Origin and rise of the crofter problem in Finland

Abstract

Crofters (Swedish torpare, Finnish torppari) are in Finland and Sweden the peasants whose principal means of subsistence derived from the cultivation of some small part, held in tenancy, of an estate. The crofter paid the bulk of his rent by putting in so many days work on the parent farm.     

Book briefs

G Antonelli and A Quadrio‐Curzio (eds) The agro‐technological system towards 2000 North Holland.

W J Baumol Superfairness: Applications and theory The MIT Press, Massachusetts, 1986

E Boonzaier and J Sharp (eds) South African keywords: The uses and abuses of political concepts David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg, 1988

C Bryant (ed) Poverty, policy, and food security in Southern Africa Lynne Rienner Publishers. Boulder, Colorado, 1988

J Butler. R Elphick and D Welsh (eds) Democratic liberalism in South Africa: Its history and prospect David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg. 1987

D P Chaudhri and A J Dasgupta Agriculture and the development process: a study of Punjab Croom Helm, London, 1985

R Cohen (ed) Satisfying Africa's food needs: Food production and commercialization in African agriculture Lynne Rienner Publishers. Boulder/London, 1988

J M Conrad and C W Clark Natural resource economics: Notes and problems Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987

D E Janvry and K Subbarao Agricultural price policy and income distribution in India Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1986     

Book briefs

Eastern Cape publication

Institute of Social and Economic Research

Development issues in the Eastern Cape: A review and assessment Working Paper 25, University of Rhodes, 1986, 96 pp. R5.

Richard N Langlois (ed)

Economics as a process ‘Essays in the New Institutional Economics’, Cambridge University Press, London, 1986, xi + 262 pp, R87,70

Paul Collier, Samir Radwan and Samuel Wangwe with Albert Wagner

Labour and poverty in rural Tanzania ‘Ujamaa and Rural Development in the United Republic of Tanzania’, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986, vii + 143 pp, £17,50

Allen Buchanan

Ethics, efficiency, and the market Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1985, xi + 135 pp, £15,00     

Russia and the world market in the seventeenth century

Abstract

At the end of the 16th century there were three principle routes linking the Russian market with Western Europe: an overland route through Poland, a sea route through the Baltic, and another sea route across the White Sea from the port of Archangel.     

Price formation in the Danish stock market in the 1890s

Abstract

Trading¹ in stocks has a fairly long history in Denmark. It dates back to the end of the 17th century at least, as evidenced by M?glemes Articler from 1684, where one can find information about brokerage fees for sales and purchases of shares of the East Asian, West Asian and other chartered trading companies. In the beginning of the 18th century, newspapers started carrying information about transactions in stocks. Stock exchange price quotes were listed in the newspapers fairly regularly from around 1760.     

Danish emigration prior to 1914 trends and problems

Abstract

In the distinguished account of the last generation of research into emigration which Professor Thistlethwaite presented to the International Congress of History held in Stockholm in 1960, the historians of individual European nations were urged to address themselves to the study of overseas emigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; for, he pointed out, the topic had been painstakingly examined in the United States from the standpoint of immigration but had not yet been considered sufficiently from the point of view of the migrants’ homelands.¹     

Determinants of Malaysian Trade Balance: An ARDL Bound Testing Approach – A Commentary

Abstract

This commentary is served as an additional light both from theoretical and empirical perspectives, on the study by Duasa (Global Economic Review, 2007, 36, pp. 89–102) who examined the short- and long-run relationships between trade balance, real exchange rates, income, and money supply for Malaysia. The final words I would like to make are that the results documented by Duasa require further investigation before it can be generalized.     

Book briefs

B Eichengreen (ed) The gold standard in theory and history Methuen, New York and London, 1985

F Ellis Peasant economics: Farm households and agrarian development Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988

G Feder, T Onchan, T Chalamwong & C Hongladarom Land policies and farm productivity in Thailand (Published for the World Bank). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1988.

C Ford Runge (ed) The future of the North American granary: Politics, economics, and resource constraints in North American agriculture Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 1986     

Could Sweden have stopped the second world war?

Abstract

In a recent article in the Scandinavian Economic History Review, R. Karlbom raised an important issue, and one which had not up to that point received the attention it merited.¹ This issue is the degree to which Germany was dependent on Swedish exports of iron ore between her invasion of Poland and her defeat of France. Could Germany have conquered Norway, Denmark, France, Holland and Belgium without a regular supply of iron ore from Sweden? Could Sweden, as Mr. Karlbom implies, have stopped the war?     

Homelessness in Pretoria: Exploring the survival challenges of the homeless and their right to the city

ABSTRACT

This article documents the biographies of 60 homeless people from a range of different backgrounds in South Africa’s capital city of Pretoria. The article focuses on their right to the city and how the lack thereof affects their daily lives. It explores the challenges they face on a daily basis and the different strategies they implement in mitigating these challenges.     

Sweden's iron ore exports to Germany, 1933–1944

Abstract

Rolf Karlbom's article about Swedish iron ore exports to Germany during the Nazi era¹ is an attempt to examine a very important problem as yet unsolved—the significance of the Swedish ore deliveries to Germany. His study begins with the following two questions:² 1. ‘How much of the total consumption of this raw material by German industry did Swedish ore cover during these years?’

2. ‘How far was access to Swedish iron ore a sine qua non for the continuance of the armaments programme?’

3. These basic questions indicate the main problems. Karlbom's answers to them are not wholly convincing because of some weaknesses in his approach.

     

Macroeconomic history in Sweden

Abstract

The term macrohistory can have reference to the overall history of large units, e.g. world development during the last two hundred years, or European history in the Middle Ages. Another example is the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Yet another is the macrohistorical problem posed by Jones in a recently-published book. He pursues the thesis that tendencies to economic growth have been present in most societies but that for various reasons they have been prevented from becoming more than just tendencies: “Why Europe rather than China?”¹     

Some observations on four series of Tuscan corn prices 1520–1630

Abstract

In his address to the International History Congress in Stockholm, 1960, Professor Earl J. Hamilton¹ regretted the lack of a history of Italian prices, a matter which was all the more surprising since there was known to be copious material—often systematically recorded—giving series of prices, particularly from the sixteenth century and later, in Italian archives. During the last thirty years numerous papers and publications based on this material have appeared which go some way towards filling the gap.     

The Role of Manufacturing-specific Technology in Determining the Composition of Hours Worked in Korea

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of manufacturing-specific and neutral technological changes in explaining the dramatic shift in hours worked from the manufacturing toward the service sector. The finding is that manufacturing-specific technological changes are the main contributor to the shift in hours worked while neutral technological changes seem to play only a minor role in explaining it.     

The Political Economy of Chinese “Federalism”: New Analytical Directions

Abstract

Decentralized politico-administrative structures may be dissected and assessed by employing a variety of conceptual tools. In the case of China, researchers have displayed a distinct preference for operating within a framework grounded in political sociology. Substantial insights have been generated in the process, but it may be argued, and empirically demonstrated, that a complementary approach, seeking inspiration from political economy, may shed additional light on the functioning of the Chinese quasi-federal system.     

Accelerating growth in Poland through privatization

Abstract

This study examines relationships among information communications technology (ICT), carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and economic growth. The panel annual data are constructed from 1991 to 2009 for nine members from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The study examines the long-run equilibrium relationship using cointegration techniques and the short-run relationships using cointegrating regression estimation methods. Test results indicate a long-run equilibrium relationship exists among these variables. Among these relationships, ICT shows significant to highly significant positive effects on both economic growth and CO₂ emissions. Significant to highly significant inverse bidirectional relationships between economic growth and CO₂ emissions are found in the region. Based on these empirical findings, further policy implications for economic growth, ICT and CO₂ emissions are discussed.     

From growth to crisis

Abstract

Banking history has had little attention in Denmark if compared to many other countries. The purpose of this article is to present some current topics of interest in Danish banking history from about 1850 to the interwar years. Special emphasis will be laid upon the relations between banks and industry as well as the boom and bust phases of the banking system during the period.     

Swedish imperialism under the microscope

Abstract

Interest in Sweden's Age of Greatness was keen among historians in Sweden and Finland from 1870 until as late as 1970. Apart from the extensive studies written by C.T. Odhner and F.F. Carlson, a whole succession of Swedish scholars defended dissertations on such minor issues as Sweden's relations with ‘such and such a country’ during ‘such and such years’ in order to qualify for positions as lecturers. At the same time, literature with a more geopolitical leaning was appearing, such as the works by Harald Hjärne and Eirik Hornborg on Sweden-Finland's eastern problem.¹     

Scandinavian economic history review the first ten years — A personal memoir

Abstract

Together with my good friend and LSE colleague, the late Donald Coleman, I was Assistant English Editor of the Scandinavian Economic History Review from 1952, when the work first started, to the tenth number which appeared in 1962 and was a Festschrift to Ernst Söderlund. Our association with the Review sprang above all from Söderlund's insistence, strongly endorsed by all his co-editors, that the Review should appear in well written English, not in Svenklish. Of course, since both Donald and I were economic historians, though specialising in very different fields, we were able to advise on academic questions relating to the subject matter as well as with linguistic niceties.     

Scandinavian Historiography

Abstract

Over the last decades, research in economic history has been lively in all the Scandinavian countries, and methodological issues have come more to the fore than was the case earlier. However, certain differences can be discerned between the universities of anyone of the countries and between the countries also, arriving from the interplay between external and internal factors and to the different traditions of research.