明代盐法之演变与盐商之变化

明代的盐法是从宋元时期的盐法继承而来的,在国家专卖制度下组织了灶户制度,随着明初钞法的破坏,以及社会经济的变化,明代的盐法经历了一系列深刻的变化,如允许余盐和正盐一样可以公开进入国家的专卖体系;明中叶以后又出现了纳银开中制度等。所有的这些变化并不仅仅是盐法自身的变化,它也引起了与明代盐法变化密切相关的商人的地位与命运的变化。     

金代解盐使司银铤浅析

本文中的两笏金代解盐银铤,均出土河南省西峡县。经考证,与陕西临潼出土的两笏金代“解盐使司”银铤,出自同一铸地,是金代盐商向解盐使司购买钞引的入纳银铤。它不仅记录了明确的铸造时间、地点和重量,而且对金朝的盐池管理机构、金银铺号、榷货盐司的官吏等方面的记载详尽,为研究金代的盐课税制、金银行会制度、客商制度、白银在当时经济生活中的地位、作用及流通中所设置的管理机构、流通方式等提供了实物资料。     

土地产权的变革与英国农业革命

英国农业革命是英国由传统的农业社会迈向工业文明的桥梁,它以土地产权的变革为基础,经历了大约三百年的时间,使农业劳动生产率得以大幅度提高,在其世界工场地位确立的同时,农业也达到了前所未有的辉煌程度。     

Cultivation History Beyond the Periphery: Early Agriculture in the North European Boreal Forest

We have investigated the environmental history of human occupation and the development of agriculture in the eastern interior Lake District of Finland. The material consists of archaeological data, which is reviewed in topographical and agrogeological context, and pollen analytical evidence of agricultural indices from eight precisely dated (varved) lake sediment sequences. Before the Viking Age, archaeological evidence, consisting of stray finds, dwelling sites, and graves, is very scarce. Iron Age finds are clearly confined to the lowland environs with silty and clayey soils. During the Viking Age, the number of stray finds multiplies and the first cemeteries are established. Comparison between Viking and Crusade Period finds reveals a topographic shift toward higher locations and morainic soils. Most of the cup-stones are located on upland sites—that is, not in connection with known Iron Age sites. These are interpreted as medieval indicators of slash-and-burn farming of the fertile but stony supraaquatic morainic soils. There is pollen analytical evidence of sporadic cultivation in the area from the Bronze Age onward. Afterca. AD 700, the occurrence of cereal pollen grains becomes regular but remains discontinuous at each site until after the turn of the millennium. There is then an exponential rise in the cereal pollen rain, indicating a fully agricultural population.     

Mechanisms Shaping the Transition to Farming in Europe and the North American Woodland

Despite the fact that Europe and Eastern North America both have similar woodland environments, the emergence of agriculture in these areas proceeded very differently varying in timing, speed, and mechanism. To analyze the different subsistence paths the Global Land Use and Technological Evolution Simulator was used, a numerical model for simulating demography, innovation, domestication, migration and trade within the geoenvironmental context. I demonstrate how Europe receives a large package of foreign domesticates and converts rapidly. In contrast, trajectories relating to Eastern North America exhibit a gradual transition in which hunting and gathering and agropastoralism coexist for a long period of time, and agriculture is integrated slowly into the existing subsistence scheme. I deduce from this a qualitative economic difference in the two regional transitions: limited population size in Europe, limited resources in Eastern North America.