean
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Monetary Reform ◽  
Financial History ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Silver Standard ◽  
Physical Plant ◽  
Currency Reform ◽  
History Of ◽  
Technical Details

This chapter uses the story of the Shanghai Mint as a lens to examine the financial history of China in the 1920s and early 1930s to show how familiar events occurred in economic history. It reviews political and economic changes within China that influenced monetary reform on the last silver frontier. It also talks about the construction of the mint, which started in 1921 and produced coins in the spring of 1933. The chapter refers to China's movement from the warlord period of the late 1910s and early 1920s to the Nationalist period wherein the new government inherited the goals of currency reform from its predecessors and the half-finished physical plant of the Shanghai Mint. It looks at the history of the mint that connects small technical details to much larger political and economic issues, such as the types of coining equipment to be used and the design of coins.

The Early History of Financial Economics, 1478–1776. By Geoffrey Poitras. Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar, 2000. Pp. x, 522.

2002 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 268-269
Author(s):  
Larry Neal
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Financial Analysis ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Financial History ◽  
X 522 ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Wealth Of Nations ◽  
Simon Fraser University

Economic historians usually have to explain to their economist colleagues the difference between economic history, which focuses on facts, and history of economic thought, which focuses on ideas. Our colleagues in finance departments, typically fascinated by episodes in financial history treated by economic historians, are bound to be disappointed in the lack of attention given to the development of ideas in finance by historians of economic thought. Geoffrey Poitras, a professor of finance at Simon Fraser University, makes a valiant effort to remedy these oversights in his collection of vignettes that highlight the sophistication of financial instruments and analysts of financial markets well before the time of Adam Smith. Starting in 1478 with the publication of the Treviso Arithmetic, a typical textbook of commercial arithmetic for Italian merchants, and ending with brief snippets from the Wealth of Nations, Poitras treats the reader to a fascinating potpourri of excerpts from various manuals, brief biographies of pioneers in financial analysis, and historical discursions on foreign-exchange and stock markets.

Problems in the Interpretation and Revision of Eighteenth-Century Irish Economic History

1967 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Early Date ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

The economic history of Ireland in the late seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies unfolded in an age marked by considerable legislative interference by the British parliament in Irish affairs. The impact of this interference was all the greater because the executive in Dublin was, from the point of view of an Irish colonial nationalist, constitutionally irresponsible, answerable to the king's ministers in London rather than to the Irish legislature. It is not surprising that against this background colonial nationalism emerged at an early date. The interpretation of economic issues fell inevitably under the shadow of constitutional controversy and rising colonial nationalism. In the eyes of contemporaries, and subsequent Irish historians who have borrowed largely both their facts and interpretation of events from the writings of the period, economic development was subsidiary to political issues; not only subsidiary but its achievement or negation a product of policy.

The Role of the Wangara in the Economic Transformation of the Central Sudan in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

1978 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Textile Production ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Central Sudan ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
Major Turning Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
Combined Impact

The term ‘Wangara’ has most commonly been used to describe the gold merchants of ancient Mali and Ghana and has been equated with ‘Juula’ (Dyula). This article establishes another meaning for ‘Wangara’, as it has been used in the Central Sudan, particularly Hausaland. There the Wangara were descendants of merchants who were once connected with the Songhay Empire of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Since the term is also used in Borgu to describe resident Muslim merchants in the Bariba states, it is postulated that the Wangara were once a Songhay-based commercial group which established diaspora communities in the Bariba and Hausa towns before the Songhay collapse of 1591. It is argued that these Wangara merchants were instrumental in the economic development of the Central Sudan in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They were not only associated with commerce but were involved in early leather and textile production and probably were responsible for the introduction of such new products as kola nuts and the spread of the Songhay monetary system, based on cowries and gold. The immigration of the Wangara came at a time when other economic changes were taking place in the Hausa cities and Borno. The combined impact of these developments were such as to mark the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as a major turning point in the economic history of the Central Sudan.

scholarly journals The History of the 1947 Monetary Reform of the USSR in Moscow and Leningrad

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-84
Author(s):  
Sergey G. Bandurin ◽  
Igor B. Tsvetkov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Historical Science ◽  
Monetary Reform ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Science Problem ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War

Introduction. World and domestic economic history are the history of ups and downs, the history of finding ways out of difficult, sometimes crisis and critical situations, most often manifested both during and after wars. The Great Patriotic War, which dealt a blow to all spheres of life of the belligerent countries, was no exception. Testing the viability of the country’s economic model, in particular the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, began directly during the war and continued after the end of hostilities. The relevance of the topic under study lies in the study of a positive example of the country’s recovery from the economic crisis, as well as the study of the reaction of the general population to the measures taken. The purpose of this article is to retrospectively analyze the economic situation of those years, to model the reader’s understanding of the reaction of society at that time to events and the way of solving the problem chosen by the party, as well as to demonstrate the results of the government’s activities. Materials and Methods. This study is based on the traditional methods used in the national historical science: problem-chronological, systemic and comparative-historical. Research Results. The analysis of the measures taken in the financial and economic sphere showed the consistency of the methods chosen by the government, however, the general assessment of the measures among the population turned out to be versatile. The assessments of the researchers of this problem, both Soviet and modern, are generally positive. Discussion and Conclusion. As a result of the monetary reform of 1947, the Soviet Union managed to avoid the depreciation of the ruble, the surplus of banknotes issued during the war years was eliminated, the state’s internal debt on bonds was significantly reduced, and the salaries of the population were preserved. This money was used to rebuild the post-war country. The abolition of cards ensured a decrease in market prices for many groups of goods and significantly reduced the number of speculators.

scholarly journals Pål Thonstad Sandvik, Multinationals, Subsidiaries and National Business Systems: the Nickel Industry and Falconbridge Nikkelverk

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-257
Author(s):  
Artur Lakatos
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
Business Systems ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
History Of ◽  
Industrial Unit ◽  
National Business Systems ◽  
Nickel Industry ◽  
National Business

Norwegian historiography has brought some really relevant contribution in the field of economic history. This is especially true in the direction of business history, which approaches economic issues through the history of the development of companies, of business and development in the mirror of economic efficiency. Such an example is this present monograph signed by Professor Pål Thonstad Sandvik, having as main subject the development of a subsidiary of the Canadian Falconbridge company, the nickel refinery of Kristiansand. The complex synthesis has in its focus the mentioned refinery, dealing at the same time with economic and social processes related to this industrial unit, but not only: its evolution is also placed in the socio-economic and political context of international trade. The reader can follow the development of the refinery step by step, in a chronological succession of events, with all of its “good” and “bad” moments, from its foundation until the Norwegian Øyvind Hushovd became the president of the Falconbridge corporation during the 1990s, not only because of the efficiency of the refinery from Kristiansand, but also due to the increase of the Scandinavian capital within Falconbridge.

“The Shanghai Mint and U.S.–China Monetary Interactions, 1920–1933”

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin Dean
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Silver Standard ◽  
Currency Reform ◽  
University Professor ◽  
History Of

This article uses primary sources from China, Taiwan, and the United States to chronicle the history of the Shanghai Mint and u.s.–China monetary interactions during the 1920s and early 1930s. It focuses on the period immediately preceding the well-known Silver Purchase Act of 1934 and the Nationalist government’s decision to abandon the silver standard in favor of a managed currency, the fabi, in November 1935. The article highlights the importance of u.s. advisors, particularly mint technician Clifford Hewitt and Princeton University professor Edwin Kemmerer, in debates about whether China should adopt the gold-exchange standard or stay on the silver standard, as well as their role in the elimination of the silver tael (liang) as a unit of account. The article demonstrates the long-standing interest of the United States in Chinese currency reform and shows how, in the 1920s, this interest often manifested itself in the interactions between Chinese officials and conduits like Hewitt and Kemmerer, rather than monetary missions that the u.s. Congress approved as had been the case in the early 1900s. Finally, the article traces the goals of successive Chinese governments to exercise more control over the currency of modern China and the role of u.s. advisors in that process.

Social and Economic Issues in the Development of Steppe Scythia

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. A. GAVRILYUK
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
The Social ◽  
Primary Model ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Traditional Societies ◽  
History Of

Studies of the social and economic issues of the early societies emerged from the encounter of archaeology with other disciplines which are concerned with the sociological aspects of traditional societies. The study of Scythia or Scythology offers an extensive material that makes it a primary model of socio-economic models. This chapter aims to determine the specific features of the socio-economic development and structure of Scythia. It examines the changes in Scythia and Scythian economic history. It reviews the concepts of unity or lack of unity in Scythia to provide a better understanding on the key problems of the social, political, and economic history of Scythia. It also discusses the issues surrounding the statehood of steppe Scythians. The emphasis of the chapter is on the economic framework and the features of the development of the nomadic society in the Early Iron Age as represented in the archaeology of the Scythian culture.

The Economic History of South Africa before 1948

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Stefan Schirmer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Racial Oppression ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Agricultural Communities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Huge Challenge

Starting from the time settled agricultural communities first emerged in South Africa, around 400, this chapter describes and analyses economic changes from the precolonial era, through the colonial period, into the first half of the twentieth century. It looks at how agriculture developed and how 19th century mineral discoveries changed the economy and ushered in the modern state. When accommodative spaces for socially engaged entrepreneurs expanded, so did the drivers of long-term economic change. Unfortunately, accommodations in the context of colonialism and racial oppression produced economically and socially destructive labour policies, drastically undermined the prospects for black commercial farmers, and produced segregated, unjust land allocations. The rise of manufacturing represented a huge challenge to the viability of this system, which created new political challenges and eventually resulted in the establishment of the Apartheid system in 1948.

Women's Work and Women's Property: Household Social Relations in the Maraka Textile Industry of the Nineteenth Century

1984 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Atlantic Slave Trade ◽  
Islamic Militancy

A history of the Maraka textile industry provides a glimpse into the fitful and uneven social and economic changes taking place during the nineteenth century in the area of the Western Sudan that is now part of Mali. Although the major historical events of this period are well understood, historians know very little about the social and economic history of the West African interior. Exactly how the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, renewed Islamic militancy, and European territorial encroachment influenced African societies remains poorly understood. This is even more apparent for the Middle Niger valley, located near the geographical center of continental West Africa. Paradoxically, the gradual end of the Atlantic slave trade and the coincident expansion of the so-called legitimate trade in agricultural crops increased the use of slaves within Africa to meet demand for all types of African goods. The nineteenth century was thus an era of commodity production and market activity which was probably unparalleled in the history of West Africa prior to this period. The inhabitants of the Middle Niger participated in these changes, and this study describes what these changes meant to one group of African men and women.

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