The Conundrum of Intellectual Property Rights: Domestic Interests,International Commitments and the Australian Music Industry

The creation and exploitation of intellectual property is of central importance to Australia's economic security and cultural identity. However, the protection of intellectual property rights can have undesirable consequences including the protection of anti-competitive business environments; the privileging of private over public interest; and the erosion of the state's policy autonomy. In a case study of the recent conflict over the import of compact discs into Australia, this article demonstrates how the Commonwealth Government's attempt to curb the oligopolistic behaviour of the major foreign-owned record companies has been undermined by its desire to demonstrate its commitment to intellectual property rights, especially in the context of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations and the new agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property TRIPS.     

(Re)assessing Parliamentary Policy Impact: The Case of the Australian Senate

A recent article in this Journal suggested that assumptions about the legislative influence of the Australian Senate may overstate its de facto power. Stanley Bach indicated that compromise with the Senate was relatively rare, and pointed out that most successful Senate amendments were government amendments. This paper provides an alternative view. We suggest that legislative influence is more subtle than Bach acknowledged, and that it is necessary to dig deeper in the data to fully understand the Senate's role. We therefore supplement his analysis in two ways: (1) through tracking the ultimate outcome of government defeats in the Senate; and (2) through analysis of two case study bills. We find that in confrontations with government the Senate ‘wins’ the great majority of the time. This shapes government behaviour in the chamber, such that many government amendments actually respond to non-government concerns. The most important element of Senate influence is therefore ‘soft power’– exercised through negotiation – backed up only in extremis by the ‘hard power’ of government defeat. This holds important lessons for the study of legislative influence more broadly, as well as demonstrating the true power of the Australian Senate.     

The Terracotta Industry: its Distribution,Manufacturing Processes and Products

Abstract

This article considers the industrial aspects of the revival of terracotta and faience as architectural materials during the last two hundred years. It demonstrates how the distribution and development of the industry, and the nature of the terracotta produced, relates closely to clay geology. The transition from using younger clays found in the south-west of England through to exploiting clays from the Coal Measures explains the emergence of new firms able to mass-produce large, brightly coloured blocks on an extensive scale. In examining the technology of manufacture it is apparent that the basic processes changed little during the course of the revival, but that skills in making models and moulds in plaster and in applying glazes were fundamental to the decorative qualities of terracotta and faience architecture.     

The Political Importance of Provincial Newspapers, 1903-1945: The Rowntrees and the Liberal Press

This article argues that the political importance of provincialnewspapers run by the Rowntree family in the Liberal cause declinedbetween 1903 and 1945. This decline is identified in changingattitudes to the funding of newspapers, and in the reasons forthose changes. Before the Second World War the Rowntrees consideredsubsidies to provincial newspapers vital, to keep the pressat the forefront of partisan campaigning, until at last it beganto pay its way. Yet such newspapers' eventually strong financescontrasted with their political weakness, as they appeared helplessto prevent the Liberal Party's electoral decline. After 1945the Rowntrees, in contrast to their earlier strategy, no longerconsidered the funding of newspapers a priority. Instead, theytargeted money directly at the strengthening of the LiberalParty, both in Parliament and in the party organization, insteadof at the press. This switch of strategy was the earliest exampleof a wider Liberal emphasis, from the 1940s, on improving parliamentaryrecruitment and party organization. The fading political importanceof the Rowntrees' newspapers and of the wider Liberal presswould lead to loss-making Liberal papers closing, while survivingones ceased to support the Liberal Party. Instead, the Liberalscame to depend on television and community politics.     

近代朝鲜华侨制造业研究——以铸造业为中心

以朝鲜殖民地时期华侨制造业中最具代表性的铸造业作为研究对象,对华侨铸造工厂诞生的背景、同乡网络及其生产体制进行了阐述;分析了华侨制造业在朝鲜烧锅制造领域里取得垄断性地位的原因,一是华侨铸造工厂里中国劳动者较低的工资及技术开发的进行;二是全国的华侨铸造工厂形成了以河北省交河县为中心的同乡网络并进行协力合作。中日战争爆发后,日本政府谋求战时经济的强化,朝鲜总督府也加强了战时统治经济,生铁原料的配给发生困难,华侨铸造工厂因而纷纷倒闭,走向衰退。     

Multinational Knowledge Strategies,Policy and the Upgrading Process of Regions: Revisiting the Automotive Industry in Ostrava and Shanghai

This paper revisits how and why new multinational knowledge-based strategies and multi-level governmental policies influence the upgrading process of regions in developing economies. Automotive multinationals traditionally exploited local asset conditions, but it is shown that they have also been contributing to knowledge-generation systems via investments in R&D centres and cooperation with regional knowledge producers. We discern three elements of the upgrading process of regions—upgrading of domestic firms, subsidiary evolution and establishment of strategic relations with local knowledge institutes—to analyse two case studies: Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Shanghai (China). The cases show that all types of upgrading—product, process, chain and functional—have taken place in the last years, and that follow sourcing may have a positive impact on regional upgrading. These observations provide lessons for governments in developing economies which aim to strengthen innovation-based regional development.     

传统技术、生态知识及环境适应:以明清时期淮南盐作为例

传统技术发展演变有复杂的社会经济与环境背景。通过讨论江苏淮南盐区制盐技术发展的过程及关键影响因素,可以揭示中国传统盐作技术演化机制的复杂性。明末清初各海盐区基本废煎改晒,但江苏淮南盐区仍继续沿用传统煎法生产,成为中国海盐经济发展史上的特殊现象。作为中国传统盐业生产的“特区”,淮南盐区在明末清初至20世纪中后叶也经过数次废煎改晒尝试,但淮南岸段的砂质土壤与低于500毫米的净蒸发量限制了大规模改晒的可能,重煎轻晒的产销政策又使淮南煎法在清代更为巩固,进一步影响了该区域传统制盐技术革新。淮南盐区传统制盐技术演变可为前工业化技术的比较研究提供经验基础,有助于更深刻了解本土技术发展机制及其环境适应特征。     

生物多样性保护问题与国际社会的回应政策(1972-1992)

生物多样性是实现人类可持续发展的物质基础,人类活动已经对生物多样性造成了严重的损害。从20世纪70年代初到90年代初的20年中,国际生物多样性保护已从单纯的物种保护转到全面系统的保护;从区域性保护转向到全球性保护。生物多样性保护不仅是纯粹的生态问题,而是关系到全球可持续发展的前景问题,也关系到国家利益的分配问题,特别是南北关系问题。     

Fashion,Commerce and Technology in the Nineteenth Century: The Shawl Trade

Abstract

The way that the identifiable print sources used as patterns for the total of 170 emblems in the borders of the Four Seasons tapestries at Hatfield House are handled can tell us something not only about the meaning of the emblems in their new medium and setting but also about their weaving process. Changes to the Latin mottoes and to pictorial detail are shown to be purely pragmatic in some cases but clearly motivated in others, whilst both are influenced not only by the received iconology but also by the art of rhetoric as taught in the Elizabethan schoolroom. These changes are highly likely to have been decided on by the patron who commissioned them, Sir John Tracy.     

西汉前期工商业政策的演变及其影响再认识——兼论史学研究的价值取向

西汉前期财政经济政策的一个重要举措是实行重农抑商政策。在封建自然经济条件下,重农是必然的选择;政策的变数主要在于工商业,对社会经济发展的影响亦在于工商业,争议同样源于工商业。因而,考察重农抑商其重点在于分析工商业政策的特点及其演变。对此,学术界已作了不少研究,但是,仍有一些领域有待开拓,对主要问题的认识也需要深。     

18世纪末—20世纪初中国制瓷业的衰落:一个全球的视角

欧洲的扩张一方面促成了全球规模的产品市场,对中国制瓷业形成了需求冲击,进而成就了中国制瓷业近300年的黄金时代;另一方面,欧洲国家还施行了武装贸易和重商主义,这给欧洲制瓷业的发展提供了市场、技术和政策支持,促使欧洲制瓷业迅速发展。也正是藉此欧洲制瓷业在与中国制瓷业的竞争中逐渐取得优势。最终华瓷市场的丧失导致中国制瓷业利润微薄,瓷商相继破产,曾经为中国带来无数利润和荣耀的制瓷业就此衰落。     

Pneumonic Plagues,Environmental Changes,and the International Fur Trade: The Retreat of Tarbagan Marmots from Northwest Manchuria, 1900s-30s

Inspired by recent environmental historical studies on animal extinctions and human-animal relations, this paper shifts scholarly attention from the plague-centered narrative of the great Pneumonic Plague Epidemics (1910-11) to the fate of the plague host animals, Tarbagan marmots (Marmota sibirica), and examines their near-extinction in Northwest Manchuria (Hulunbuir) from the 1900s to 1930s. Focusing on changing images of Tarbagan marmots from “inexpensive,” “sacred,” and “beneficial” in the pre-modern period to “valuable,” “dangerous,” and “noxious” in the early twentieth century, it argues that three interrelated factors: the international fur trade, pneumonic plagues, and environment changes together resulted in the “retreat of the marmots.” It also uses this case study to help us better understand larger historical changes that occurred by contextualizing them in terms of human-marmot relations in Manchuria, China and beyond.