Visualising defence and war in economic history journals (1989–2018)

ABSTRACT

Economics usually takes for granted a peaceful world with peaceful market transactions, where war and conflict are anomalies to the current state of business life. However, as History shows violence is a pervasive phenomenon. How is the current state of the art of research on war and defence in economic history journals? This paper provides an overview of research published on this topic by a selection of economic history journals since the fall of Berlin wall. By means of bibliometric and cluster analysis, and using visualising analytical tools, we show the production, main topics, authors, sources, etc. on this research area, and compare with the treatment received in economic journals. The main findings are that publications in economic history journals have increased in the last decades; cover a list of themes broader than that in economic journals; give an increasing importance to quantitative techniques; cite sources from the same area as well as from the top economic journals; and show a relative lack of appeal to neighbouring disciplines. Although economics and economic history influence each other, the direction of the scientific knowledge is going mostly from economics towards economic history rather than the opposite.     

Mercantilism: a materialist approach

ABSTRACT

Historians and economists have shown renewed interest in mercantilism over the last couple of years. From this interest, a dispute has arisen about whether mercantilism should be seen as an incoherent economic thought or if it is possible to ‘reconstruct’ its basic principles. In line with this latter attempt, this paper is intended to provide a materialist explanation for varying degrees of belief in shared mercantilist assumptions. My hypothesis is that belief in mercantilist assumptions is significantly dependent upon how economic and security issues materially interact in a given time and space, with uncertainty and insecurity profoundly favouring mercantilist dispositions in economic thought. To analyse this hypothesis, the paper sets the first steps for relating the credibility of mercantilism with changes in British economic and military history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Section 3 presents ideas to further investigate this hypothesis. Section 4 concludes the paper.     

江浙两省经济发展的文化动因分析——兼论江苏创业富民强省的对策

文化是影响经济发展的重要因素,不同地区有不同的地域文化,而区域文化对经济发展有全方位、持久的影响.本文分析了导致江浙经济发展差异的历史文化因素,在此基础上分析了江浙企业家成长环境的不同,最后提出了促进江苏经济发展的对策.     

中部崛起的产业选择视角探究——安徽经济发展促进因素的实证分析

安徽是中部六省的重要成员,是“中部崛起”的重要组成部分,由于其承东启西,连南接被独特的地理位置,农业大省、工业大省、人口大省独特的经济社会结构使其在中部崛起中有典型性和代表性。文章通过对安徽经济发展情况的历史梳理及现状研究,建立了经济发展的计量经济模型,并通过计量经济学方法研究了模型中主要变量对模型的影响程度,在此基础上提出了促进安徽经济发展的对策建议,以此来探究中部崛起的产业选择视角．     

History of industrial decentralization in South Africa (Part I): The regional concentration of industry and the historical basis of the policy∗

This research deals broadly with the history and development of industrial decentralization in South Africa. It provides a basic analysis of a number of inseparable historic, political and economic issues, and is presented in two parts. This first part begins by tracing the economic forces that generated current concentrated patterns of economic activity in South Africa, and goes on to review the origins of the industrial decentralization policy. It concludes that despite a relatively rigid natural regional economic structure that developed historically, and despite the continued presence of the economic forces that brought this structure about, the government commenced with a policy of industrial decentralization in 1960. The second part of the research firstly assesses the development of the policy in an attempt to indicate reasons for major changes, and secondly discusses the impact of the policy with reference to current evidence. It concludes that the industrial decentralization policy may have had serious economic consequences to date, but may nevertheless have a continued role to play in the ongoing political development of the country. The approach throughout has been to provide a relatively compact chronology of the policy and its antecedents.     

History of industrial decentralization in South Africa (part II)∗: Historical development and impact of the policy

This research deals broadly with the history and development of industrial decentralization in South Africa. It provides a basic analysis of a number of inseparable historic, political and economic issues, and is presented in two parts. The first part firstly traced the economic forces that generated current concentrated patterns of economic activity in South Africa, and secondly, reviewed the origins of the industrial decentralization policy. It concluded that despite a relatively rigid natural regional economic structure that developed historically, and despite the continued presence of the economic forces that brought this structure about, the government began with a policy of industrial decentralization in 1960. The second part of the research, published here, firstly assesses the development of the policy in an attempt to indicate reasons for major changes, and secondly discusses the impact of the policy with reference to current evidence. It concludes that the industrial decentralization policy may have had serious economic consequences to date, but may nevertheless have a continued role in the ongoing political development of the country. The approach throughout has been to provide a relatively compact'chronology of the policy and its antecedents.     

Accounting History in Australia: A Survey of Published Works, 1975–99

Research in accounting history has expanded significantly in recent years. This paper reviews the recent development of accounting history in Australia through an examination of the relevant literature while recognizing the wider influence of Australian scholars in the international community of accounting historians. The survey is confined to works on Australian accounting history published in the period of 25 years between 1975 and 1999. These works are discussed using the literature classification framework provided by Carnegie and Napier (1996). Reviewing the literature in this way is expected to be of benefit to historians in general, particularly economic and business historians, and also accounting historians, while future directions for accounting history research in Australia are outlined following a brief critique of the literature examined.     

古巴经济模式更新的历史路径与现实挑战

2011年,伴随古共六大的召开,古巴进入了社会主义模式更新的历史新阶段。古巴社会主义模式更新既是半个世纪以来古巴社会主义建设内在逻辑的历史延续,也是古巴社会主义为应对经济全球化挑战作出的时代选择。尽管古巴经济模式更新的未来仍存在诸多不确定性,但古巴高层锐意更新的决心和古巴社会必然经历的转型阵痛却是清晰可见的。进入2013年以来,古巴经济模式更新的步伐依然不减速,高层人事接连调整,经济举措密集出台,多元外交纵深发展,普通民众的工作与生活也随之发生着巨大的起伏与变化。面对经济模式更新大刀阔斧的调整和改革,古巴社会在渴求重生的同时,更承受着巨大的张力和考验。能否在理想与现实之间求得公平与效率的统一,将成为决定古巴经济模式更新成败的重要标尺。无论前景如何,坚持古巴道路的古巴经济模式更新都将是人类历史上一次对社会主义建设规律的有益探索和大胆尝试。     

Women and empowerment through the ‘economy of affection’ in KwaZulu‐Natal: Its significance for sustainable development

This article is an attempt to demonstrate how, in the absence of infrastructural requirements for development in the rural areas, the interpersonal relationships of women articulated through their households, kinship networks and community structures serve as indispensable mechanisms for their survival. These mechanisms are seen as part of an indigenous socio‐economic framework that is referred to here as the ‘economy of affection’. This framework is presented, through ethnographic data, as a means of facilitating moral, social and economic support among the indigent rural people in KwaZulu‐Natal. Taking cognisance of local organisational forms and resources is the best possible way to reconstruct South Africa's vast hinterland against the background of a history of development patterns, where rhetoric has played a more important role than actual substantive contributions to development of the rural poor, and where capital investments, technology and expertise of a post‐industrial nature are unlikely to spread.     

Greening the local economy

While there has been a growing awareness of environmental issues in recent years, there has been little attempt to integrate environmental policy with economic development issues. This paper argues that this is an issue which should be addressed by local authorities and suggests ways in which local authorities could begin to move towards sustainable local economic development.     

Introduction

Abstract

During the past few years Scandinavian historians have felt a growing need for a journal of economic and social history in which the results of research and reviews of literature in these fields might be published. This need reflects an increasing interest in economic and social history in these countries. It is against this background that the publication of the first number of an inter-Scandinavian periodical for economic and social history should be seen.     

从经济危机与产业结构调整的内在联系探索我国产业结构调整方向

从分析经济危机产生的原因出发,探索经济危机产生与产业结构调整的关联性。并结合日本、美国在应对金融、经济危机时采用的产业结构调整对策,根据我国国情,分析我国今后产业产业结构调整方向。     

The Population Challenge in Africa and the Prospects for the African Development Bank's Intervention

Abstract: The paper advocates that unchecked population growth may lead to serious social and economic burdens in developing countries in general, and particularly in Africa. This position does not stem from the neo-Malthusian perspective according to which population is mainly responsible for economic stagnation, nor does it derives from the «developmentalist» approach which perceives population as a neutral variable and development as the «best contraceptive». The theoretical stand advocated here is that population and development are intimately linked and strongly influence each other. Therefore, an attempt to foster economic growth and hopefully improve the standard of living of the people without taking into consideration the population factor would be as illusory as an attempt to control population without involving economic variables. Based on this epistemological perspective, prospects for the ADB's intervention in population sector have been assessed and suggestions for its sector policy made. Résumé: Le document preconise que la croissance demographique non maitrisee peut imposer de lourdes contraintes sociales et economiques sur les pays en voie de developpement en general et l'Afrique en particulier. Cette attitude ne resulte pas de la perspective neo-malthusienne selon laquelle la population est principalement responsable de la stagnation economique, ni de l'approche « developpementaliste » qui percoit la population comme une variable neutre et developpement comme le « meilleur contraceptif ». Le point de vue theorique exprime ici est que population et developpement sont intimement lies et exercent une grande influence l'une sur l'autre. En consequence, une action visant a promouvoir la croissance economique et ameliorer, peut-Ctre, le niveau de vie des populations sans tenir compte du facteur demographique serait aussi illusoire qu'une action visant la regulation de la population sans prendre en consideration les variables economiques. Sur la base de cette perspective epistemologique, les perspectives pour l'intervention de la BAD dans le secteur de la population ont ete evaluees et des recommandations faites pour sa politique sectorielle.     

THE DEBATABLE ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF THE CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF INDIA*

The present study is an attempt to present the issues which arise out of the task of making a historical evaluation of the major problems in the development of contemporary Indian history. First, the period from the Indian Rebellion to World War I is defined as the transition stage from modern history to contemporary history. Second, the problems in contemporary Indian history after World War I have been reviewed applying the rules of historical methodology. Finally, the problems of the post-independence era are considered mainly from the aspects of the role of Jawaharlal Nehru, of the changes in the character of the Congress Government, and of the split of the Communist Party and its ideological struggles. An attempt has also been made to forecast the India's prospects from the point of view of unity of the nation-states in South Asia.     

Reformist programmes in the planning for post-war economic policy during world war ii

Abstract

Extract

The Great Depression of 1929–33 saw the beginnings of a revolution in the history of economic policy formation in the West. When at the outset of the depression, the ‘Old Economic Policy’ was still seen to be in operation, an ever-increasing resistance arose against the consequent unemployment and indeed against the very notion of the inevitability of depression. For the economic policy, this meant a support for an active fiscal policy, as against the almost complete dominance of monetary means. During the 1930s, however, support for the ‘New Economic Policy’ was not widespread, and most of the instances of its application remained incomplete. The most resolute use of the new economic policy was made in Sweden by the Social Democratic government from 1932. The new economics was also strongly advocated by the British Liberal Party, which, however, hardly had any influence. The best known example of all is that enshrined in the New Deal of the Roosevelt administration.     

论列宁的金融全球化思想

列宁的金融全球化思想是其经济全球化思想的重要内容和成部分。列宁的时代是垄断资本、金融资本的全球化时代,世界金融资剥削体系已经初步形成,金融全球化的发展使各民族国家和经济体相间的依存性空前增强。由此形成的列宁的金融全球化思想包括:布满界各国的金融资本把帝国主义经济变为全球经济;金融资本不仅控制世界经济,而且还操纵着国际政治、军事;金融全球化发展的历史趋势致了食利国的形成,出现食利者阶层完全脱离生产的寄生性。我们重列宁关于金融资本及其全球化问题的深刻而富有远见的论述,对于剖当前的全球化金融危机仍然有着重要的现实指导意义。     

Economy and history — A dissiden journal

Abstract

Before the 1940s, research in economic history in Sweden was conducted in the history departments, which usually meant studies using traditional historical methods applied to economic source material. Furthermore, historically interested economists studied economic history using economics methods. However, there was one outstanding character who specialised in economic history proper, Eli F. Heckscher. After completing his doctoral thesis on an economic history topic in 1907, he held a chair in economics at the Stockholm School of Economics but was then appointed to a personal chair in economic history in the 1930s.