The Roles of Tea and Opium in Early Economic Globalization: A Perspective on China’s Crisis in the 19th Century

Alongside military conquest which characterized great part of globalization during the 19th century, the globalization of markets no doubt was its main manifestation. Addictive consumption goods played a leading role during this process, as observed in the case of China, tea and the opium trade had the largest impact. Owing to the importance of Britain’s growing demand for tea and its concomitant tax revenue, Anglo-Chinese trade became the dominant trade that Britain had in the East. To make up the trade deficit with China, Britain took advantage of its Indian colony and did its best in expanding its opium trade. Within this triangular trade scheme, Britain was the master, India was the instrument, and China was the ultimate victim. Confronted by the irresistible trend of globalization, China was ill prepared when facing this challenge leading to a complete failure in both military and commercial warfare and later on to an overall crisis in the 19th century.     

国内区域贸易、国际贸易与国家竞争力

大国国内区域贸易与国际贸易关系主要表现在两个方面:一是国内区域贸易与国际贸易存在一定程度上的相互替代的关系;二是国内区域贸易与国际贸易存在相互促进的关系,发展国内区域贸易能提升大国在国际经济中的竞争力。     

天明六年“南部马市”铜牌的再发现

马市铜牌又可称作交子,为大理国市场管理、交易收税之凭据。     

The Chronology of Insiza Cluster Khami‐Phase Sites in South‐Western Zimbabwe: Compositional Insights from pXRF and Raman Analysis of Excavated Exotic Glass Finds

Fourteen glass beads and one glass fragment from Khami‐period (ad 1400–1830) sites of Danamombe, Naletale, Gomoremhiko, Nharire and Zinjanja, in Zimbabwe, were analysed by pXRF and Raman spectroscopy with the intention of correlating the results with associated radiocarbon dates. The results show that Zinjanja and an earlier part of the Danamombe stratigraphic context had Khami Indo‐Pacific beads (15th–17th centuries) corresponding with Torwa occupational layers. Other European beads and one bottle fragment [high‐lime, low‐alkali (HLLA) glass] dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries were confined to the top stratigraphic layers of Danamombe and Naletale, which coincide with the later Rozvi occupational layers. Gomoremhiko had one Mapungubwe–Zimbabwe bead series (13th–15th centuries), which suggests that it was probably earlier than the other sites. All European beads are made of soda–lime plant‐ash glass with high alumina, which makes them comparable with glass produced through the Mediterranean traditions in Southern Europe.     

Haggling Highlanders: Marketplaces,Middlemen and Moral Economy in the Papua New Guinean Betel Nut Trade

The rise of competitive trade practices represents a significant development in Papua New Guinea's marketplaces. Overt competition and haggling, once conspicuous by their near absence, are now commonplace in the country's betel nut marketplaces, and increasingly visible in many of the large urban fresh food marketplaces. This has emerged with the rise of long‐distance and intermediary trading, and with increasing numbers of people dependent on trade for their livelihood. This paper explores moral economy, and the interactions and negotiations around price between lowland betel nut producers and highland wholesale traders as they occur in marketplaces and in rural production areas. It documents how the moral obligations that arise from trade itself, and entangled with self‐interest, tempers competition and fosters solidarity amongst traders, redirects competition onto their interactions with producers, and in doing so reinforces existing power asymmetries.     

The settlement mounds in Divtasvuona/Tysfjord,North Norway. Traces of a Sami fisher-farmer economy

In Tysfjord Municipality, North Norway, written sources mention Sami farms in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The farms had a mixed economy, with an emphasis on agriculture, fishing, hunting and gathering. On some of these farms there are documented settlement mounds. Minor excavations have been carried out on several of these archaeological sites. A pollen sample has also been taken from one of these locations. By using radiocarbon dating and artefact analyses it is possible to date the settlement mounds back to the Early Middle Ages. The establishment of these cultural monuments documents a change in the economy, with animal husbandry becoming more important. During the Middle Ages, cultivation of barley arose as a new element of the economy. The article addresses the question of whether this change in the economy can be linked to a Sami or a Norwegian population.     

中日制成品产业内贸易实证分析

本文通过对1987~2006年的统计数据进行实证分析发现:中日产业内贸易水平20年来总体处于上升趋势;中日产业内贸易主要集中在制成品领域内,其中,机械和运输设备产业内贸易所占比重最高;垂直型产业内贸易是中日产业内贸易的主要形式;中日两国的产业内贸易受多种因素共同影响,其中,中国人均收入水平不断提高以及日本对华直接投资规模的扩大是重要的影响因素。     

'Proactive fast-tracking' diffusion of supermarkets in developing countries: implications for market institutions and trade

Supermarkets have spread extremely rapidly in developing countriesafter the ‘take-off’ in the early to mid-1990s.Former analyses of supermarket diffusion have not adequatelyexplained the sudden burst and then exponential diffusion ofsupermarkets in the late 1990s and early 2000s. We argue thatrather than taking demand and market institutional and organizationalconditions as ‘exogenous’, as former analyses havetended to do, modern food retailers instead have treated localconditions as substantially ‘endogenous’. To enabletheir rapid growth, supermarkets undertake ‘proactivefast-tracking strategies’ to alter the ‘enablingconditions’ of entry and growth. Beside the retail investmentsthat have been extensively treated in recent literature, theseproactive strategies focus on improving the ‘enablingconditions’ via (i) procurement system modernization and(ii) local supply chain development. One important strategyretailers have used to facilitate (i) and (ii) is to form symbioticrelationships with modern wholesale, logistics and processingfirms. An example we address is ‘follow sourcing’,where a transnational retailer encourages transnational logisticsand wholesale firms with whom the retailer is working in homemarkets, to locate to the developing country. This is a spurto globalization of services in support of retail. Follow-sourcinghas been treated for example in the automobile manufacturessector (follow-sourcing from spare parts manufacturers)—butnot in the food sector. A second important strategy is thatof multi-network-sourcing, in which supermarkets source fromnational, regional and global networks. We analyze that strategyhere, adding to the literature which to date has touched onthis theme only scantly, and for the first time identify typicalpaths, present preliminary evidence (from Central America andIndonesia) concerning this multi-sourcing-network strategy anddiscuss trade implications. One of these is the move to primacyof South–South trade in supermarket sourcing—a newdimension of globalization. By introducing this link of retailertransformation and trade into the literature, we hope to spura new line of research that is timely in light of the trade,development and globalization debates in developing countries.     

Oligopoly and the structural paradox of retail TNCs: an assessment of Carrefour and Wal-Mart in Japan

This research focuses on the case of international chains facingsignificant competition from domestic chains in advanced industrializedeconomies. In this article, I question the assumptions behindthe perceived, simultaneous process of globalization and retailconcentration by taking the cases of the world's two largestretailers, Wal-Mart and Carrefour, entering the Japanese marketin the early 2000s. Both retail TNCs have so far failed to meetinitial high expectations for their performance. I argue thatthere is a structural paradox inherent among retail TNCs, whichis expressed as contradictory forces between standardizationand localization. Empirical evidence is provided on how theseforces complicate retail TNCs’ front-end (store-front)and back-end (distribution) operations in the case of Japan.Emphasis is placed on the role of oligopoly in the retail sectorand how its absence affects retail TNCs’ operation inforeign markets.