Exploring trade globalization in the long run: The RICardo project

Initiated in 2004, the RICardo project focuses on bilateral trade data of all the world's countries from the early nineteenth century to the eve of the Second World War. The project includes the construction of a database and the creation of a website. It is a pioneering work in the field of historical trade statistics that aims at providing easy-to-access research material to the scientific community and at attracting a wider public to the history of trade relationships. The article emphasizes the originality of the project and sums up its various aspects by reviewing previous trade databases, clarifying the main features of historical trade statistics, and describing the construction and use of the RICardo website.     

Trends in real wages in Denmark since the Late Middle Ages

This article constructs long-span time series indices on wages in Denmark and explores the growth in living standards in the pre-industrial era. There were several persistent upward and downward trends in real annual earnings from 1500 to 1820, but no clear upward long-term trend. This finding seems hard to reconcile with Maddison's figure for the average annual growth in real GDP per capita in Denmark (0.17%) over the same period. This is the case, even if the growth rate in pre-industrial annual earnings is underestimated by 0.05%–0.06% per annum due to an increased number of working days.     

Playing with matches: An assessment of accuracy in linked historical data

This article evaluates linkage quality achieved by various record linkage techniques used in historical demography. The author creates benchmark, or truth, data by linking the 2005 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Social Security Administration's numeric identification system by social security number. By comparing simulated linkages to the benchmark data, she examines the value added (in terms of number and quality of links) from incorporating text-string comparators, adjusting age, and using a probabilistic matching algorithm. She finds that text-string comparators and probabilistic approaches are useful for increasing the linkage rate, but use of text-string comparators may decrease accuracy in some cases. Overall, probabilistic matching offers the best balance between linkage rates and accuracy.     

When the Revolution Reached the Countryside: Use and Destruction of Imported Wares in Alta Gracia,Córdoba, 1810

During the 1970s, excavations were conducted in Alta Gracia, Córdoba, Argentina, in a compound that once was a seventeenth and eighteenth-century Jesuit Convent and is presently a museum. During the excavation, an amazing amount of historic material never studied before was discovered inside a sealed privy. After studying the material, we were able to identify the objects as once belonging to Santiago de Liniers, a man who successfully resisted and expelled British invaders from Buenos Aires. As a result, he was appointed Viceroy, though eventually he was shot in 1810 for confronting the Independence movement. Our hypothesis is that these objects were thrown into the privy as a gesture of contempt associated with his capture and execution.     

柳诒徵的“史德”论及其史学批评

“史德”论是史学理论中的重要范畴之一。这一概念最早由清代史学家章学诚提出,后经梁启超等人进一步阐发。柳诒徵在对章学诚、梁启超等人“史德”论批评与继承的基础上,提出了自己的独到见解。他论述了“有史而德”及“从德而史”的辨证关系,并强调“治史以畜德”的重要性。柳诒徵的“史德”是对前人的补充和发展。     

俄罗斯远东“中国移民问题”论析

在俄罗斯远东乃至全俄罗斯,“中国移民问题”是一个被有关势力上升到政治层面加以夸大、炒作的敏感问题。其主要肇因既有历史基因的复萌,也有现实利益的驱动。在其影响下,中俄两国开展劳务合作的潜力远未得到应有的发挥。近年来,俄虽有部分学者和政界人士能较为客观地分析中国移民问题,阐述利用中国劳务的必要性,且积极探讨利用中国劳务的有效途径,但俄罗斯社会对中国人持有的戒备和排斥心理仍相当浓厚。对此,我们应多从自身方面找原因,改进做法,积极应对,促使俄罗斯社会改变对中国人的偏见,从而将远东变成中俄合作真正的窗口和桥梁。     

民族精神研究与史学理论的思考

民族精神研究是史学领域的重要问题。本文仅就民族精神内涵研究与民族历史特点、民族精神与历史发展大势、民族精神与爱国主义史学的关系,以及弘扬民族精神的理论和方法等问题展开讨论,从而指出,站在时代的高度从中华民族的历史进程中把握民族精神的历史特点,继承史学传统,在历史典籍中进一步挖掘传统民族精神的深刻底蕴,并通过借鉴其他学科的理论和方法开展对史学理论的创新和发展,是新时期历史学家要深入思考的问题。     

历史观与意识形态:世界历史叙事中的现代化理论

作为世界历史叙事的一种范式,现代化理论不仅体现了一种历史观,也展示了其意识形态的特质。现代化理论的意识形态功能包括：解释功能、压制宣传功能、整合和激发功能以及合法化功能,这些功能使世界历史叙事充斥着偏见与“公允”、“真理”与权力、压制与整合等悖论。这种悖论在历史观层面,则凸显为现代化的“历史观”和历史观的“现代化”二者之间的张力。只有克服二者之间的张力,才能超越现代化的“历史观”的局限,才能使历史观的“现代化”成为一种世界历史叙事的实践理念。