Commercial fraud in the middle ages: the case of the dissembling pepperer

Medieval business ethics is a topic of recent interest among historians. This study examines a case of commercial fraud, the falsification of saffron, in the southern French town of Montpellier in the mid-fourteenth century. Impure saffron was seized by urban inspectors at the workshop of a pepperer, Johannes Andree. Upon the testimony of witnesses, the impurity of the saffron was corroborated, and municipal justice decreed that it be publicly burned. Johannes Andree chose to contest this verdict, claiming exemption from judgment upon the grounds that he was a royal moneyer. A conflict of jurisdiction ensued, with the vector of Montpelliéret supporting Andree against the municipal consuls and the town bailiff.This study focuses on the documentary evidence of the law suit: the nature of the accusation against Andree, the legitimacy of his defence, the precedents for consular supervision of the pepperers' trade and the importance of quality control over merchandise, and the background of the jurisdictional dispute between the consuls and the rector. Finally, the legal terminology of this case of commercial fraud is considered in the context of legal theory and medieval jurisprudence. From this analysis of municipal justice in practice, standards of business ethics, consumer protection and quality control emerge as important concerns in a trading centre such as Montpellier.     

Reviews

A Liberal Nation: The Liberal Party and Australian Politics, Marian Simms, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger 1982, pp. 224. $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Robert Manne (ed) The New Conservatism in Australia, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1982, pp. 290. $25.00, $9.99 (paper)

Kate White, John Cain and Victorian Labor 1917–1957, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1982, pp. 208. $24.95, $13.95 (paper)

Michael James (ed) The Constitutional Challenge; Essays on the Australian Constitution, constitutionalism and parliamentary practice, St Leonards, The Centre for Independent Studies, 1982, pp. 166. $7.95 (paper)

John R. Nethercote (ed) Parliament and Bureaucracy: Parliamentary Scrutiny of Administration: prospects and problems in the 1980s, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1982, pp. 363, $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Mary Dickenson, Democracy in Trade Unions, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1982, pp. 249. $29.95

Robert Murray and Kate White, The Ironworkers: A History of the Federated Ironworkers’ Association of Australia, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1982, pp. 341. $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Chris Fisher, Innovation and Australian Industrial Relations: Aspects of the Arbitral Experience 1945–1980, Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp. 226. $24.95, $12.95 (paper)

Helen Palmer's Outlook, edited by Doreen Bridges, with an introduction by Robin Gollan, Helen Palmer Committee, Sydney, 1982, pp. 220. $9.95

Ian Turner, Room For Manoeuvre, Writings on History, Politics, Ideas and Play, selected and edited by Leonie Sandercock and Stephen Murray‐Smith, Drummond, Richmond, Victoria, 1982, pp. 335. $15.95

Len Fox, Broad Left, Narrow Left, Sydney, Author and APCOL, 1982, pp. 233. $19.95, $12.95 (paper)

What Rough Beast? The State and Social Order in Australian History, Sydney Labour History Group, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1982, pp.282. $22.50, $9.95 (paper)

Stephen Holt, Manning Clark and Australian History 1915–1963, University of Queensland Press, 1982, pp.207. $14.95.

W.E.H. Stanner, White Man Got no Dreaming: Essays 1938–1973, Canberra, ANU Press, 1979, pp. 389. $25.00

Alan Powell, Far Country, a Short History of the Northern Territory, Melbourne University Press, 1982, pp. 301 $24.50, $14.95 (paper)

Robert M. Worcester & Martin Harrop (eds) Political Communications : The General Election Campaign of 1979, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 177. $49.95

John Western & Colin Hughes The Mass Media in Australia, 2nd Edn, University of Queensland Press, 1983, pp. 209. $19.95, $9.95 (paper)

Henry Mayer, Pauline Garde & Sandra Gibbons The Media : Questions and Answers ’Australian Surveys 1942–1980’, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1983 pp. 206. $29.95

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Robert Birrell, Doug Hill and John Stanley (eds) Quarry Australia! Social and environmental perspectives on managing the nation's resources, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1982, pp. 366. $12.95 (paper)

Dean Jaensch, The Australian Party System, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1983, pp.235. $11.95 (paper)

Grant Harman and Don Smart (eds) Federal Intervention in Australian Education: Past, Present and Future, Melbourne, Georgian House, 1982, pp. 197. $12.50 (paper)

Desmond Ball (ed) Strategy & Defence : Australian Essays, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 402. $24.95, $12.95 (paper)

R.L. Mathews (ed) Public Policies in Two Federal Countries: Canada and Australia. Canberra, Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations, Australian National University, 1982, pp. 298. np.

F.G. Castles (ed) The Impact of Parties : Politics and Policies in Democratic Capitalist States, London, Sage Publications, 1982, pp. 370. US $25.00

Greg Crough and Ted Wheelwright, Australia: A Client State, Ringwood, Penguin Books, 1982, pp. 255. $7.95 (paper)

Hilde T. Himmelweit, Patrick Humphreys, Marianne Jaeger, and Michael Katz, How Voters Decide, A longitudinal study of political attitudes and voting extending over fifteen years, Academic Press, 1981, pp. 276. £14.20. $38.45, $18.55 (paper)

Peter Limqueco and Bruce McFarlane (eds) Neo‐Marxist Theories of Development, London and Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp. 220. $18.25 (paper)

J.A.A. Stockwin, Japan: Divided Politics in a Growth Economy, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982, pp. 333. £15.50, £8.50 (paper)

John L.S. Girling, Thailand: Society and Politics, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, pp. 306. $41.95

Alan W. Ward, Land and Politics in New Caledonia, Canberra, Department of Political and Social Change Monograph, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU, 1982, pp. 86. $6.00

John Lawrey, The Cross of Lorraine in the South Pacific—Australia and the Free French Movement 1940–1942, Canberra, Journal of Pacific History, 1982, pp. 142. $8.50

Peter McDonough, Power and Ideology in Brazil, Princeton University Press, 1981, pp. 326. US$33.00; US$10.70 (paper)

Fouad Ajami, The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice Since 1967, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 220. £12.50

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John Ardagh, France in the 1980s: The Definitive Book, Harmondsworth, Penguin, pp. 672. $10.95

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Francis A. Beer, Peace Against War, San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Company, 1981, pp. 447.

Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 272. £15

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Hannes Adomeit, Soviet Risk‐Taking and Crisis Behaviour, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 377. $75.00

Frank Field, Poverty and Politics: The Inside Story of the Child Poverty Action Group's Campaigns in the 1970s, London, Heinemann, 1982, (paper)

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Michael Meacher, Socialism with a Human Face, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp. 295. $42.50

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Peter Lange and Maurizio Vanicelli (eds) The Communist Parties of Italy, France and Spain—Postwar Change and Continuity: A Casebook, Centre for European Studies, Harvard, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1981, pp. 385. $62.50, $27.50 (paper)

Janice Jiggins, Caste and Family in the Politics of the Sinhalese 1947–1976, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979, pp. 189. £15.50

Michael Roberts, Caste Conflict and Elite Formation—the Rise of a Karava Elite in Sri Lanka, 1500–1931, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 382. £30.00 Donald L. Horowitz, Coup Theories and Officers’ Motives—Sri Lanka in Comparative Perspective, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 238. US$25.00, US$11.75 (paper)

Stewart Clegg, Geoff Dow and Paul Boreham (eds) The State, Class and the Recession, London and Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp.331. $29.25

Mike Muller, The Health of Nations: A North‐South Investigation, London, Faber and Faber, 1982, pp.255. $10.95

Richard L. Merritt and Bruce M. Russett (eds) From National Development to Global Community: Essays in Honor of Karl W. Deutsch, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1981, pp.480. $50, $23.95 (paper)

Robert G. Burgess (ed) Field Research: A Sourcebook and Field Manual, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 286. $68, $35 (paper)

Jean Bethke Elshtain, Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought, Princeton University Press, 1981.

Jean Bethke Elshtain (ed) The Family in Political Thought, Brighton, Harvester Press, 1982.

Keith Graham (ed) Contemporary Political Philosophy: Radical Studies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp.159. £12.50, £4.50 (paper)

Robert E. Goodin, Political Theory and Public Policy, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1982, pp.249. US$27.50

Gerald F. Gaus, The Modem Liberal Theory of Man, London, Croom Helm, 1983, pp.312. $29.25

R.D. (Bob) Jessop, The Capitalist State: Marxist Theories and Methods, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1982, pp. 296. £5.95 (paper)

John Passmore, The Limits of Government (1981 Boyer Lectures), Sydney, ABC, 1982, pp. 62. $2.95

Russell Jacoby, Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 202. £15

Howard Margolis, Selfishness, Altruism & Rationality, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 194. £18

Michael Oakeshott, On History and Other Essays, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1983, pp.198 £12.

David Miller and Larry Siedentop (eds) The Nature of Political Theory, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1983, pp.261 $43.75

Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright, Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism, London, Merlin Press, 1979, pp. 253. (paper)

Helen Roberts (ed) Doing Feminist Research, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981. £4.95 (paper) Margrit Eichler, The Double Standard, London, Croom Helm, 1980. $9.95 (paper)

Kaye Hargreaves, Women at Work, Ringwood, Victoria, Penguin, 1982, pp. 402. $6.95     

Financial Inclusion or Subordination? The Monetary Politics of Debt in Cambodia

Financial inclusion is a leading driver of household debt across the global South. Although critical geographers have analysed this debt through the lens of financialisation, few have examined it in terms of monetary politics. This is a salient issue, because poorer nations often have limited control over their monetary policy due to their dependence on foreign currencies, which can adversely affect the structure of their financial markets. Building on the concept of monetary dependency from scholarship on financial subordination, I analyse the monetary politics of debt in Cambodia. Drawing on elite interviews and ethnographic research, I argue that Cambodia's extreme monetary dependence on the US dollar has shaped monetary and fiscal policies that compel poorer households to take on private debt to pay for their basic needs. This paper advances critical geographies of debt and development by studying financial subordination and its impact on financial inclusion in the global South.     

A Review of “Fighting for the Speakership: The House and the Rise of Party Government”

We explore the sensitivity of Congress to statements of administration policy (SAPs) and signing statements in the struggle with the executive over policy. We hypothesize that the nature and use of objections contained in these presidential communications generates additional congressional oversight. To test whether this happens, we developed a dataset with all SAPs, signing statements, and congressional oversight hearings from 1997 through 2007. The results indicate that the type and number of objections raised in presidential communications affects congressional oversight activity.