Unfinished family business. Algernon Sidney’s arguments with Henry Hammond,Sir William Temple,Henry Sidney,Charles II,and the public executioner

Recent work about the life and thought of the republican Algernon Sidney (1623–1683) has emphasised the formative importance of the history, intellectual culture and personal matrix of the Sidney family. This essay underlines the richness of that context by casting new light on a series of key, previously undiscussed themes. These include Sidney’s lifelong relationship with the diplomat Sir William Temple and his family; the origin of his pioneering contribution to restoration resistance theory in an argument with Henry Hammond, one-time rector at Penshurst Place; the extent to which the European diplomatic contest which helped determine England’s political direction between 1679 and 1689 may be understood as a squabble between siblings; and the domestic and family circumstances attending Algernon’s arrest and execution for treason in 1683.     

Across the narrow sea: A Transnational Approach to Anglo-Dutch Travelogues

ABSTRACT

The busy traffic between England and the United Provinces in the seventeenth century produced travel literature by merchants, scholars, soldiers, and diplomats. What can these sources tell us about commonalities and differences among these travellers and between the nations?

This article provides a case study of a transnational approach, setting Dutch and English accounts side by side to enrich our understanding of how travellers sought out specific sites and institutions.

Strikingly, travellers reported on similar themes, such as royalty, universities and war, yet were also keen to draw contrasts with the visited country.

We show how these patterns of travel and imagery can throw light on Anglo-Dutch relations, providing us with the personal nuance often absent from official texts. Simultaneously, Anglo-Dutch relations affected the destinations and outlooks of travellers. The contribution of this article is its presentation of new material in an Anglo-Dutch framework.     

Regni et pacis inquietatrix : Zur Rolle der kaiserin Mathilde in der ‘anarchie’

Richer de Refham came to London during the 1290s and quickly established himself as a successful mercer. He expanded his initial business interests to include money-lending and property holdings, and became a leading landowner in London by acquiring the property of old families who had dominated the city's business and political life, and of some of his political enemies. His acquisitions led him into constant litigation and, undoubtedly, are connected to his political affiliations and conflicts.De Refham, who came from a family of East Anglian knights, was eventually enfeoffed with lands in Norfolk and Essex. The grants raise questions as to the identity of the grantors, the political and social relationships which existed between the grantors and grantee, and the significance of the enfeoffments to de Refham's social and economic position.With close ties to the mercantile class and rural knights, de Refham may have had a significant influence on the formation of those bonds which brought together the diverse and often conflicting interests of the knights and burgesses in the emerging House of Commons.     

中国城市的商业郊区化及研究迟缓发展探讨

随着城市人口郊区化、工业郊区化的发展,商业也就不可避免的有向郊区化发展的趋势,中国商业发展状况存在地区不平衡性,大城市商业发展情况较好,一些城市已开始有商业郊区化现象,但是目前商业郊区化的现象还很不明显,相对人口和工业郊区化而言比较迟缓。这与郊区化概念有一定影响外,更主要是因为商业本身的特征(包括发展机制、付租能力、业态多样性等)以及中国的国情等。本文首先回顾了中国商业郊区化的研究,得出商业郊区化的动力主要来自购买力的外移、交通的改善以及郊区地价和租金相对市区便宜等,并在分析商业网点布局的影响因素基础上,探讨城市商业网点布局发展的阶段特征以及阐述商业郊区化为什么在中国发展迟缓的原因。     

论晚清上海作为全国外贸中心的影响力(1864-1904)——以外贸埠际转运为视角

作为中国最早开放的通商口岸之一,上海开埠后即迅速跃升为全国对外贸易中心。上海通过与各口岸间的外贸埠际转运,将其外贸影响辐射至大半个中国,显示出其全国外贸中心的地位。本文利用系统的海关数据及文字报告,阐述了晚清上海外贸埠际转运在全国的地位、上海的外贸转运网络及其特点,以此为视角反映出晚清上海作为全国外贸中心的影响力。     

罗马共和国后期行省治理的弊端与规范

行省治理是罗马共和国后期政治生活的一个重要内容,直接关乎共和政治的运作与国家的命运。然而,在行省治理过程中,作为实际治理者的罗马官员滥用权力,通过多种途径大肆搜刮钱财,成为行省治理中的首要弊病。为遏制这种弊病,规范行省治理,罗马当局围绕着官员搜刮钱财现象,不断加强法律建设,呈现出立法条款细致化、诉讼程序固定化以及惩处严厉化的倾向。但是,行省治理制度中总督权力缺乏制衡,荣誉任职的传统观念以及税收体系的混乱等因素为罗马官员滥用权力、非法敛财提供了条件,而相关法律实践过程面临着距离、语言、时间与经济成本等实际障碍,且法庭充斥着腐败与偏见,导致治理局面未因法律建设的加强而得以有效改善。行省治理的失当从行省与共和国政治两个层面加速了共和政治的失序,推动了内战的爆发,进而加速了罗马共和国的衰亡。     

16世纪威尼斯的贫困与济贫问题

16世纪的欧洲经历了一场普遍的贫困危机,欧洲各国政府纷纷采取了各种济贫措施,以缓解贫困问题对社会造成的压力,天主教城市共和国威尼斯也不例外。通过颁布济贫法和改革大兄弟会等旧式救济组织,威尼斯引导宗教慈善组织朝着世俗化方向发展,从而建立起行之有效的近代济贫制度,有效地缓解了贫困问题造成的压力。威尼斯的经验表明,在推动近代早期欧洲济贫活动世俗化的诸因素中,最重要的因素是社会环境,而非传统上认为的宗教因素。     

Foreign rule? Transnational,national, and local perspectives on Venice and Venetia within the ‘multinational’ empire

The history of the Habsburg Empire in the post-Napoleonic era is frequently approached from the perspective of its various component nationalities. These were traditionally portrayed in the historiography as engaged in more-or-less open struggle with control from Vienna. This article argues that the over-privileging of such national categories can distort the picture. By looking at a number of case studies – the naming of Lombardy-Venetia, the Biblioteca italiana, the Panteon veneto – the relationship between Venice (and its Terraferma) and Habsburg rule during the second Austrian domination is examined. It will be argued that it is more profitable to see Venetian identities (municipal, local, Italian, and as part of a wider transnational European culture) as capable of working for as well as against the empire, and that Habsburg policy was as often concerned with managing potential local rivalries (notably between Lombards and Venetians) as with controlling a perceived Italian threat. It is also suggested that, while cultivation of local identity was often used to reinforce the national, the Austrian authorities were also happy to annex both to further imperial interests.     

清前期中英之间的绿茶贸易

十八世纪后,英国逐渐占据了中国同西方贸易的主导地位,茶叶取代丝绸成为他们从中国进口的主要商品。中国的绿茶凭借优良的品质倍受英国人青睐,大量运销英国。绿茶的大量出口推动了茶叶商品经济地发展,同时也带动了相关产业地兴起。     

Le temporel des archevêques de Rouen aux derniers siècles du moyen-âge

Doubtless put together in Merovingian times, the temporal possessions of the archbishops of Rouen were enlarged in the twelfth century, thanks to restitutions and, above all, to royal donations. A rapid transformation took place in the thirteenth century: substantial growth and diversification — due to exchanges with the king, purchases of lordships, of houses, or of rents in direct ownership, and reclamations and other improvements — of a patrimony which had become an instrument of spiritual administration. Reaching their maximum revenue around 1330, these temporalities were scarcely modified thereafter as regards their composition, but difficulties in the first half of the fifteenth century, which halved the revenue, affected above all the rural elements, so that the proportion of urban revenues — especially dues on commerce — increased. At once vast and varied, these temporalities take on a somewhat original aspect by comparison with many other ecclesiastical temporalities based on the ownership of rural domains or urban properties.     

‘Fare di ogni famiglia italiana un fortilizio’: The League of Nations' economic sanctions and everyday life in Venice 1

Abstract

The imposition of punitive sanctions against Italy by the League of Nations in November 1935 in response to the invasion of Ethiopia, a fellow league member, provided the fascist regime with an opportunity to mobilize the civilian population into ‘resistance’ against the ‘economic siege’ and to promote its ideals of nationalism, imperialist expansion and autarchy. This article examines the way in which the fascist authorities in Venice, aided by a supportive local press, sought to use the sanctions and ‘sanctions resistance’ to engage Venetians – especially women – in the fascist project and explores the effect of the anti-sanctions resistance measures on Venetians' daily lives. Placing importance both upon the regime's intentions as well as Venetians' reception of the anti-sanctions rhetoric, and drawing upon Michel de Certeau's observations on The Practice of Everyday Life, the article argues that Venetians' reception of such propaganda was characterized above all by confusion and by a multiplicity of personal choices and reactions, spanning a range of possible responses from unequivocal support through passive acceptance or indifference to outright rejection or subversion of the sanctions resistance measures that sought to elicit consent for the fascist project.     

Montaigne,Tocqueville, and the Politics of Skepticism

Abstract

Shakespeare shows how enforceable contract not only undergirds the city of Venice, which makes a multicultural society possible, but its corrosive effects on non-contractual relationships like friendship, love, and marriage. This is evident in the decisions, actions, and relationships of Antonio, Bassanio, Portia, and Jessica. Although Shakespeare concludes the play on a happy note, the conclusion one can reach is that, despite its advantages, regimes based on commerce and contract fail to create the conditions for friendship, love, and marriage to flourish.     

GIS-based modeling of drought and historical population change on the Canadian Prairies

This article describes the development of a GIS-based model of historical drought and population change in western Canada, designed to support qualitative field research into drought adaptation and migration. The model combines digitized census data and recently available modeled historical climate data at a 10 km² grid cell scale and can be used to generate maps of ‘hotspots’ where historical declines in rural populations may be associated with extended periods of heat and lack of precipitation. The results suggest a promising avenue for expanding and refining GIS-based modeling of historical human–climate interactions to support qualitative research and to potentially serve as a stepping stone toward forecasting future risk areas of drought-related migration in continental dryland areas.