英国对北美殖民地的重商主义政策及其影响

英国的重商主义政策贯穿于北美殖民地整个时期 ,对殖民地经济的发展往往交织地发挥着消极和积极的“双重”作用。英国的重商主义政策从制定到执行完全是从母国的角度来考虑 ,随着北美殖民地经济的壮大 ,其对殖民地不同地区的经济运行所产生的消极作用逐渐居于主导地位。北美 13州殖民地打破英国重商主义对其规定的发展模式成为它们摆脱母国统治走向独立的主要诱因之一     

自由主义与加拿大宪政改革

在19世纪上半期加拿大建立责任政府的过程中,自由主义观念起了重要的促进作用.这不仅表现在自由主义思想对加拿大殖民地人政治意识觉醒的推动上,更表现在英国社会与政坛对英帝国与移民殖民地关系认识的改变上.由于美国独立的教训,维护帝国统一和防止殖民地与母国分离,曾是英国人心中一个不解的结.因此,旧观念支配下的英国统治集团,几乎一致地拒绝了达勒姆关于授予殖民地责任政府的建议.随着英国自身现代政党制度的确立和自由贸易的实现,新的自由主义帝国观开始形成,并直接推动了加拿大的宪政改革.     

美国独立战争前后英国商人阶层对殖民地问题的反应

美国独立战争前后,英国商人阶层虽然反对政府对殖民地的高压政策并且主张母国与殖民地之间保持和平关系,但这些反应主要是在经济利益推动之下的权宜之计,而并非出于改变帝国内部关系的深远考虑。英国商人在对殖民地问题做出反应时,是以"不损害帝国主权"作为底线的。这种情况与英国商人阶层在英国政坛上缺乏足够的代表力量结合起来,限制了英国商人阶层在影响英国政府政策方面的效果。     

威尔克斯事件与跨大西洋视野下的北美独立运动

18世纪60年代至70年代初期,北美殖民地的革命者关注和声援英国激进政治家约翰·威尔克斯及其领导的议会改革运动。出于抵制母国政策和捍卫自身权利的目的,革命者对威尔克斯事件中的政治话语和行为加以仿效,并结合殖民地因素对相关政治信息进行了转化和利用,塑造了威尔克斯"美利坚自由之友"的形象。威尔克斯事件刺激并推动了殖民地反英斗争的发展。基于对自由和权利话语的理解,英美激进主义者互通声气,一度结成精神上的"跨大西洋共同体"。1770年后威尔克斯在殖民地的影响力逐渐衰落,但该事件为北美独立运动提供了意识形态和政治实践上的多重资源。     

近代早期的国际法理论与欧洲殖民帝国对殖民地的“财产化”

地理大发现后,“发现论”“无主地论”“无主领土论”和“优先权论”等成为西班牙、葡萄牙和英国等国占取殖民地的国际法理论工具。“发现论”完全否定土著的事实占有,以攫取殖民地的土地等自然资源;“无主地论”也无视土著的事实占有,以攫取尚未被“有效占有”的土地;当欧洲殖民帝国面临殖民地日益复杂的情况而无法忽视土著的事实占有后,由“无主地论”衍生出来的“无主领土论”开始承认土著的事实占有,却否定土著法律上的占有,以剥夺土著的财产权;“优先权论”部分承认土著事实上和法律上对土地的占有,但欧洲殖民帝国将自身作为土著土地的唯一受让人。虽然这四种理论开始完全否定,后来部分承认土著对土地事实上或法律上的财产权,但都是将殖民地“财产化”,其目的都在于为所谓的“文明国家”的欧洲殖民帝国提供占领殖民地的“正当依据”,其内核都是种族主义和文明等级论。     

《大宪章》与美国革命前后的政治文化变迁

在17世纪英国内战的历史语境中,爱德华·柯克出于现实政治需要,将《大宪章》塑造为一种反抗专制王权和捍卫臣民自由的“神话”。伴随着英国的海外拓殖,《大宪章》来到北美,并与特许状一起成为殖民地自治传统的一部分。在殖民地反英运动中,北美革命者与英国激进派遥相呼应,令《大宪章》在两个层面上发挥了强大的政治能量：其一是作为抵制母国政策的政治话语;其二是作为高度象征意义的权利和自由的护身符。美国独立之后,《大宪章》的精神在融入美国宪政的同时,其本身则在辩论中逐渐淡出政治舞台。《大宪章》的跨大西洋旅行不仅勾勒了英美政治文化互动的轨迹,也再次凸显了美国革命思想来源的多样性以及美国建国前后政治变动的复杂性。     

英法殖民地行政管理体制特点评析(1850—1945)

18 5 0— 1945年间 ,英、法在其殖民地所建立起的行政管理体制 ,集中地体现了其他各类殖民帝国的统治特色。英属殖民地内的行政管理体制大体可分为两类 :在白人移民垦殖殖民地中 ,英国主要是通过建立自治政府来稳固其统治 ;在皇家殖民地内 ,英国则是依赖于专制政府 ,并以直接统治与间接统治为手段 ,来维护它在这些地区的殖民权益。在法属殖民地中 ,由于不存在建立自治政府的殖民地 ,所以其行政管理体制大都以专制政府为特征。通过这样的统治体制 ,法国在殖民地内大力推行“同化”政策 ,企图从政治、经济和文化领域对殖民地实行更全面的控制     

美国独立战争爆发前的政治辩论及其意义

独立战争爆发前十余年间 ,北美殖民地人士针对英国的“新殖民地政策”展开激烈辩论 ,阐述殖民地反对英国政策的理由和依据 ,辩论从伸张殖民地居民的权利开始 ,逐步发展到否认英国对北美的宗主权 ,为谋求独立制造思想舆论 ,为进行革命寻找理论根据。通过这场辩论 ,北美居民对殖民地的地位和命运的认识更为清醒 ,维护自由和争取独立的信念逐渐明确 ,《独立宣言》的理论思路和逻辑框架已具雏形 ;欧洲的政治哲学在辩论中转化为北美民众的常识 ,初步形成了独具特色的美国政治自由主义     

文化相对主义与间接统治制度

19世纪末至 2 0世纪早期 ,文化相对主义思潮在英国社会兴起 ,它对传统的种族主义观念进行了修正 ,其主要观点是土著地区有其独特的文化特性 ;英国的殖民统治应致力于保存殖民地的传统社会、政治机构。而当时英国对广大附属殖民地采取了新创建的“间接统治”制度 ,它较好地解决了维护英国权威与尊重土著种族的权利之间的平衡问题 ,因而产生了极大的影响。尽管这一制度的形成有赖于诸多因素 ,但不可否认 ,它与文化相对主义在兴起背景及主要主张与目的上存在着千丝万缕的联系。它们都是英国人对殖民地看法转换的结果。可以说 ,间接统治制度是根据文化相对主义理论而发展演进出来的统治方式。     

英国殖民城市模式考察

英国在殖民化中确立了具有自身特色的英国殖民城市模式.其主要内容有:提出殖民城市规划建设模式的目标;推出土地授予和分配制度;确保城市规划先于城镇建设;规定城市规划的标准和布局;预留公共用地和绿化带,避免过度商业开发.英国殖民城市模式在其存在的4个世纪里发生演变和扩散大体上经历了5个时期.殖民城市模式在城市化的进程中起到了十分重要的指导性作用.其主要特点为:英国及其殖民地政府在殖民城市模式的形成、制定过程中占据主导地位;殖民城市模式的实施建立在侵略掠夺殖民地人民的基础之上;殖民城市模式的要素构成相对稳定,具有明显的延续性;殖民城市模式的实施具有多样化的特征;殖民城市模式受到殖民地客观条件的制约;殖民城市模式对世界碱市化具有一定的影响力.     

Caught between Realities: The American Revolution,the Continental Congress and Political Turmoil in the Bahama Islands

The American Revolution had a profound political, economic and social influence on the periphery colonies of the British Atlantic world, particularly in the Bahama Islands. The Continental Congress's imposition of a trade embargo against the British Empire drove island colonies, such as Bermuda and the Bahamas, to the point of starvation. Consequently, Bermudians and Bahamians petitioned the Congress for relief, offering military supplies in exchange for provisions, which led Congress to exempt both colonies from the embargo and form a general trade policy towards them. The American naval invasion of Nassau in March 1776, coupled with the ongoing trade between the islanders and the rebels, fuelled Governor Montfort Browne's fears of an internal conspiracy to bring the colony into the rebellion. These fears increased tensions between the governor, the Bahamian government and the inhabitants. Ultimately, the breakdown of the colonial government facilitated a planned coup d’état by the council to overthrow Governor Browne, a short-lived dictatorship by the governor and the end of the Congress's trade policy towards the islands. The effects of the American Revolution on the Bahamas demonstrate that the imperial conflict influenced the periphery colonies of the British Atlantic.     

17世纪英国海外贸易的拓展与转型

17世纪,英国与西欧、北欧呢绒的贸易趋于衰落,而与利凡特东印度以及北美殖民地的进口贸易却繁荣起来。进口的目的是为了再出口。这种输入与再输出的贸易越来越发达,而呢绒出口贸易则逐渐走向衰落,这就是所谓的贸易转型。17世纪英国的贸易转型分两个阶段：第一阶段发展的是与利凡特—东印度的贸易;第二阶段发展的是与殖民地的贸易。这种以再出口为目的的新型海外贸易,是17世纪英国巨额财富的主要来源。     

‘The apostle of free trade:’ Adam Smith and the nineteenth-century American trade debates

This paper examines the diversity of uses of Adam Smith’s ideas in nineteenth-century American debates about the tariff. Legislative debates about American trade policy ran almost uninterrupted from the 1820s to the end of the century; as a result, they provide an abundance of examples of the ways in which legislators marshaled economic ideas to shape political discourse and influence policy. Smith’s causal ideas about free trade and its effects were referenced in policymaking, and Smith’s intellectual authority was often invoked as a legitimating device for partisan ideology. These uses, I argue, contributed to the sloganizing of Smith as the ‘apostle of free trade’ and his enduring popularity as a political icon in American politics.     

Arms and Men: the Diplomacy of US Weapons Traffic with Saint-Domingue under Adams and Jefferson

This article examines Franco-American Quasi-War Saint-Domingue diplomacy, including the issue of US shipments of arms to Toussaint Louverture's rebellious colony (Haiti). Most experts assume that the United States furnished Haiti abundant munitions, but in 1797 Congress passed an arms embargo for the Quasi-War's duration. From June 1798 until August 1799, after President Adams reopened trade with Haiti, no trade with France or its colonies was permitted. In June 1799, US consul Edward Stevens, British General Maitland, and Louverture agreed to ban Haitian weapons purchases. Unaware that US trade with Haiti was illegal, scholars assume that US merchants and the Adams administration supplied blacks munitions. The only specific arms deal cited, involving Boston merchant Stephen Higginson and Secretary of State Pickering, was unconsummated. US shippers smuggled weapons to Haiti (1799–1801), against US laws and agreements, and probably relatively insignificantly. To conciliate Britain and protect slavery, the State Department risked war with Louverture. Only after President Jefferson, whom historians assume bitterly opposed Haiti, disavowed Anglo-American agreements did US merchants legally sell blacks armaments, doing so in substantial amounts, arousing French protests. The eagerness of Higginson, Stevens, and others to profit from illegal arms sales suggests they followed pecuniary incentives more than antislavery idealism in Haitian policy.     

Internarriage in the Western Greek Colonies

Intermarriage in the Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily has long fascinated scholars, many of whom view the presence of Italian fibulae in otherwise materially Greek graves as the result of intermarriage between Greek colonial men and local, native women. A reconsideration of the evidence suggests that the hypothesis cannot be generalized for all the early colonies, particularly the Sicilian ones, where the nature of the evidence differs significantly. In Sicily, trade provides the most likely explanation for the presence of these objects in the colonies.     

Colonial and Provincial Separation Movements in Australia and New Zealand, 1856–1865

This article examines separation movements in Britain’s Australasian colonies during the first decade of responsible government, 1856–65. Separation movements sought to carve new colonies from the territory of existing ones or, in the case of a number of New Zealand movements, to create new provinces within that colony’s quasi-federal system. Their demands rested upon assertions that a colonial or provincial government neglected large and prosperous hinterlands from which considerable revenue was collected. Only one colonial separation movement achieved its goal, but four provinces succeeded. I argue that responsible government played a major role in the success or failure of these movements. Responsibility concentrated authority in a remote capital; colonial separatists desired to exercise this privilege within a smaller new colony that they controlled, but its operation within the larger existing colony provided London with justification to reject most appeals. Further, it allowed New Zealand’s parliament to frame a mechanism that enabled discontented regions to become provinces without referral to local or imperial legislatures. Thus, I provide new insights into the formation of colonial polities and the influence of responsible government on settler political campaigns.     

岭南文化对广东外省人群体影响之探讨

本文从文化地理学的角度,以文化问卷调查为基础,采用定量与定性分析相结合的方法,探讨了岭南文化对广东外省人群体的影响特征。笔者发现:岭南文化影响广东外省人群体的总体特征呈中间型,南方群体、男性群体比北方群体、女性群体易于接受岭南文化。并得出几点结论:在文化扩散的早期阶段,等势文化之间的影响排斥性较明显,表层文化相对于深层文化接受大于排斥,文化距离对深层文化的扩散起决定影响,经济条件对表层文化的传播起关键作用。     

Britain,European Economic Community Enlargement,and ‘Decolonisation’ in Hong Kong, 1967–1973

Politicians and businesspeople in Hong Kong paid close attention to British efforts to join the European Economic Community (EEC). The British colony was exempted from most tariffs in Britain, an arrangement that could not survive EEC enlargement. EEC members were unwilling to extend to Hong Kong, a significant exporter of manufactured goods, the same trade preferences offered to other dependent territories. Instead, the unique provision the EEC made for the colony was limited inclusion into their Generalised System of Preferences scheme, which granted tariff concessions to developing countries. Historians of Hong Kong have shown how the colony experienced British imperial withdrawal in a number of ways, despite remaining under British rule until 1997. This article demonstrates that an important element is missing from this account: how global economic shifts led to an erosion of imperial ties. EEC enlargement from 1973 entailed the end of Hong Kong's privileged access to the British market, but for the colony, the importance of imperial economic links had already faded. At the same time, an assessment of Hong Kong's capacity to pursue favourable terms of trade in global markets independently from Britain offers a more tentative conclusion of the extent of the colony's autonomy.     

Politicians,Merchants, and Colonial Maritime War: The Political and Economic Background of the American Act of 1708

During the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–13), there were attempts to support colonial maritime war by legislation, and the American Act of 1708 can be seen as their culmination. Historians who study privateering or colonial history have referred to this act in several contexts, such as reform in prize administration, naval impressment in American colonies, and Spanish‐American trade. However, the political and economic interests behind this act have not been fully investigated. By examining the process of the enactment of the American Act together with antecedent attempts to promote colonial maritime war in parliament, this article reveals the political and vested interests involved in the act, the relations between them, and the influence they had on the content of the act. This analysis will show the complex interaction between politics, trade, and colonial maritime war in the early‐18th‐century American colonies.     

The Roles of Tea and Opium in Early Economic Globalization: A Perspective on China’s Crisis in the 19th Century

Alongside military conquest which characterized great part of globalization during the 19th century, the globalization of markets no doubt was its main manifestation. Addictive consumption goods played a leading role during this process, as observed in the case of China, tea and the opium trade had the largest impact. Owing to the importance of Britain’s growing demand for tea and its concomitant tax revenue, Anglo-Chinese trade became the dominant trade that Britain had in the East. To make up the trade deficit with China, Britain took advantage of its Indian colony and did its best in expanding its opium trade. Within this triangular trade scheme, Britain was the master, India was the instrument, and China was the ultimate victim. Confronted by the irresistible trend of globalization, China was ill prepared when facing this challenge leading to a complete failure in both military and commercial warfare and later on to an overall crisis in the 19th century.