INVENTION AND INNOVATION IN THE AUSTRALIAN NON‐FERROUS MINING INDUSTRY: WHOSE TECHNOLOGY?

Metalliferous mining was of major importance to the Australian economy throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The industry depended heavily on technology transfer for efficient and economical operations. The country's isolated mining fields tended to rely on adaptation rather than on invention, with toughness, portability and ease of repair and use being the prime criteria for the adoption of new machinery. This article argues that both the internationalism of the mining industry and the nature of its technology transfer blur the lines between invention, innovation and adaptation. Mining machinery, techniques and people were all highly mobile. Hence, attributing national origins to mining technology often seems irrelevant.     

A VERY BRITISH PHENOMENON? INDUSTRIAL POLITICS AND THE DECLINE OF THE JAPANESE COAL MINING INDUSTRY SINCE THE 1950S

This paper describes how the Japanese government gradually abandoned its support for coal mining after 1945. Drawing parallels with the British experience during the 1930s, this article shows how coal miners and owners in Japan were able to slow the pace of economic adjustment from the 1950s. The government's initial reluctance to act reflected its willingness to put industrial politics to the fore, preferring to avoid alienating political support and aggravating a vocal unionised sector of the labour force. It eventually accepted and acted upon the need for draconian retrenchment.     

THE RADCLIFFE COMMITTEE AND GOLD

T he R adcliffe C ommittee has nimbly side-stepped the question of the function which gold should perform in present-day monetary policy and the important related question of the price which gold should have in the framework of whatever function is allocated to it inside the broader confines of monetary policy. The index to the Report¹ indicates only seven paragraphs on the gold standard and the price of gold. It is, however, clear from the general tenor of the Report that the Committee no longer thinks of gold as money but as the basic constituent of exchange reserves.     

文化产业的创意牵手

台湾文化产业进步较早,在创意、研发、营销、品牌经营、资本运作等方面具有优势.在两岸的共同努力下,两岸文化产业优势互补,共同打造文化产业链,使两岸文化产业的交流合作日益密切,彼此间逐渐形成了良性互动和依存关系,对共同繁荣文化市场,增进两岸同胞的相互了解,传承和弘扬中华文化发挥了重要作用.进一步拓展两岸文化产业的相互合作,不仅有利于中华文化的创新与发展,还有助于实现两岸互利双赢.