Nobility and modern monarchy—J.H.G. Justi and the French debate on commercial nobility at the beginning of the seven years war

This article seeks to explore the European debate on commercial nobility at the beginning of the Seven Years War in the light of the intense reform debates over French absolutism in the 1730s and 1740s and Montesquieu's rigid refutation of noble trade in The Spirit of the Laws (1748). In early 1756, Montesquieu's position against noble trade had come under severe attack by Gabriel François Coyer's Noblesse Commerçante. Claiming that the royal absolutist system had transformed the nobles into an idle class without any political, economic, or military function that stood in sharp contrast to the dynamism of modern commercial society, Coyer perceived noble enterprises in maritime, wholesale, and even retail trade as a necessary means to help France compete with commercially more advanced states such as England and Holland. Coyer's pamphlet roused heated controversies in Paris and beyond and soon engaged the leading minds of the time in debates over the actual and desired role of the hereditary aristocracy in monarchies. Coyer's strongest opponents, like the Chevalier d’Arc, vehemently defended Montesquieu's contention that the upkeep of the non-commercial status of the nobility was a political necessity. Yet they, too, conceded that the nobility had to undergo severe reforms not to hamper France's military standing and future economic success. The article finally turns to Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi, the most interesting commentator on the debate in Germany, who, by October 1756, had translated Coyer's and d’Arc's texts into German and written an own treatise on the same issue. Justi's pamphlet reveals that his political theory was deeply shaped by the debate and thus disproves the long-held assumption in the literature that German cameralism, with Justi as its main representative, was an allegedly isolated current of thought that neither received significant external influences, nor exerted any considerable impact beyond the boundaries of the Germanic world.     

Competitive internationalisation or grassroots practises of internationalism? The changing international practises of German-language critical geography

International connections have always been essential in critical geography in Germany. This paper aims to examine the role of international connections in German critical geography as a step towards a history of critical geography in Germany. The paper suggests four periods of internationalisation: first, an internationalist phase from ca. 1920 to 1933, with the very first critical geographers in Germany who were highly connected and internationally oriented. Second, starting in the late 1960s, there was a phase of struggles within the national framework of the discipline, and in particular against a prevailing national focus of mainstream geography. Third, the late 1970s and the 1980s saw the emergence of an international orientation as a way to escape repression in German geography. People interested in critical approaches in geography left the country, finding inspiration or positions elsewhere, or sought out international contacts that challenged ‘mainstream’ geography. Finally, the paper will draw conclusions about the development of international connections in relation to national disciplinary control, the scales of struggles and (as a fourth phase) the current situation in German geography.     

Arab commentaries on the Iranian revolution

Muhammad as‐Sa^cid ^cAbd al‐Mu'min: Mas'ala ath‐Thawra al‐Iraniyya (The Case of the Iranian Revolution), Cairo, 1981.

Sami Dhabiyan: Iran wa al‐Khumayni: Muntalaqat ath‐Thawra wa Hudud at‐Taghyir (Iran and Khomeini: The Foundations of the Revolution and the Limits of Change), Beirut, 1979.

Ibrahim ad‐Dissuqi Shita: ath‐Thawra al‐Iraniyya: al‐Judhur‐ al‐Idilujiyya (The Iranian Revolution: The Roots‐the Ideology), Beirut, 1979.

Talal Majdhub: Iran: Min ath‐Thawra ad‐Dusturiyya hatta ath‐Thawra al‐Islamiyya (Iran: From the Constitutional Revolution to the Islamic Revolution), Beirut, 1980.

Mahmud an Najjar: ath‐Thawra al‐Iraniyya wa Ihtimalat al‐Khatar fi al‐Khalij (The Iranian Revolution and the Possibilities of Danger in the Gulf), Beirut, 1980.