Flourishing branches, wilting core: research in modern Indian economic history

The core theme in modern Indian economic history until recently was economic growth in colonial India and models explaining stylised facts about growth or stagnation. From the 1980s, research moved away from the general toward more specific and local issues, a trend that has allowed new questions to be asked, has approached other fields and introduced a healthy scepticism for overarching models. But it also made macro-questions somewhat outdated, thereby weakening the link between history and models of economic growth and development. This essay reviews scholarship on new themes and asks how problems of economic growth can be motivated anew.     

Monetary policy and theory in Denmark, 1784–1800 part I

Abstract

With the fall of Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the secretary of the Council, on 14 April 1784, the group of men who took over political and military power in Denmark were faced with a number of serious economic problems. One of the most urgent was the uncertain state into which the monetary system had fallen, and monetary matters therefore came to occupy an important place both in the deliberations of the government and in contemporary writings.     

Myopia or strategic behavior? Indian regimes and the East India Company in late eighteenth century India

The East India Company's conquest of India was facilitated by the behavior of its Indian rivals who not only did not ally against it, but often supported it militarily. Historians have typically attributed this to myopia, the failure to understand the long-term threat represented by the Company. We examine the negotiations leading up to a key conflict, the Third Mysore War, and find that the Company's allies were not myopic. The British parliament had, in 1784, passed Pitt's India Act, which limited the scope for unprovoked military aggression by the Company in India. This had changed the behavior of the Company, making its promises more credible. This enhanced credibility made it possible for the Company to secure as allies Indian regimes that were acting strategically in their self-interest. This is a new explanation for an old puzzle.     

Towards a new Bradshaw? Economic statistics and the British state in the 1950s and 1960s

This article outlines the attempts of British central government to react to the perceived inadequacy of official economic statistics. A huge amount of work went into this project, the main aim of which was to speed up the production of statistics so that the economy could be analysed in more detail, and thus better managed. If this was to work, more data was required on the labour market, on productivity, on production, and on the interlinkages between those indicators. British official statistics clearly were more comprehensive and more detailed at the end of this period than they had been at the start. Even so, the effort was usually thought to have been a failure by the early 1970s. More detail took time to produce; it was difficult to recruit the necessary staff; successive administrative reorganizations also absorbed energies. The devolved informality of British government hampered the emergence of an overall picture. Businesses and trade unions resisted attempts to collect more data, especially when it showed them in an unflattering light. Above all, the elite, specialist, and technical nature of the reform process meant that very little political and popular pressure built up to force through further changes.     

我国电子信息产品国际竞争力的影响因素分析——基于进口状况的实证研究

电子信息产业是我国重点扶持发展的行业,上世纪九十年代以来,电子信息产业得到了快速发展,出口贸易额不断提高。本文通过经济学模型工具对影响我国电子信息产业进口的相关要素进行研究,并针对问题提出合理的对策建议。     

SEHR & IEHA — the early years

Abstract

In January 1952, Professor Astrid Friis asked me to accompany her and our colleague Aksel E Christensen to Stockholm for the inaugural meeting of a closed circle of Nordic historians who had set themselves the task of publishing an English-language journal of economic history. The meeting was arranged by Professor Ernst Söderlund. By way of introduction he brought us greetings from Eli F Heckscher, who by his work and debating ability had done more than anyone else to create respect for the subject of economic history in Sweden, and whose name was also renowned internationally thanks in part to his book on mercantilism. His latest achievement was the second volume of his mammoth work of Swedish economic history. Heckscher was in hospital at the time and died shortly afterwards. Thus it came about that the torch was passed on, but still it was clear that the Heckscher era was ebbing to its close.     

National accounts and international comparisons for the former Soviet Union

Abstract

Despite a long-standing experience in national accounting in the former USSR, it is well established that official Soviet estimates of economic growth were substantially overstated. Furthermore. a peculiar fact showing the internal inconsistency in the official national accounts ofthe Soviet Union is that independent estimates of relative levels of USSR and US national income and GNP comparisons suggested much lower growth rates. However, even the former comparative level estimates are now by many regarded as overstated. This paper briefly reviews the history of the official national accounts in both the former Soviet Union and new Russia. then turns to a review of the revisionist estimates ofgrowth; and finally offers a comparative discussion ofthe USSR/USA levels.     

当代印度政府提高粮食生产的政策研究

独立以来,作为世界上第二人口大国的印度,历届政府都极其关注粮食问题,从尼赫鲁政府的土地改革到后来的绿色革命等,印度政府采取一系列措施增加粮食产量,取得相当大的成就。一个最显著的成果是到20世界70年代末,印度在低水平上实现了粮食自给。粮食是农业的基础,粮食可持续发展是农业可持续发展的基础,农业可持续发展是一国经济增长的基础。在这个背景下,研究印度独立以来解决粮食生产问题,分析其成败得失,不仅对印度粮食安全和农业发展有着重要的意义,而且对广大发展中国家包括中国在内,都有现实的借鉴意义,也可丰富发展经济学的相关研究。     

Paper money but a gold debt: Italy on the gold standard

For most of the classical gold standard era, Italy was not formally committed to gold, instead the lira “shadowed” gold. The remarkable stability of the lira exchange rate raises the question of why Italy did not move to official convertibility when it could have gained gold standard benefits at a seemingly low cost. The answer to this puzzle lies in the management of the Italy’s large foreign debt. Although denominated in lire, holders of the debt had the privilege of converting their coupons into gold at the official exchange rate in Paris. This arrangement offered the government an opportunity to temporarily exploit domestic bondholders who found it difficult to circumvent the barriers to arbitrage. In times of fiscal problems, the government gained some seignorage while the lira was allowed a limited depreciation. Shadowing the official gold rate, lost some of the possible benefits of convertibility but gave the government fiscal flexibility.     

印度扩展非洲石油市场份额的策略

经济快速发展导致的能源需求大增以及国内石油资源储产量有限无法满足需要的现实,加剧了印度对海外石油的依赖,石油外交成为新时期印度维护石油供给安全的主要路径选择。随着非洲石油资源储产量的持续上升,在世界石油供给市场上作用的凸现,非洲成为印度新时期石油外交的重点地区之一。探究印度在非洲石油外交的背景、路径、成效及挑战,对客观评价印度对非洲石油外交的态势以及印非关系现状定有裨益。     

American & Foreign Power in Argentina and Brazil (1926–65)

The article analyses the evolution, strategies, and position of the American & Foreign Power company (AFP) in Argentina and Brazil from the mid-1920s to the second post-war period. We compare the economic performance and the strategies followed by this US group in different host economies, examining the relations between the US electricity firms and the governments of both countries that explain American & Foreign Power's withdrawal from Argentina and Brazil in 1959–65. The study is based upon the annual reports and proceedings of American & Foreign Power (1923–63) and other corporate reports, government statistics, and official reports from Argentina, Brazil, and the US.     

Eli heckscher and the problem of synthesis a methodological note

Abstract

If the economic historian Donald McCloskey, well known for his rhetoric and his metaphors, is to be believed, the accomplished exponent of the discipline of economic history ought to possess two vital qualities. The scholar in question must be driven by “the historian's lust for facts and the economist's lust for logic.”¹ In a drastic analogy with the circus world, he likens this scholar to a tightrope walker who, to provoke the applause of the public, forces himself to cycle blindfold over Niagara Falls balancing an eel on his nose! I leave aside the question whether anyone has ever managed to perform this feat or is ever likely to. But the problem is challenging and interesting.     

Emigration of Indian indentured labour to the Danish West Indian Island of St. Croix 1863–68

Abstract

Throughout most of the nineteenth and the early years of the twentieth centuries, sugar planters in the colonies of Britain, France and Holland obtained their labour from India under a government-sponsored scheme of indentures. The planters of St. Croix, one of the Danish West Indian islands, attempted to solve their labour problem in a similar way, and in 1863 brought 321 Indian labourers to work on the sugar plantations. But the experiment with Indian labourers was not successful, and there was no further recruitment from India. This essay deals with some aspects of Indian emigration to St. Croix and examines the circumstances which led to the failure of the project.     

Indian economic reforms and ASEAN-India economic relations

This paper provides a brief account of the history of ASEAN-India relations and the changes currently taking shape as a result of the Indian economic reforms and the country's look East Policy. The paper then argues that there are opportunities for both sides arising from the likely new growth scenario for India outlined in the paper.     

Surprisingly gentle confinement: British treatment of Danish and Norwegian prisoners of war during the napoleonic wars

ABSTRACT

The Napoleonic Wars saw the British capture and incarcerate thousands of sailors in disused Royal Navy ships, the so-called prison hulks. Many Danes and Norwegians – navy personnel, privateers and merchant sailors – were thus interred. This article uses a new data source, the official record books kept in the National Archive at Kew, to test whether the prison hulks were as bad as popular perception might suggest. In doing so, we provide the first rigorous quantitative assessment of the Danish and Norwegian sailors’ prisoner experience. We find that death rates were surprisingly low, suggesting the quantity and quality of food and medical care was reasonable. Prison hulks were not ‘floating tombs’. The records also show which prisoners were released and exchanged, and when. Officers did well, reflecting the age old system of a gentleman’s honour. Privateers did worse than merchant sailors: those who took up arms were likely to serve longer as prisoners.     

Joint stock companies in Finland in the nineteenth century

Abstract

In most countries joint stock companies appeared before any attention was paid to this form of association in legislation. The lack of official sanction, however, had a restraining effect on the creation of joint stock companies, and their economic breakthrough did not, as a rule, occur until the company as an institution had been legally acknowledged.     

论印度粮食安全

独立前印度是一个粮食短缺饥荒频发的国家,独立后历届政府都相当注重粮食的发展,绿色革命的成功使印度实现了粮食自给并略有出口。本文依据联合国粮农组织提出的粮食安全理论为基础,来评析当前印度粮食安全的现状。本文结论是印度政府应当把粮食生产作为基础,同时,稳定供给和保障消费来实现粮食安全。     

论科举制度与政府人员结构的关系

科举制度从隋朝开始以来,一直是政府录用人员的主要方式和途径,对改变政府人员结构起着至关重要的作用.唐代科举已成为读书人出身入仕的首要途径,进士则成为高层官员的主要来源;宋代在政府人员结构中形成了一支庞大的中产阶层,成为社会发展的中坚力量;明清的科举考试也具有较强的人才选拔功能.     

From growth studies to microhistory: Finnish economic and social history in the 1990s and early 2000s

Abstract

Economic and social history was already being practised in Finland before the Second World War, although it became established as an independent academic discipline only after the war. The terms social history or economic history were not used then; what we now recognise for instance as social history was then called “cultural history” or “history of the culture”. This approach was often characterised the collective approach to distinguish it from the individualistic approach of more historicist study. Nearly all economics research was historical before the 1950s, and practically all professors of economics were actually historians by training and had defended their dissertations in history, usually after having studied some economic problem of the past. But our discipline has also other roots. In Finnish universities the discipline called social policy, usually included in faculties of social science, has always had strong ties with social history.     

Fluctuat nec mergitur: Economic history in Sweden at the turn of the century 2000

Abstract

Economic history as a subject is customarily likened on formal occasions to a landbridge uniting two scholarly continents: the economic and the historical. It can also be said that the subject is marked by two peculiarities. For more than a century it has stood outside mainstream economics, been an alternative, a subterranean current. In the same way it has always had to struggle in a subordinate relation to the subject of pure history, whether the latter called itself political history or purported to be capable of covering the entire field of history by itself. With this background in mind, it is above all interesting to ask oneself how the subject of economic history has been able to establish so strong and independent a position in Sweden.¹