New powers in the club: the challenges of global trade governance

No good deed goes unpunished: the WTO's timely response to accommodate the new powers—Brazil, India and China—at the heart of its decision‐making has produced new inefficiencies, has heightened its proclivity to deadlock, and has exacerbated disengagement and disillusionment among all its stakeholders. Particularly in the context of a major economic crisis, a reliable international institution is necessary to ensure the continued provision of freer trade—well‐recognized as the route to recovery. With the WTO's recent record to provide these necessary public goods under doubt, where do the solutions lie? This article discusses the changing role of the new powers in the WTO, and further analyses the opportunities and challenges that these developments generate. The concluding section examines possible routes to reform. While very little can, or indeed should, be done to alter the balance of power itself, it is argued that appropriate institutional reform can help the multilateral trading system retain the advances it has made on grounds of fairness and further address the concerns of efficiency that are central to the crisis that it faces today.     

In haec signa: Pilgrim-badge trade in southern France

Medieval shrines acquired their wealth from the pilgrims who worshipped in them. Though a large part of this wealth come in the form of outright donations, shrines received a considerable income from the sale of pilgrims' badges and other souvenirs. Originally an ecclesiastical monopoly, the sale of badges became a bone of contention in many pilgrimage centers between the shrine proper and the surrounding town. This phenomenon can be seen in the shrines of St James in Compostela, St Mary Magdalen in Saint-Maximin, and the Virgin Mary in Rocamadour and Le Puy. During the later middle ages the development of a whole souvenir industry for pilgrims reflected the change in the popular attitude towards pilgrimages. The pilgrimage ceased to be a purely religious undertaking of someone who had severed himself from secular society for the duration of the journey. It became a social event which combined piety with tourism.     

In haec signa: Pilgrim-badge trade in southern France

Medieval shrines acquired their wealth from the pilgrims who worshipped in them. Though a large part of this wealth come in the form of outright donations, shrines received a considerable income from the sale of pilgrims' badges and other souvenirs. Originally an ecclesiastical monopoly, the sale of badges became a bone of contention in many pilgrimage centers between the shrine proper and the surrounding town. This phenomenon can be seen in the shrines of St James in Compostela, St Mary Magdalen in Saint-Maximin, and the Virgin Mary in Rocamadour and Le Puy. During the later middle ages the development of a whole souvenir industry for pilgrims reflected the change in the popular attitude towards pilgrimages. The pilgrimage ceased to be a purely religious undertaking of someone who had severed himself from secular society for the duration of the journey. It became a social event which combined piety with tourism.     

Glass trade beads in North America: An annotated bibliography

Historical Archaeology -