Satoshi Mizutani
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199697700
- eISBN:
- 9780191732102
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199697700.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
The edifice of whiteness in British India remained complex and even contradictory during the period from 1858 to 1930. Under the Raj, the spread of racial ideologies was thoroughly pervasive, but ...
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The edifice of whiteness in British India remained complex and even contradictory during the period from 1858 to 1930. Under the Raj, the spread of racial ideologies was thoroughly pervasive, but paradoxically, or perhaps all the more for it, whiteness was never taken as self-evident whether as a concept or as a code of praxis. Rather it was constantly called into question, while its boundaries were disciplined and policed through socio-cultural and institutional practices. Only those whites with sufficient degrees of attainment in terms of social status, cultural refinement and level of education were deemed able to command the respect and awe of colonized subjects. Among those who straddled the boundaries of whiteness defined by these terms were the ‘domiciled community’, which was made up of mixed-descent ‘Eurasians’ and racially unmixed ‘Domiciled Europeans’, both of which lived in India on a permanent basis. Members of this community, or rather those who were categorized as such under the Raj, unwittingly made the meaning of whiteness ambiguous and even contradictory in fundamental ways. The colonial authorities quickly identified the domiciled community as a particularly malign source of political instability and social disorder, and were constantly urged to furnish various institutional measures—predominantly philanthropic and educational by character—that specifically targeted its degraded conditions. The prime task of Boundaries of Whiteness under the Raj is to reveal the precise ways in which the existence of the community was identified as a problem—or as what was then called the ‘Eurasian Question’—and to ponder the deeper historical meanings of such problematization itself. Through such inquiry, the book aims to demystify the ideology of whiteness, situating it within the concrete social realities of colonial history.Less
The edifice of whiteness in British India remained complex and even contradictory during the period from 1858 to 1930. Under the Raj, the spread of racial ideologies was thoroughly pervasive, but paradoxically, or perhaps all the more for it, whiteness was never taken as self-evident whether as a concept or as a code of praxis. Rather it was constantly called into question, while its boundaries were disciplined and policed through socio-cultural and institutional practices. Only those whites with sufficient degrees of attainment in terms of social status, cultural refinement and level of education were deemed able to command the respect and awe of colonized subjects. Among those who straddled the boundaries of whiteness defined by these terms were the ‘domiciled community’, which was made up of mixed-descent ‘Eurasians’ and racially unmixed ‘Domiciled Europeans’, both of which lived in India on a permanent basis. Members of this community, or rather those who were categorized as such under the Raj, unwittingly made the meaning of whiteness ambiguous and even contradictory in fundamental ways. The colonial authorities quickly identified the domiciled community as a particularly malign source of political instability and social disorder, and were constantly urged to furnish various institutional measures—predominantly philanthropic and educational by character—that specifically targeted its degraded conditions. The prime task of Boundaries of Whiteness under the Raj is to reveal the precise ways in which the existence of the community was identified as a problem—or as what was then called the ‘Eurasian Question’—and to ponder the deeper historical meanings of such problematization itself. Through such inquiry, the book aims to demystify the ideology of whiteness, situating it within the concrete social realities of colonial history.
Satoshi Mizutani
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199697700
- eISBN:
- 9780191732102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199697700.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter concludes the book by first summarizing the arguments put forward by the preceding chapters, and then by presenting the author’s general view on the book’s subject. It argues that the ...
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This chapter concludes the book by first summarizing the arguments put forward by the preceding chapters, and then by presenting the author’s general view on the book’s subject. It argues that the findings of the book indicate that racial and class categories were inseparable from each other in the British efforts to maintain the boundaries of whiteness under the Raj. It was particularly through the debates and practices concerning the Eurasian Question that the inseparability of race and class was exhibited. In confronting the impoverished members of the domiciled community, most of whom were not just impoverished but were racially ‘mixed’, even the British champions of their cause did not really know whether the problem at hand was one of race or one of class. Torn between responsibility and contempt, between affinity and remoteness, and between inclusion and exclusion, the British never ceased being perplexed and haunted by the domiciled community and their ‘Eurasian Question’ right up until the very end of the colonial periodLess
This chapter concludes the book by first summarizing the arguments put forward by the preceding chapters, and then by presenting the author’s general view on the book’s subject. It argues that the findings of the book indicate that racial and class categories were inseparable from each other in the British efforts to maintain the boundaries of whiteness under the Raj. It was particularly through the debates and practices concerning the Eurasian Question that the inseparability of race and class was exhibited. In confronting the impoverished members of the domiciled community, most of whom were not just impoverished but were racially ‘mixed’, even the British champions of their cause did not really know whether the problem at hand was one of race or one of class. Torn between responsibility and contempt, between affinity and remoteness, and between inclusion and exclusion, the British never ceased being perplexed and haunted by the domiciled community and their ‘Eurasian Question’ right up until the very end of the colonial period
Ron Harris
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691150772
- eISBN:
- 9780691185804
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150772.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
Before the seventeenth century, trade across Eurasia was mostly conducted in short segments along the Silk Route and Indian Ocean. Business was organized in family firms, merchant networks, and ...
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Before the seventeenth century, trade across Eurasia was mostly conducted in short segments along the Silk Route and Indian Ocean. Business was organized in family firms, merchant networks, and state-owned enterprises, and dominated by Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traders. However, around 1600 the first two joint-stock corporations, the English and Dutch East India Companies, were established. This book tells the story of overland and maritime trade without Europeans, of European Cape Route trade without corporations, and of how new, large-scale, and impersonal organizations arose in Europe to control long-distance trade for more than three centuries. It shows that by 1700, the scene and methods for global trade had dramatically changed: Dutch and English merchants shepherded goods directly from China and India to northwestern Europe. To understand this transformation, the book compares the organizational forms used in four major regions: China, India, the Middle East, and Western Europe. The English and Dutch were the last to leap into Eurasian trade, and they innovated in order to compete. They raised capital from passive investors through impersonal stock markets and their joint-stock corporations deployed more capital, ships, and agents to deliver goods from their origins to consumers. The book explores the history behind a cornerstone of the modern economy, and how this organizational revolution contributed to the formation of global trade and the creation of the business corporation as a key factor in Europe's economic rise.Less
Before the seventeenth century, trade across Eurasia was mostly conducted in short segments along the Silk Route and Indian Ocean. Business was organized in family firms, merchant networks, and state-owned enterprises, and dominated by Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traders. However, around 1600 the first two joint-stock corporations, the English and Dutch East India Companies, were established. This book tells the story of overland and maritime trade without Europeans, of European Cape Route trade without corporations, and of how new, large-scale, and impersonal organizations arose in Europe to control long-distance trade for more than three centuries. It shows that by 1700, the scene and methods for global trade had dramatically changed: Dutch and English merchants shepherded goods directly from China and India to northwestern Europe. To understand this transformation, the book compares the organizational forms used in four major regions: China, India, the Middle East, and Western Europe. The English and Dutch were the last to leap into Eurasian trade, and they innovated in order to compete. They raised capital from passive investors through impersonal stock markets and their joint-stock corporations deployed more capital, ships, and agents to deliver goods from their origins to consumers. The book explores the history behind a cornerstone of the modern economy, and how this organizational revolution contributed to the formation of global trade and the creation of the business corporation as a key factor in Europe's economic rise.
Anthony J. McMichael
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198568193
- eISBN:
- 9780191718175
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198568193.003.0002
- Subject:
- Biology, Disease Ecology / Epidemiology
Human global dispersal, cultural evolution, and inter-population contact and conflict have caused major transitions in our relationships with the natural world. The three great historical transitions ...
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Human global dispersal, cultural evolution, and inter-population contact and conflict have caused major transitions in our relationships with the natural world. The three great historical transitions — agrarian settlements, Eurasian civilization interactions, and European expansionism — have transformed infectious disease patterns. Today's seeming increased liability of infectious diseases reflects various demographic, environmental, behavioural, technological, and other changes in human ecology. Modern medicine has created new opportunities for microbes (while injudicious antibiotic use has increased their ‘biodiversity’). A new equilibrium state may lie ahead. However, any mature, sustainable, human ecology must accommodate both the need for and the needs of the microbial species that are part of life on Earth.Less
Human global dispersal, cultural evolution, and inter-population contact and conflict have caused major transitions in our relationships with the natural world. The three great historical transitions — agrarian settlements, Eurasian civilization interactions, and European expansionism — have transformed infectious disease patterns. Today's seeming increased liability of infectious diseases reflects various demographic, environmental, behavioural, technological, and other changes in human ecology. Modern medicine has created new opportunities for microbes (while injudicious antibiotic use has increased their ‘biodiversity’). A new equilibrium state may lie ahead. However, any mature, sustainable, human ecology must accommodate both the need for and the needs of the microbial species that are part of life on Earth.
Vladimir V. Pravosudov
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198569992
- eISBN:
- 9780191717802
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198569992.003.0003
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology
This chapter reviews studies dealing with the relationship between environment, food caching, spatial memory, corticosterone, and the hippocampus in North American chickadees while providing ...
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This chapter reviews studies dealing with the relationship between environment, food caching, spatial memory, corticosterone, and the hippocampus in North American chickadees while providing comparisons with similar studies done using Eurasian Parids. In particular, this research compares populations which have a variation in food limitation, and discusses how this influences the propensity for food caching and considerst that this may result from physiological differences in the hippocampus and hormone regulation between these populations. Research on spatial memory in Parids has shown that environmental conditions might affect memory performance in several different ways. The chapter discusses these various different ways.Less
This chapter reviews studies dealing with the relationship between environment, food caching, spatial memory, corticosterone, and the hippocampus in North American chickadees while providing comparisons with similar studies done using Eurasian Parids. In particular, this research compares populations which have a variation in food limitation, and discusses how this influences the propensity for food caching and considerst that this may result from physiological differences in the hippocampus and hormone regulation between these populations. Research on spatial memory in Parids has shown that environmental conditions might affect memory performance in several different ways. The chapter discusses these various different ways.
Bernhard Wälchli
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199276219
- eISBN:
- 9780191706042
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199276219.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This book presents a typological survey and analysis of co-compounds (also known as dvandva, coordinating compounds, and pair words). Co-compounds are compounds whose meaning is the result of ...
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This book presents a typological survey and analysis of co-compounds (also known as dvandva, coordinating compounds, and pair words). Co-compounds are compounds whose meaning is the result of coordinating the meaning of its components, as when in some varieties of Indian English father-mother denotes ‘parents’. Like other tight patterns of coordination, such as bare binomials (e.g., bow and arrows), co-compounds typically express natural coordination, which implies that a close lexico-semantic relationship exists between the coordinands. The theoretical topics discussed in the book include the notion of word, markedness, the syntax and semantics of coordination, grammaticalization, lexical semantics, the distinction between compounding and phrase formation, and the constructional meanings language can deploy. Co-compounds in most languages are intermediate between words and phrases, which is why they are not considered to be only objects of morphology but are rather viewed as lexical classes, which, like grammatical classes, are language-specific functional-formal classes characterized by typical functional and formal properties. The specific cross-linguistically recurrent semantic types of co-compounds are described. Particular care is given to describing the contexts in which non-lexicalized co-compounds typically occur in original texts. In an areal-typological study based on parallel and original texts, it is shown that the frequency co-compounds in the languages of Eurasia is distributed in a highly structured way. Co-compounds are thus evidence for a great degree of areality among Eurasian languages.Less
This book presents a typological survey and analysis of co-compounds (also known as dvandva, coordinating compounds, and pair words). Co-compounds are compounds whose meaning is the result of coordinating the meaning of its components, as when in some varieties of Indian English father-mother denotes ‘parents’. Like other tight patterns of coordination, such as bare binomials (e.g., bow and arrows), co-compounds typically express natural coordination, which implies that a close lexico-semantic relationship exists between the coordinands. The theoretical topics discussed in the book include the notion of word, markedness, the syntax and semantics of coordination, grammaticalization, lexical semantics, the distinction between compounding and phrase formation, and the constructional meanings language can deploy. Co-compounds in most languages are intermediate between words and phrases, which is why they are not considered to be only objects of morphology but are rather viewed as lexical classes, which, like grammatical classes, are language-specific functional-formal classes characterized by typical functional and formal properties. The specific cross-linguistically recurrent semantic types of co-compounds are described. Particular care is given to describing the contexts in which non-lexicalized co-compounds typically occur in original texts. In an areal-typological study based on parallel and original texts, it is shown that the frequency co-compounds in the languages of Eurasia is distributed in a highly structured way. Co-compounds are thus evidence for a great degree of areality among Eurasian languages.
Bernhard Wälchli
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199276219
- eISBN:
- 9780191706042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199276219.003.0006
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
The investigation of two parallel texts is used to show that co-compounding in continental Eurasia is distributed in a highly predictable way based on area, thus demonstrating the importance of ...
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The investigation of two parallel texts is used to show that co-compounding in continental Eurasia is distributed in a highly predictable way based on area, thus demonstrating the importance of frequency studies in areal typology. The individual consideration of Eurasian language families and isolates across spread and residual zones confirms this result. However, there are also considerable differences in frequency in different styles and registers within individual languages, as shown in a case study on Erzya Mordvin. Different structural properties of various East and South East Asian languages are discussed, illustrating that convergence in general frequency and diversity in details of structure go hand in hand. A discussion of several possible predicting factors for the frequency of co-compounds shows that co-compounds are highly independent from other features. An appendix treats the distribution of co-compounds beyond Eurasia, mainly in New Guinea and Meso-America.Less
The investigation of two parallel texts is used to show that co-compounding in continental Eurasia is distributed in a highly predictable way based on area, thus demonstrating the importance of frequency studies in areal typology. The individual consideration of Eurasian language families and isolates across spread and residual zones confirms this result. However, there are also considerable differences in frequency in different styles and registers within individual languages, as shown in a case study on Erzya Mordvin. Different structural properties of various East and South East Asian languages are discussed, illustrating that convergence in general frequency and diversity in details of structure go hand in hand. A discussion of several possible predicting factors for the frequency of co-compounds shows that co-compounds are highly independent from other features. An appendix treats the distribution of co-compounds beyond Eurasia, mainly in New Guinea and Meso-America.
Bernhard Wälchli
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199276219
- eISBN:
- 9780191706042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199276219.003.0008
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter summarizes the major findings of the study, including the following: co-compounds are word-like lexical classes used in word domains which express natural coordination. In Eurasian ...
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This chapter summarizes the major findings of the study, including the following: co-compounds are word-like lexical classes used in word domains which express natural coordination. In Eurasian languages, co-compounds show a highly characteristic areal-typological distribution, and there is considerable variation within the languages themselves across different styles and registers. The special methodological contribution of this investigation is that it tries to establish a continuous variable with a high degree of language-internal variation by considering data from both parallel and original texts.Less
This chapter summarizes the major findings of the study, including the following: co-compounds are word-like lexical classes used in word domains which express natural coordination. In Eurasian languages, co-compounds show a highly characteristic areal-typological distribution, and there is considerable variation within the languages themselves across different styles and registers. The special methodological contribution of this investigation is that it tries to establish a continuous variable with a high degree of language-internal variation by considering data from both parallel and original texts.
Satoshi Mizutani
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199697700
- eISBN:
- 9780191732102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199697700.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
The first half of this chapter analyses the British attitude towards those Europeans who became labelled as ‘poor whites’. Its second half shows how a number of ‘poor whites’, despite vigilance on ...
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The first half of this chapter analyses the British attitude towards those Europeans who became labelled as ‘poor whites’. Its second half shows how a number of ‘poor whites’, despite vigilance on the part of the British authorities, became permanently domiciled in India, coming to be called ‘Domiciled Europeans’. The chapter also explains how, by the mid-nineteenth century, there emerged a substantial group of mixed-descent persons, forming a ‘Eurasian community’. It then tries to account for the ideological and administrative reasons why the colonial authorities categorized Domiciled Europeans and Eurasians into one single social grouping, the ‘domiciled community’. The final pages of the chapter seek to reveal the extent to which a large section of the domiciled community became impoverished, and to explain how, for that reason, its very existence became problematized and politicized, receiving inordinate attention as the perpetrator of the Eurasian Question.Less
The first half of this chapter analyses the British attitude towards those Europeans who became labelled as ‘poor whites’. Its second half shows how a number of ‘poor whites’, despite vigilance on the part of the British authorities, became permanently domiciled in India, coming to be called ‘Domiciled Europeans’. The chapter also explains how, by the mid-nineteenth century, there emerged a substantial group of mixed-descent persons, forming a ‘Eurasian community’. It then tries to account for the ideological and administrative reasons why the colonial authorities categorized Domiciled Europeans and Eurasians into one single social grouping, the ‘domiciled community’. The final pages of the chapter seek to reveal the extent to which a large section of the domiciled community became impoverished, and to explain how, for that reason, its very existence became problematized and politicized, receiving inordinate attention as the perpetrator of the Eurasian Question.
David Washbrook
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199297672
- eISBN:
- 9780191594335
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199297672.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
India was never a colony of ‘settlement’ for the British and whatever communities they formed there were always marked by transience. Nonetheless, over two hundred and fifty years, they interacted ...
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India was never a colony of ‘settlement’ for the British and whatever communities they formed there were always marked by transience. Nonetheless, over two hundred and fifty years, they interacted with Indian culture in a variety of ways and underwent a number of different social experiences. This chapter explores their diversity of experience in different places at different times, seeking to escape the stereotypes usually associated with ‘the Raj’. In particular, it draws attention to the society of ‘non‐official’ and more plebeian British residents and uncovers an often‐obscure history of racial inter‐relationships, which marked both the coming together and the distancing of the ‘colonists’ from their hosts.Less
India was never a colony of ‘settlement’ for the British and whatever communities they formed there were always marked by transience. Nonetheless, over two hundred and fifty years, they interacted with Indian culture in a variety of ways and underwent a number of different social experiences. This chapter explores their diversity of experience in different places at different times, seeking to escape the stereotypes usually associated with ‘the Raj’. In particular, it draws attention to the society of ‘non‐official’ and more plebeian British residents and uncovers an often‐obscure history of racial inter‐relationships, which marked both the coming together and the distancing of the ‘colonists’ from their hosts.
Garth Fowden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158532
- eISBN:
- 9781400848164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158532.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter contextualizes Islam's early history by proposing an eastward shift of emphasis. It revises the geographical framework; the Mediterranean world of the Greeks and Romans is replaced by ...
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This chapter contextualizes Islam's early history by proposing an eastward shift of emphasis. It revises the geographical framework; the Mediterranean world of the Greeks and Romans is replaced by the “Eurasian Hinge,” a triptych of regions with the Iranian plateau and the Eastern Mediterranean as its wings, and the “Mountain Arena” as its centerpiece. This geographical framework adopts the Eurasian perspective in its widest sense, from Japan or at least China to Britain, and makes Rome's eastern peripheries the center of one's world. The chapter argues that the “Eurasian Hinge” nourished two world empires no other could challenge and which, along with Christian Rome, spawned political and cultural “commonwealths” within the same frame: the Achaemenids with their continuator Alexander, and a millennium later the Islamic Caliphate of the Umayyads and Abbasids.Less
This chapter contextualizes Islam's early history by proposing an eastward shift of emphasis. It revises the geographical framework; the Mediterranean world of the Greeks and Romans is replaced by the “Eurasian Hinge,” a triptych of regions with the Iranian plateau and the Eastern Mediterranean as its wings, and the “Mountain Arena” as its centerpiece. This geographical framework adopts the Eurasian perspective in its widest sense, from Japan or at least China to Britain, and makes Rome's eastern peripheries the center of one's world. The chapter argues that the “Eurasian Hinge” nourished two world empires no other could challenge and which, along with Christian Rome, spawned political and cultural “commonwealths” within the same frame: the Achaemenids with their continuator Alexander, and a millennium later the Islamic Caliphate of the Umayyads and Abbasids.
Ron Harris
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691150772
- eISBN:
- 9780691185804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150772.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter addresses a wide set of research questions on the organization of trade as a whole and then zooms in on research questions that focus on the development of the joint-stock business ...
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This chapter addresses a wide set of research questions on the organization of trade as a whole and then zooms in on research questions that focus on the development of the joint-stock business corporation. It explains why the European business corporation wasn't mimicked by other Eurasian regions for another three hundred years and why institutions that had some corporate-like features did not further evolve to compete successfully with the corporate-based European mercantile enterprises. The chapter closely examines the role played by organizational forms in the transformation of Eurasian trade roughly between 1400 and 1700. It also compares the organizational forms that were used in four major regions: China, India, the Middle East, and Western Europe. All four regions were involved in the same kind of business activity, such as long-distance trade, within the greater Indian Ocean.Less
This chapter addresses a wide set of research questions on the organization of trade as a whole and then zooms in on research questions that focus on the development of the joint-stock business corporation. It explains why the European business corporation wasn't mimicked by other Eurasian regions for another three hundred years and why institutions that had some corporate-like features did not further evolve to compete successfully with the corporate-based European mercantile enterprises. The chapter closely examines the role played by organizational forms in the transformation of Eurasian trade roughly between 1400 and 1700. It also compares the organizational forms that were used in four major regions: China, India, the Middle East, and Western Europe. All four regions were involved in the same kind of business activity, such as long-distance trade, within the greater Indian Ocean.
Ron Harris
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691150772
- eISBN:
- 9780691185804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150772.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter presents the literature on Eurasian trade, the geography of trade environment, and the organizational challenges faced by long-distance trade. The expansion of trade from local to ...
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This chapter presents the literature on Eurasian trade, the geography of trade environment, and the organizational challenges faced by long-distance trade. The expansion of trade from local to long-distance to Eurasian trade was a major challenge to merchants everywhere. Operators had to overcome tough and, at times, even hostile environments on the oceans, straits, deserts, and steppes. They had to match the supply of goods in one location to the demand in a faraway, climatically and culturally different location. The chapter shows how institutions were crucial in overcoming the challenges. It establishes the existence of a wide historiographical space that justifies the focus on the early history of late-coming trade companies, and on their organizational challenges and solutions.Less
This chapter presents the literature on Eurasian trade, the geography of trade environment, and the organizational challenges faced by long-distance trade. The expansion of trade from local to long-distance to Eurasian trade was a major challenge to merchants everywhere. Operators had to overcome tough and, at times, even hostile environments on the oceans, straits, deserts, and steppes. They had to match the supply of goods in one location to the demand in a faraway, climatically and culturally different location. The chapter shows how institutions were crucial in overcoming the challenges. It establishes the existence of a wide historiographical space that justifies the focus on the early history of late-coming trade companies, and on their organizational challenges and solutions.
Ron Harris
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691150772
- eISBN:
- 9780691185804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150772.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter explains why and how the corporation was transformed into a business corporation. It follows the early history of the corporation and examines how the corporation acquired attributes on ...
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This chapter explains why and how the corporation was transformed into a business corporation. It follows the early history of the corporation and examines how the corporation acquired attributes on separate legal personality and collective decision making, which were familiar to Edward Coke and his contemporaries. The chapter argues that the years around 1600 constitute an organizational revolution. It explains why European corporations were transformed around 1600 from public entities into joint-stock, for-profit entities and why this occurred in Northwest Europe and not elsewhere in Europe. The chapter also talks about why corporations were so suitable for long-distance trade that they rapidly took control of the Cape Route and rose to dominance in Eurasian trade as a whole, at the expense of family firms, merchant networks, and ruler-operated enterprises.Less
This chapter explains why and how the corporation was transformed into a business corporation. It follows the early history of the corporation and examines how the corporation acquired attributes on separate legal personality and collective decision making, which were familiar to Edward Coke and his contemporaries. The chapter argues that the years around 1600 constitute an organizational revolution. It explains why European corporations were transformed around 1600 from public entities into joint-stock, for-profit entities and why this occurred in Northwest Europe and not elsewhere in Europe. The chapter also talks about why corporations were so suitable for long-distance trade that they rapidly took control of the Cape Route and rose to dominance in Eurasian trade as a whole, at the expense of family firms, merchant networks, and ruler-operated enterprises.
Ron Harris
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691150772
- eISBN:
- 9780691185804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150772.003.0014
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter talks about the interplay between family, religion, and ruler—three key components of every premodern society, which was the major factor in shaping the pattern of migration of the ...
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This chapter talks about the interplay between family, religion, and ruler—three key components of every premodern society, which was the major factor in shaping the pattern of migration of the various organizational forms. The interplay determined the resistance of regions and civilizations outside Europe to the importation and transplantation of the business corporation. It argues that sixteenth-century Europeans, particularly the Portuguese, did not design a good institutional framework for conducting Cape Route trade with Asia. Seventeenth-century Europeans, led by the Dutch and the English, designed an institutional framework that suited their environmental challenges well and facilitated long-distance trade between Europe and Asia. The chapter emphasizes that organizational factors determined the rise of English and Dutch Eurasian trade dominance in the seventeenth century—asserting instead that technology and violence had more determinative weight.Less
This chapter talks about the interplay between family, religion, and ruler—three key components of every premodern society, which was the major factor in shaping the pattern of migration of the various organizational forms. The interplay determined the resistance of regions and civilizations outside Europe to the importation and transplantation of the business corporation. It argues that sixteenth-century Europeans, particularly the Portuguese, did not design a good institutional framework for conducting Cape Route trade with Asia. Seventeenth-century Europeans, led by the Dutch and the English, designed an institutional framework that suited their environmental challenges well and facilitated long-distance trade between Europe and Asia. The chapter emphasizes that organizational factors determined the rise of English and Dutch Eurasian trade dominance in the seventeenth century—asserting instead that technology and violence had more determinative weight.
Richard Pomfret
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691182216
- eISBN:
- 9780691185408
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691182216.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
This chapter looks at the national economy and transition strategies of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Kyrgyz Republic was the most explicit of the Central Asian countries in attempting a rapid transition ...
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This chapter looks at the national economy and transition strategies of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Kyrgyz Republic was the most explicit of the Central Asian countries in attempting a rapid transition from central planning. Economic performance was, however, disappointing due to limited resources and poor institutions. The country became highly dependent on revenues from a single goldmine, Kumtor, while other mineral and hydro resources remain poorly developed. The biggest symptom of economic distress was the rise in number of Kyrgyz migrating to Russia for work; by the end of the oil boom, the numbers were commonly thought to be around a million people and in 2014, the Kyrgyz Republic's remittances to GDP ratio was the third highest in the world. This left the country susceptible to Russian pressure to join the Eurasian Economic Union, which it did in 2015, and vulnerable to downturns in the Russian economy.Less
This chapter looks at the national economy and transition strategies of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Kyrgyz Republic was the most explicit of the Central Asian countries in attempting a rapid transition from central planning. Economic performance was, however, disappointing due to limited resources and poor institutions. The country became highly dependent on revenues from a single goldmine, Kumtor, while other mineral and hydro resources remain poorly developed. The biggest symptom of economic distress was the rise in number of Kyrgyz migrating to Russia for work; by the end of the oil boom, the numbers were commonly thought to be around a million people and in 2014, the Kyrgyz Republic's remittances to GDP ratio was the third highest in the world. This left the country susceptible to Russian pressure to join the Eurasian Economic Union, which it did in 2015, and vulnerable to downturns in the Russian economy.
Richard Pomfret
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691182216
- eISBN:
- 9780691185408
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691182216.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
This chapter analyzes alternative strategies—multilateral and regional—pursued by the Central Asian countries to integrate into a wider economic circle, emphasizing the shift from being part of the ...
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This chapter analyzes alternative strategies—multilateral and regional—pursued by the Central Asian countries to integrate into a wider economic circle, emphasizing the shift from being part of the highly integrated Soviet economy to regional disintegration in the 1990s and early 2000s and then, after 2006, steps towards greater cooperation and integration. In the 1990s and 2000s, despite the actual multilateralism, only the Kyrgyz Republic joined the World Trade Organization. At the same time, a number of regional agreements were signed, both among the Central Asian countries and between Central Asian countries and their neighbors, although none had much influence, until the Eurasian Economic Union was constructed after 2009. Meanwhile, high costs of international trade in Central Asia are a symptom and a cause of regional disintegration.Less
This chapter analyzes alternative strategies—multilateral and regional—pursued by the Central Asian countries to integrate into a wider economic circle, emphasizing the shift from being part of the highly integrated Soviet economy to regional disintegration in the 1990s and early 2000s and then, after 2006, steps towards greater cooperation and integration. In the 1990s and 2000s, despite the actual multilateralism, only the Kyrgyz Republic joined the World Trade Organization. At the same time, a number of regional agreements were signed, both among the Central Asian countries and between Central Asian countries and their neighbors, although none had much influence, until the Eurasian Economic Union was constructed after 2009. Meanwhile, high costs of international trade in Central Asia are a symptom and a cause of regional disintegration.
Jonathan Karam Skaff
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199734139
- eISBN:
- 9780199950195
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199734139.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter studies investiture, which is considered as an aspect of medieval Eurasian diplomacy that is less understood. It begins with discussions of Turko-Mongol investiture, which is a customary ...
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This chapter studies investiture, which is considered as an aspect of medieval Eurasian diplomacy that is less understood. It begins with discussions of Turko-Mongol investiture, which is a customary aspect of Turko-Mongol politics, Sui-Tang investiture, and case studies of the Western Turks and the Turgish. It then examines the Eurasian practice of investing clients with native titles of nobility, and here it also discusses negotiated relationships and strong and weak attachments. This chapter ends with a section on the formalization of diplomatic relations.Less
This chapter studies investiture, which is considered as an aspect of medieval Eurasian diplomacy that is less understood. It begins with discussions of Turko-Mongol investiture, which is a customary aspect of Turko-Mongol politics, Sui-Tang investiture, and case studies of the Western Turks and the Turgish. It then examines the Eurasian practice of investing clients with native titles of nobility, and here it also discusses negotiated relationships and strong and weak attachments. This chapter ends with a section on the formalization of diplomatic relations.
Peter Fibiger Bang, C. A. Bayly, and Walter Scheidel (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197532768
- eISBN:
- 9780197532799
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197532768.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
The Oxford World History of Empire, Vol. 2: The History of Empires tracks the protean history of political domination from the very beginnings of state formation in the Bronze Age up to the present. ...
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The Oxford World History of Empire, Vol. 2: The History of Empires tracks the protean history of political domination from the very beginnings of state formation in the Bronze Age up to the present. Case studies deal with the full range of the historical experience of empire, from the realms of the Achaemenids and Ašoka to the empires of Mali and Songhay, and from ancient Rome and China to the Mughals, American settler colonialism, and the Soviet Union. Forty-five chapters detailing the history of individual empires are tied together by a set of global synthesizing surveys that structure the world history of empire into eight chronological phases. Only a few decades ago empire was believed to be a thing of the past; now it is clear that it has been and remains one of the most enduring forms of political organization and power. We cannot understand the dynamics and resilience of empire without moving decisively beyond the study of individual cases or particular periods, such as the relatively short age of European colonialism. The history of empire, as this volume amply demonstrate, needs to be drawn on the much broader canvas of global history.Less
The Oxford World History of Empire, Vol. 2: The History of Empires tracks the protean history of political domination from the very beginnings of state formation in the Bronze Age up to the present. Case studies deal with the full range of the historical experience of empire, from the realms of the Achaemenids and Ašoka to the empires of Mali and Songhay, and from ancient Rome and China to the Mughals, American settler colonialism, and the Soviet Union. Forty-five chapters detailing the history of individual empires are tied together by a set of global synthesizing surveys that structure the world history of empire into eight chronological phases. Only a few decades ago empire was believed to be a thing of the past; now it is clear that it has been and remains one of the most enduring forms of political organization and power. We cannot understand the dynamics and resilience of empire without moving decisively beyond the study of individual cases or particular periods, such as the relatively short age of European colonialism. The history of empire, as this volume amply demonstrate, needs to be drawn on the much broader canvas of global history.
Alexander Cooley
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199929825
- eISBN:
- 9780199950485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199929825.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Chapter 4 examines the strategic evolution and dilemmas of Russia, the region's former imperial power and continued privileged partner. The chapter analyzes Moscow's broad range of levers of ...
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Chapter 4 examines the strategic evolution and dilemmas of Russia, the region's former imperial power and continued privileged partner. The chapter analyzes Moscow's broad range of levers of influence, and traces its efforts to lock in its dominance by creating new regional organizations such as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC). At the same time, Moscow's regional policies and tactics have remained unstable and reactive, subject to Russia's self-image as a great power and its prevailing relations with the United States and China. An initial period of close U.S.-Russian cooperation immediately following 9/11 soon after deteriorated into a more competitive dynamic, fueled by the Western-backed Color Revolutions and Russian perceptions that U.S. military bases were becoming permanent. Despite its numerous instruments of influence, Moscow still must confront the political challenges of the region's intraregional tensions, the desire of states to pursue multidirectional foreign policies, and a rising China.Less
Chapter 4 examines the strategic evolution and dilemmas of Russia, the region's former imperial power and continued privileged partner. The chapter analyzes Moscow's broad range of levers of influence, and traces its efforts to lock in its dominance by creating new regional organizations such as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC). At the same time, Moscow's regional policies and tactics have remained unstable and reactive, subject to Russia's self-image as a great power and its prevailing relations with the United States and China. An initial period of close U.S.-Russian cooperation immediately following 9/11 soon after deteriorated into a more competitive dynamic, fueled by the Western-backed Color Revolutions and Russian perceptions that U.S. military bases were becoming permanent. Despite its numerous instruments of influence, Moscow still must confront the political challenges of the region's intraregional tensions, the desire of states to pursue multidirectional foreign policies, and a rising China.
