Acknowledging economic realities. The CMEA policy change vis-à-vis the European Community, 1970–3

In the early 1970s, the economic consequences of European Community (EC) policies forced the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) to devise its trade policy vis-à-vis the outside world. With the implementation of its Common Commercial Policy, the EC was about to change the rules and conduct of its foreign trade. The East–West trade boom that took off in the 1960s had created significant commercial links, and substantial dependencies, across the Iron Curtain. The smaller members of the CMEA began to advocate an opening up towards the EC due to their fears of worsening trade prospects caused by the new EC policies. After reconsideration of its allies' commercial needs, the Soviet leadership was pressured to change its mind in favour of a common approach vis-à-vis the EC. This article follows the debate within the CMEA Executive Committee on the socialist countries' dependency on the Western market and on the advisability of opening up to the global market. It relies on official CMEA documents as well as Soviet and German Democratic Republic (GDR) policy-making documents. This article analyses the process of socialist integration in connection with the simultaneous developments taking place in their Western European counterparts, and thereby fills a gap in the historiography of Europe in the Cold War.     

1967年香港反英抗暴斗争后中国对港贸易的恢复

1967年香港的反英抗暴斗争,是中英关系史和香港发展史上一次有重大影响的事件。因此次事件,中国内地暂停经香港的转口业务,港英当局对内地采取贸易歧视政策,美国、日本和中国台湾等乘机加紧对港澳市场的争夺。到1968年,中国商品占香港进口市场份额退居第二位,位列日本之后。在此背景下,中国政府采取强有力措施,迅速恢复和扩大对港澳地区的出口供应。透过历史的考察与分析,可以看出中央政府确保对港澳市场的稳定供应具有战略意义,体现出中央保持港澳地区长期繁荣稳定的方针是一贯的。在反英抗暴斗争中,中央政府坚持有理、有利、有节的斗争方针,在外贸总量同期大幅度下降的情况下,中英贸易没有受到太大的影响。     

XRF analysis of glass beads from the Mycenaean palace of Nestor at Pylos,Peloponnesus, Greece: new insight into the LBA glass trade

In recent years there has been a growing interest in Mycenaean glass among archaeologists and scientists. Scholars have traditionally thought that all Mycenaean glass was imported either in finished form or as ingots and simply shaped or worked at the Mycenaean sites. Chemical studies of other Mycenaean glass (50 and 43) support the hypothesis that glass was imported into Mycenaean Greece, but there is also indication for glass production in mainland Greece at the palace of Thebes (Nikita and Henderson, 2006). There is no evidence for glass making or working at the Palace of Pylos, yet there is an abundance of glass beads there. The aim of this paper is to identify the technology and source for the glass of these beads and thus to ascertain how Pylos was connected to the broader Mycenaean and Mediterranean economies. The composition of the glasses was determined by means of portable XRF analysis and compared to that of other Late Bronze Age glasses from Egypt, Mesopotamia and mainland Greece. Four blue beads coloured with cobalt and one blue bead coloured with copper have Ti and Zr compositions consistent with an Egyptian origin of manufacture while five other beads show Ti and Zr concentrations consistent with a Mesopotamian origin (Shortland et al., 2007). Based on the dearth of Egyptian and Mesopotamian imports in Pylos, the presented data support the hypothesis that Pylos was receiving via internal Greek trade routes foreign-produced glass, which may have been worked abroad or in Greece.     

阿普尔加斯与19世纪英国工人运动的发展

19世纪中期,随着新模范工会在各行业的发展,英国工人运动进入了一个新的历史阶段,在阿普尔加斯等人为代表的新一代工会领导人的努力下,工会不仅成功地克服了1866年谢菲尔德暴行带来的巨大危机,而且在各阶级进步人士的帮助下,推动议会在19世纪70年代相继通过了有利于工会运动的立法,使工会从此成为英国产业制度中一个不可缺少的组成部分。而新模范工会所倡导的自助自制精神、阶级合作和劳资和解的政策,不仅为工会运动的合法化开辟了道路,同时也为19世纪中期英国社会的和谐稳定,经济的繁荣发展提供了保障。     

Monks,dinars and date palms: hagiographical production and the expansion of monastic institutions in the early Islamic Persian Gulf

Recent archaeological studies have documented an expansion of monastic institutions in the Persian Gulf after the Islamic conquest, between the middle of the seventh and the end of the eighth centuries. Although the literary sources have often been invoked to support an earlier dating for the diffusion of coenobitic monasticism in the region, our principal source for the phenomenon — the History of Mar Yonan, hitherto misdated to the fourth century — confirms recent archaeologically informed interpretations. The narrative, moreover, provides an insight into the social and economic structures of monasticism in the seventh‐ and eighth‐century Persian Gulf as well as the ideological conflicts that attended the emergence of those structures.     

17世纪初全球贸易在东亚海域的形成与发展

17世纪初,世界贸易形势发生了巨大变化,东来的欧洲殖民者为贩运中国的生丝和丝织品,在东亚海域展开了激烈的商业竞争,于是在东亚海域形成了全球贸易。而此时正值明朝政府在福建漳州月港开放海禁,准许私人出洋贸易,因此大量的中国海商涌向海外,在与欧洲殖民者激烈的商业竞争中,他们以敏锐的商业头脑和强烈的竞争意识取得了成功,使世界各地的白银源源不断地流入中国,使中国成为当时东亚海域的贸易中心。     

论近代中国对外贸易地理方向的变动及其原因

学术界对近代中国对外贸易地理方向变动的探讨多采国别分析模式,本文采用新的分析方法.认为近代中国外贸方向变动的趋势是中国与亚太地区的经贸联系逐渐加强,尽管列强在华势力消长是近代中国外贸方向变动的重要原因,但世界体系下的霸权转移和列强对华贸易的比较利益则决定了近代中国贸易取向的转变,同时近代中国外贸方向的变动仍遵循经济学规律,受地缘和传统因素的制约.以亚太为外贸重心的变动体现出中国参与国际经济的一种长期趋势.     

中日经贸关系发展的特点及展望

中日恢复邦交正常化以来,经贸关系出现较快的发展态势。虽然在发展过程中受到政治因素的影响,出现一些波折,但总的趋势是向前发展的。中日进出口贸易从建交时的10.9亿美元,扩大到2006年的2073.6亿美元,日本为中国第三大贸易伙伴。随着中日贸易规模的不断扩大,进出口商品结构也在不断发生变化,机电产品已经成为双方贸易的第一大商品,产业内贸易越来越活跃,中日贸易正在向水平化的方向发展;日本对华直接投资也在不断的增长,截至2006年12月底,日本对华直接投资实际使用金额累计达到580.4亿美元,仅次于香港、台湾省,位居第三位。展望未来,中日经贸关系仍将以较快的速度发展。     

Two Late Roman Wrecks from Southern Cyprus

Two scattered Late Roman shipwrecks were discovered in the course of underwater survey at Cape Zevgari and Avdimou Bay off the southern coast of Cyprus. Each was transporting a primary cargo contained in amphoras, in one case either local or from nearby Syria or Cilicia, and the other certainly from the southern Levantine coast. The two wrecks offer insight into regional maritime exchange networks within the socio-economic context of late antique commerce around the island. Both sites also contribute to a greater understanding of the utility of systematic shallow-water survey to shipwreck archaeology.
© 2007 The Author     

明代地域商帮兴起的社会背景

In the mid-Ming Dynasty, the means of transportation were greatly improved; commodity production became more developed; silver was gradually monetized; commercial taxes became lighter; and social attitudes towards merchants changed. All these developments created a favorable environment for the formation of regional merchant groups. Meanwhile, social factors at the regional level—characteristics of local commodity production, favorable natural environment and production structures, as well as Ming government’s practice of border defense, border trade, foreign policy, local customs, and the interpretation of commercial activities of local people—all contributed to the emergence of merchant groups. Translated by Wu Yanhong from Tsinghua Daxue Xuebao 清华大学学报 (Journal of Tsinghua University), 2006, (5): 81–94