Overseas imports on the Blue Nile: Chemical compositional analysis of glass beads from Soba,Nubia

Archaeological evidence as well as textual sources leave no doubt about Alwa's (Alodia's) intense transcultural connections, further corroborated by understudied overseas glass bead imports found there. This paper presents results of an analysis of 23 glass beads from Soba, the most prosperous capital of medieval Nubia. Compositional analyses using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) have identified glass belonging to a number of broad compositional groups. Three samples were made of soda lime low-alumina glass produced in the Middle East (v-Na-Ca) and Egypt (m/v-Na-Ca). The remaining beads were made of two types of mineral–soda high-alumina glass (m-Na-Al) North Indian in origin. The results of this study provide new evidence for the provenance and chronology of glass beads available in medieval Soba and Northeast Africa, and contribute new data to research on trade contacts of that time.     

The calm before the storm: A punctuated equilibrium theory of international politics

Research has shown that policymaking in numerous domestic policies, across a multitude of polities, systematically produces a pattern of change that matches Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET), characterized by many incremental and occasional dramatic changes. The field of International Relations (IR), however, has paid surprisingly little attention to PET, even though the same pattern of change is also found in international politics. This study attempts to fill this gap and explains stability and change in international politics based on PET. Specifically, we detail the dynamics behind this pattern of behavior, both at the domestic and the international level, as well as their interplay. The empirical section shows that different indicators of international politics, including troop deployments, foreign aid and international trade, follow a leptokurtic pattern of change, which characterizes Punctuated Equilibrium, and whereby changes in countries' behavior are generally incremental, representing periods of relative stability, and punctuated by large changes that dramatically overthrow existing policies. Moreover, our results indicate that policy outputs where greater friction is at play are more punctuated than those policies that cannot as easily or directly be managed. This study urges future research to further explore the dynamics of stability and change at the aggregate, international level.     

Expertise Marginalized: Quality Inspection and the Grain Market in Republican China

With the help of professionally trained agricultural scientists, the Guomindang’s Nationalist government drafted a large-scale program for agricultural reconstruction in the late 1920s and early 1930s. At the heart of the program was a scientific rice-breeding experiment with the potential to produce great numbers of new high-yield rice varieties. However, this scientific achievement could not assure success of the new rice varieties in the market because the marketability of rice was determined not by the scientific productivity improvement but by a series of processes required before the rice reached consumers. For this, local and practical contexts had to be considered. By juxtaposing two different forms of “rice expertise,” this paper illuminates the incompatibility between the state’s productivist understanding of agricultural improvement and the quality issue in the grain market.     

中俄双边旅游与进出口贸易互动关系的实证研究

以1998-2011年中俄两国旅游与贸易数据为基础,利用格兰杰因果关系检验发现俄国出境旅游是进出口贸易的单向格兰杰原因,中国进出口贸易是出境旅游的单向格兰杰原因。旅游与贸易互动关系研究结果表明:俄国出境旅游对进出口中国贸易均有着明显的推动作用,并对进口贸易的推动作用要明显强一些;中国进出口贸易对出境俄旅游都有明显的促进作用,进口贸易的促进作用要略强一点。俄罗斯断面看,占中国入境旅游比对对华贸易依存度有一定影响;中国断面看,中国对俄贸易依存度对出境俄旅游偏好和占俄入境旅游比影响均较大。两国旅游与贸易的互动性差异特征分析能为两国双边旅游与贸易良性互动发展提供相应参考。     

17世纪英国海外贸易的拓展与转型

17世纪,英国与西欧、北欧呢绒的贸易趋于衰落,而与利凡特东印度以及北美殖民地的进口贸易却繁荣起来。进口的目的是为了再出口。这种输入与再输出的贸易越来越发达,而呢绒出口贸易则逐渐走向衰落,这就是所谓的贸易转型。17世纪英国的贸易转型分两个阶段：第一阶段发展的是与利凡特—东印度的贸易;第二阶段发展的是与殖民地的贸易。这种以再出口为目的的新型海外贸易,是17世纪英国巨额财富的主要来源。     

Consuming narratives: the political ecology of 'alternative' consumption

This paper examines how political ecology themes of tropical conservation and social justice become representational practices underpinning 'alternative' consumption in the North. The notion of commodity culture is adopted to understand the ambiguous rationalities and ethical assumptions of two sets of consumption practices. The first case considers Edenic myth-making used to assimilate concerns over tropical deforestation in the South to consumption-intensive if conservation-minded lifestyles in the North. The second case looks at fair trade and how concern about social injustice and unfair labour practices in the South is harnessed to solidarity-seeking consumption constitutive of 'radical' lifestyles. The paper suggests these contrasting commodity cultures broadly conform to divergent positions in red–green debates. It argues that both are weakened as a form of social and political 'caring at a distance' due to an uncritical acceptance of consumption as the primary basis of action.     

吉林省同日本的经贸合作与老工业基地振兴

日本是吉林省的主要经贸伙伴,自2000年起日本成为吉林省的第二大出口市场,发展同日本的经贸关系对吉林省具有十分重要的意义。本文通过对吉林省同日本经贸合作的现状及双方经贸合作的有利和不利因素的分析,提出了促进吉林省对日经贸进一步发展的对策建议。     

交通贸易与明代山东土地开发

交通与贸易是影响土地开发的两个重要因素。明代山东各地虽然都不同程度地开展了一些贸易活动,并且也或多或少地促进了当地土地的开发,但总体来看,多数地区仍面临着因交通贸易相对欠发达而造成的土地开发受阻的事实。具体而言,各地又有所差别,地处东部沿海的青州、莱州、登州三府因在交通与贸易方面皆远远落后于地处西部运河沿岸的济南、兖州、东昌三府,因此交通贸易对土地开发的限制较西三府表现得更为突出。有鉴于东三府交通贸易严重阻碍土地开发的现状,任职于当地的一些官员提出了实行海上自由贸易及开通胶莱河等主张。     

论16、17世纪之交西北欧商人商船南下地中海

16、17世纪之交,西北欧商人商船纷纷南下欧洲经济重心区———地中海世界。在西北欧商人商船大规模南下之时,西北欧还只是欧洲一个半边缘地区,然而当南下过程接进尾声之时,西北欧却一跃而成为欧洲新的经济重心区,其中荷兰取代了威尼斯、热那亚而跃升为欧洲新的领导者。西北欧商人商船南下地中海的过程对后来西北欧经济的发展具有重要的历史与现实意义。     

旅游企业的发展模式：华侨城的实践及启示

本文以深圳华侨城控股股份有限公司为例,对其“旅游＋地产”的发展模式进行研究。结果表明,“旅游＋地产”的发展模式有效地提高了企业的经营业绩,这主要在于企业充分依据旅游业和房地产业之间的产业关联性,在一定程度上实现了产业的纵向一体化,从而促进了企业内的资源共享,形成了有效的内部资本市场,并分散了经营风脸。