REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION'S EXPORT EARNINGS OUTSIDE THE FORMER SOVIET UNION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR REGIONAL ECONOMIC AUTONOMY

The distribution of foreign export earnings by area of origin is analyzed for the Russian Federation, to convertible and non-convertible currency areas, as well as for four major commodity categories. The paper focuses on identifying, because of Russia's narrow export composition, oblast-level units (and commodities) that contribute disproportionately to the Federation's overall convertible currency earnings. It then explores the implications of the extremely uneven spatial districution of such earnings for the Russian government's efforts to devise a workable formula for distributing export revenues between the “Center” and the localities.     

FAMILY,KINSHIP AND REVOLUTION: THE RUSSIAN NOBILITY, 1917-23

Abstract

This article examines the importance of family and kin to the Russian nobility during the Russian Revolution. It focuses on the experiences of four interrelated families to show how nobles used family connections for a variety of purposes prior to I9I7. This helped them to maintain their predominant position within tsarist society. The article argues that these links continued after the revolution, helping nobles survive everyday hardship and official persecution under the new regime; in some cases, surprisingly large family ‘communities’ of nobles emerged. These communities persisted into the I920S and even when they disbanded the wider family maintained its central position in noble life.     

GLOBAL WARMING AND THE AGROCLIMATIC RESOURCES OF THE RUSSIAN PLAIN

Possible future USSR agricultural productivity, given a global warming scenario, is assessed on the basis of paleoclimatic reconstructions for optima of the Holocene and Mikulino interglacial, which may be analogs of the man-modified warm climate of the future. The calculations were made using a dynamic model of grain yields for 94 territorial units, for the most part coincident with the boundaries of oblasts. Three different indicators, which suggest that the warming trend of climate will be generally favorable for agriculture in the European USSR, are analyzed. The paper also provides insights into current spatial patterns of agricultural productivity. Translated by Larry Richardson, Glendale, CA 91202 from: Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya, 1990, No. 6, pp. 29-38.     

EXPORT PERFORMANCE AND EXPORT POTENTIALS: WESTERN CANADIAN EXPORTS OF MANUFACTURED END PRODUCTS

This paper analyses the export performance and export potentials of end products manufactured in western Canada. Exports are explicitly interpreted as part of the (progressive) internationalization of firms. A sample of manufacturing firms is classified according to a five-stage model of the internationalization of firms on the basis of variations in marketing and technological strategy. It is suggested that improvements in export performance would be facilitated by export stimulation programs that are sensitive to the varying resources and to constraints of firms in different stages of internationalization. More generally, export promotion should be seen as part of the problem of stimulating the growth of firms.
Cette communication analyse la situation actuelle et potentielle des exportations de produits fabriqués dans I'ouest canadien. On considère catégoriquement que les exportations font parti de I'internationalisation (progressive) des fabricants. Un échantillon de ces derniers est classifié selon un modèle, à cinq étapes, de I'internationalisation de ces socieétés, basé sur les variations dans leurs stratégies techniques et commerciales. II est sug-géré que les taux des exportations pourrait ětre améliorer par des programmes visant a les stimuler, en autant que ces efforts tiennent compte du bilan des ressources et des contraintes des sociétés, durant les différentes étapes de leur internationalisation. En général il ne devraitpas avoir de distinctions entre les efforts visant à stimuler les exportations et ceux qui encouragent la croissance des sociétés fabricantes.     

ICTIS DISENTANGLED, AND THE BRITISH TIN TRADE

Summary. Recent writers here, on routes by sea to ancient Britain, have revived the quest for Ictis, recorded as a port for the trade in its tin. Apart from Caesar's De Bello Gallico, nearly all the relevant sources are in Greek, and one of the few in Latin is from previous Greek. The relevant archaeology, marine technology and natural sciences, should still be advantaged by attention to these texts, in their wording and their contexts and chronology. They comprise three groups: Pytheas and Timaeus, before and after 300 BC, Polybius and Posidonius, before and after 100, Diodorus in the middle first century and Strabo near its end. Pliny, after the middle first century AD, quotes Timaeus. Each of the three groups throws light on the trade, Diodorus almost certainly, and nearly always Strabo, reflecting what had been shed by writers before them. It is Diodorus, expected here to be using Posidonius, who tells us of Ictis. But the various dates of the evidence altogether, when compared with the archaeological and scientific findings, let routes for the trade be distinguished not only in geography, but also in the chronology of their use. This essay takes account of all relevant work done hitherto, but advances beyond it wherever this is seen to be feasible. It disentangles the location of Ictis from persistent error, though doing so cannot yet fix it with final probability; but putting all the ancient sources for the trade to a critical scrutiny, with exact translations, enhances their accord with archaeology.     

DIVERSITY WITHIN THE FRIENDLY SOCIETY MOVEMENT 1834-1911: THE VALUE TO COMMUNITY STUDIES

Abstract

This article is based on research carried out as part of the Family and Community Historical Research Society project into emigration schemes between 1834 and 1871. It examines the extent to which public financial support for emigration was forthcoming as a solution to the increase in pauperism in the Woolwich area following the run-down of government establishments in 1857, after the end of the Crimean War, and the closure of the dockyard in 1869. How the story unfolded is largely based on reports in the weekly edition of the Kentish Independent. An attempt has been made to answer some questions about the scale of two emigration schemes in terms of numbers, how the necessary finance was raised, the politics, the organization and the destination of the emigrants. Woolwich is situated on the south bank of the River Thames 10 miles down-stream of London Bridge and was at the time the location of a number of government establishments.     

THE TRADE OF INDO-PACIFIC SHELLS INTO THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN AND EUROPE

Summary. This paper is on shells which originate in the Indo-Pacific marine province (Red Sea or other waters to the south and east) and are found at sites in the Mediterranean Basin and Europe over 250 km. from their source. The catalogue of over 160 sites yielding these shells ranges in date from the Upper Paleolithic to recent times. Sixteen sites which supposedly produced Indo-Pacific shells are shown to be incorrect identifications.
Many of these exotic shells are seen to come from graves and sanctuary sites. Some shells are unmodified, others made into simple beads, and some finely worked by engraving and incising.     

SOVIET ASIAN-PACIFIC TRADE AND THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOVIET FAR EAST

During the 1970s and early 1980s it was generally accepted, by both Soviet and Western specialists, that in the Soviet Far East the expansion of exports to the nations of the Pacific Basin offered a solution to the region's economic problems. However, recent policy statements suggest the rejection of this export-led development strategy. This study examines the changing structure and dynamics of Soviet trade with the Asian-Pacific region. At present, for a combination of economic and political reasons, Soviet trade with the Asian-Pacific region is dominated by exports of machinery and equipment and petroleum to the socialist nations of the region, inasmuch as Japanese demand for Soviet natural resources is stagnant. Therefore, because of the resource orientation of the Far Eastern economy, contemporary trade relations do not favor the expansion of the Soviet Far Eastern export base. Consequently, the future role of the region in the national economic system will be determined largely by the availability of domestic capital investment funds.     

A THOUSAND AND ONE COLUMNS: OBSERVATIONS ON THE ROMAN GRANITE TRADE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA

Summary.   Provenancing and archaeological information on Roman granite columns in the Mediterranean area has been collated from a range of published papers by the author and others, together with new analyses for Rome, to produce an integrated dataset comprising 1176 columns. This dataset allows an overview of Roman granite trade in seven regions across the Mediterranean area. Examination of the data indicates that columns made from Troad (Turkish) granite are the most numerous observed overall (compatible with Lazzarini's earlier (2004) observation that this is the most widely distributed type), followed by Aswan, then Elba and Giglio, and Kozak Dağ ( Marmor Misium ). In the city of Rome, Mons Claudianus columns predominate. In geographically peripheral parts of the Roman world (Spain, Israel), granite columns are mainly from local sources, and are generally of smaller sizes than those seen in Rome and Tuscany. Analytical data can be used to suggest multiple extraction sites within some quarries, and have the potential for identification of specific intra-quarry provenance. Dating evidence for primary use of columns from the quarries considered is relatively sparse, but suggests early (first century BC) exploitation of Spanish and Elba granites, while column production at Aswan and Troad persisted into the fourth century followed by reuse within later antiquity, in the fifth and seventh centuries AD.     

ROCK PHYSICS AND THE NEOLITHIC AXE TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN*

This paper is concerned with the products of a number of Neolithic quarries in highland Britain. It investigates the claim that the scale of axe distribution was partly the result of social factors which resulted in these artefacts gaining an added value in areas remote from their sources. One case study considers the sequence of production in Cumbria, in relation to the tensile strength of the rock quarried in different parts of the region. It shows that these considerations had only a limited influence over the choice of stone source and the scale on which it was worked. A second study compares the tensile strength of the main raw materials used for making non-flint axes with the extent to which these sources were actually exploited. Again there is only a limited relationship between the two, suggesting that social factors may indeed have been important.