11 September 2001: the Italian writers’ response

One month after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, the Corriere della Sera published an article on the possible future consequences for literature of this horrific event. Some novelists boldly declared their work would not be affected at all, while others observed that their literary visions and perspectives were already responses to life's tragic aspects. Several writers confessed to wondering, at least initially, whether literature henceforth could continue to have any real sense. A decade later, this essay examines the nature of the Italian response. It looks first at the views of those writers who expressed opinions directly to the press or in essay form, and then at a small number of novels (by Tullio Avoledo, Marisa Bulgheroni and Tiziana Rinaldi Castro) and short stories (by Andrea Piva, Andrej Longo and Andrea Canobbio) which have embraced the theme, and which have done so in ways that reinforce the sense of an underlying political and/or cultural aesthetic. Connections between twenty-first-century reactions to 9/11 and the Italian experience or memory of political terrorism and war will be explored, as well as the question of inspiration for novelists, in the particular context of catastrophe or trauma.     

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。     

中国境外经贸合作区的文化适应性研究——以中埃·泰达苏伊士经贸合作区为例

不同国家在政治体制、经济发展水平、社会文化习俗等方面存在巨大差异,使得中国境外经贸合作区嵌入东道国时产生了制度和文化方面的冲突,出现“水土不服”的窘境,因此境外经贸合作区如何克服文化差异以更好地融入东道国成为研究的科学问题。本文以中埃·泰达苏伊士经贸合作区为例,基于文化尊重、融合和创新等原则,从物质文化、行为文化、制度文化和精神文化四方面探讨合作区的文化适应性。研究发现：①合作区的文化适应性不能一概而论,需要先识别文化类型,再明确各类文化的属性与特征,最后选择恰当的文化适应路径。合作区在物质文化、行为文化、制度文化和精神文化方面的有效适应,可以凝聚成推动其嵌入东道国“土壤”的文化合力,为合作区可持续、高质量发展提供动力。②中埃·泰达苏伊士经贸合作区遵循求同尊异、创新融合的理念,在文化适应性方面取得良好的效果,但也存在属地化管理困难、制度文化有待优化等问题。     

Increasing data (INAA) on Ecuadorian obsidian artifacts: preliminary provenance and a clue for pre-Columbian eastward trade

In this work we carried out INAA major (Na, K, Ca and Fe %) and trace (ppm) elements (plus Mn by FAAS analysis) of 15 obsidian samples (waste flakes) coming from an unknown archaeological site (¹⁴C-AMS age of 1425 AD) located on the south-eastern flank of the back-arc Sumaco volcano (to the east of the Cordillera Real) and from two already known pre-Columbian archaeological localities: La Florida (Quito) and Milan (Cayambe). Literature compositional data of the Ecuadorian obsidian outcrops provide some constraints on the provenance of the analyzed waste flakes, even though different methods of analyses make comparisons a difficult task. Concerning the obsidian artifacts of La Florida and Milan, they come from the well known Sierra de Guamanì obsidian sources (Cordillera Real). By contrast, the obsidian fragments of the Sumaco settlement show some compositional characters compatible with obsidian erratic pebbles recently discovered in some river banks of the Amazonian foothills draining the easternmost flanks of the Antisana volcano in the Cordillera Real as well. In this way, the obsidian artifacts found at the Sumaco site reinforce the opinion that Ecuadorian source inventory is not yet exhaustive. Although the Antisana volcano seems to be the best candidate to find out additional primary outcrops of obsidian sources, it cannot be also excluded that sub-Andean and Amazonian people directly took advantage from obsidian secondary sources (e.g. river banks), rather than procurements from primary outcrops in the Cordillera Real. The new archaeological findings at the Sumaco volcano are really of paramount importance in tracing the ancient routes of a possible obsidian eastward trade toward the Amazonian region.     

Tiwanaku trade patterns in southern Peru

This paper provides data and analysis from an intensive settlement survey in the southwestern Titicaca Basin. This research was designed to assess the nature of Tiwanaku (AD 600–1100) long-distance trade. The survey area was placed between the prehistoric urban capital of Tiwanaku and its primary colony in Moquegua, a valley located on the Pacific watershed approximately 325 km away. The survey was specifically placed in an area where GIS analysis indicated a least-cost transit route between Tiwanaku and Moquegua. Field adjustments to the survey area were made based upon informant data about the historic location of caravan routes. The results of the survey indicate that there is a light but virtually continuous string of Tiwanaku occupation along the trails and roads in the area sampled between Tiwanaku and Moquegua. However, in contrast to the later Inca (AD 1450–1532) period pattern, Tiwanaku did not maintain way stations or build any kind of formal road system. The data indicate that Tiwanaku had indeed relied upon camelid caravans utilizing the least-cost pathways, but it did so in a more decentralized and informal way than the later Inca state.     

对1689-1727年中俄外交关系的考察

中俄《尼布楚条约》签订后,双方围绕边界、逃人、贸易诸问题展开新一轮的交锋。本文主要针对1689—1727年中俄外交的主题、外交危机的爆发、两国外交举措、外交结果等内容进行较为系统的论述。     

England’s trade with the Continent in the early thirteenth century: customs and the port of Dover

ABSTRACT

This article identifies and prints the earliest detailed customs list from northern Europe, which was prepared for the port of Dover in 1233 or soon after, and it gives fuller and more detailed information about trade than for any other northern European port at this date. The list shows a remarkable diversity of trade, including some of the earliest references to particular goods in English documents, and widespread sources of trade including Flanders, Germany and Italy. The depiction of such trading links prompts questions about the ‘commercial revolution’ and the development of European trade, for it shows how varied trade and consumption could be in the era of the fairs of the Champagne towns, before the establishment of direct maritime links from the Italian cities to northern Europe. The appearance of commodities and trading links in the Dover list suggest that commercial development was earlier and more evolutionary.