The Marathi Kaulnāmā: Property, Sovereignty and Documentation in a Persianate Form

Kaulnāmās were ubiquitous in early modern Marathi bureaucratic documentation. They were issued as deeds of assurance offering protection and confirming various rights, especially during warfare or invasion. Such documents were issued at different levels of the administrative hierarchy in the Adilshahi and Maratha administrations to prevent flight from troubled areas, extend cultivation, and encourage commerce. They also recorded grants of waste land to cultivators on graduated rates of taxation, or to merchants for developing market towns. This paper historicizes the kaulnāmā form from the seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries, exploring the kinds of transactions of power, sovereignty and property it was part of. Through this focus on the trajectory of particular documentary forms, it reflects on the nature of the Persianate within Marathi bureaucratic practices, and the history of the Marathi language more broadly.

Re-making the energy profile of (Irish) market towns: as if science matters

Reduction of building-related carbon emissions within Ireland is predicated on the implementation of an EU mandated nZEB energy standard which defaults to ‘cost optimality’ generic solutions such as an A3 rating for new builds, and a B2 rating for renovations. It is estimated that 500,000 existing buildings will need to be refurbished in this way, within 10 years and that 60% of these are urban in nature. Despite such extensive resource use, the nZEB standard is not set to significantly reduce operational energy which will, in conjunction with 950,000 new electric cars being operational by 2030, place a significant burden on our increasingly decarbonised electrical power grid. Such challenges present opportunities. One opportunity is to significantly expand the renewable capacity of the grid and strengthen its European interconnectivity, while another is to remake our rural market towns and villages with energy considerations and fabric at the centre of the process. Doing both offers an optimal solution. We can amplify societal benefits, community empowerment with grid resilience and community ownership of utilities, efficient local use of energy and low carbon transport. It so doing we ensure buildings and power grid, capable of effectively serving our 2050 energy needs.

Why Face-to-Face Still Matters

Why do businesses still value urban life over the suburbs or countryside? This accessible book makes the case for face-to-face contact, still considered crucial to many 21st-century economies, and provides tools for thinking about the future of places from market towns to world cities.

Implications for Places of Remote Working

A shift to remote working raises important issues about the changing geography of work and the associated implications for places. It seems unlikely that a ‘new normal' after the COVID-19 pandemic will replicate the pre-COVID-19 picture. This has implications for the geography of work, both directly and indirectly because remote working in some jobs has implications for the sustainability of other jobs previously reliant on them. This chapter traces the possible short- and medium-term implications for places of remote working, addressing important questions relating to (1) the changing attractiveness of places in the context of greater remote working; (2) the future for city centres; (3) a possible revival of outer urban centres, market towns, and rural areas; (4) implications for geographical segregation and inequalities as different sub-groups face different possibilities for remote working; and (5) the implications of remote working for place-based policy.

Islamic Scholars: The Glue That Held Volga-Ural Muslims Together in the Russian Empire

When Russian forces occupied the Volga-Ural region in the sixteenth century, they nearly eliminated the local Muslim nobility. In the absence of a politically active nobility, Islamic scholars kept the region’s Muslim inhabitants connected as a larger community. This population of agricultural peasants and seasonal nomads rarely ventured beyond the vicinity of their villages or market towns, but scholars traveled extensively to pursue knowledge. As they traveled, they forged lasting connections with other students and scholars. When they graduated and dispersed through the region as village imams, they maintained these connections through kinship ties, letters, Sufi associations, and theological debates. Some of them also engaged in a broader network of Islamic scholars that extended primarily from Transoxiana to the Ottoman territories. As such, they served as the glue that held Volga-Ural Muslims together in a shared world, a regional Muslim domain, and they integrated this regional community of believers further into a transregional Muslim domain.

Burgher Estate

This chapter examines how the Jews of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth constituted the eastern region of emancipation. Jews enjoyed royal privileges in Poland from the thirteenth century. From the sixteenth century, local magnate-issued privileges replaced these as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth increasingly became a decentralized nobles' republic. Through an alliance with the magnates, Jews gained collective privileges in private market towns that gave them parity with Christian burghers. The number of Jews who enjoyed such privileges, and thereby constituted a parallel burgher estate, grew dramatically in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially in the Ukraine. However, the brutal partitioning of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the eighteenth century would disrupt efforts at reform and complicate the transition from parity of privileges to rights.

An investigation of the impact of 2017 business rates revaluation on independent high street retailers in the north of England

Purpose Many national retailers have complained about increases in business rates tax bills since the 2017 revaluation. What impact has the 2017 business rates revaluation had on independent high street retailers in market towns in the north of England? The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The study uses Valuation Office Agency rating list data to determine rateable value and business rates payable for independent high street retailers in eight northern market towns either side of the 2017 rating revaluation. The data were analysed using business rates matrices to reveal the impact of the new rating list on independent retailers in the eight locations. Findings Analysis reveals that the majority of independent retailers in the northern market towns sampled have experienced reductions in both the rateable value of their premises and business rates payable. Increase in the rates relief threshold has extended relief to almost half of the independent retailers in the study, most of whom receive 100 per cent relief. Practical implications Charity shops receive at least 80 per cent rates relief which means they are able to afford to pay higher rents. This “sets the tone” for landlords setting market rents in that location which are then used as comparable evidence by the VOA when determining rateable values at revaluation further polarising the gap between rate payers and those to are exempt. Originality/value Focussing on independent retailers on high streets in markets towns in north of England, this study provides an alternative perspective to the orthodox view of business rates revaluations having a negative impact on retailers.