A Forgotten Instrument of Global Capitalism?International Concessions, 1870–1930

From the mid-1800s through the 1930s, concessions were an institutional foundation of modern capitalism about which we have little systematic, comparative knowledge. Concessions - contracts given by governments in less-developed states to foreign investors - supplied elements that were lacking in the host country, including a congenial legal order and an attractive investment environment. Cash-poor governments eager to modernise often added special privileges and monopoly rights to concessions in order to attract capital. In Africa and Asia, all the colonial powers granted concessions to promote the building of infrastructure and development of commercial agriculture without burdening the Treasury. After providing a global survey of concessions with special attention to Russia, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and French West Africa, the author concludes that concessions, by their nature, entailed contradictions that made them a ‘third best’ option for political elites eager to incorporate peripheral regions into the world economy.     

The Development of Social Insurance in Iran: Technical-Financial Conditions and Political Rationales, 1941–1960

This text brings the case of Iranian social insurance (SI) to bear on the processes shaping Iranian politics from 1941 to 1960. It holds that the political needs of upper class rule (1941–51) and of the early autocratic regime (1953–1960) helped to shape SI's nature, extent, and limits. A key objective was to propagandistically use a minimal version of SI to try undermining communist and workers' trade unionist agitation. Iranian SI had two rationales. Although a few workers demanded SI measures during the Constitutional Revolution, the first SI program (1922, 1931, 1933) covered government employees, i.e. was a function of state-building. This paper focuses on a second program, targeting non-government workers. Starting in 1936 (1943, 1949), it was meant to tackle the social and political challenges posed by a nascent industrial working class. However, throughout the 1940s, workers' SI laws remained a dead letter, and the first integrated SI bureaucracy (1953), although ensuring 180,000 people, was in reality quite inefficient.     

Maltese ‘gallarija’: a gender and space perspective

In Malta, there are hundreds of balconies, especially in Valletta. However, the most fascinating ones are boxed-balconies known as ‘Gallarijia’ in Maltese. The Knights, an ultra religious Roman Catholic military Order who ruled Malta for over 260 years, adopted covered-balconies designed and used in Muslim countries; in the hope that it would ensure their segregated life style as well as; concealing their illicit sexual activities with Maltese women. The Grand Master de la Cassiere built the first covered-balcony in his palace in Valletta; soon it found affinity with the Maltese well-to-do families who called it their own. Although, cultural and technological transfers between Muslim and Christian worlds have always been a way of life in the Mediterranean region, successfully adopting an innovation from another culture requires suitable social, economic and cultural environment in the host country. The objective of this article is to explain how and why a Christian military order has successfully adopted a Muslim inspired design for their balconies. We suggest the key to understand this phenomenon and the paradox it poses is the status of women in Malta during the Knights' rule.     

Social Change in An Urban-Rural Fringe: Marques,Brazil

Communities at the fringe of cities in southeastern Brazil are characterized by rapidly changing social values associated with elements of economic modernization. The economy of the small rural village of Marques, situated near Piracicaba, a city of 500,000 population, has been transformed from one based on local subsistence and cash crop farming to one of diversified urban employment. Migration to the city has been significant. Despite diminished economic output, family and institutional ties have kept many from moving away from Marques and draw former residents back for special occasions.     

Reviews

Freezing Assets: The USA and the Most Effective Economic Sanction , Mahvash Alerassool, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993, xii + 238 pp., Bibliography, Index.

Islamic Economic Systems , Farhad Nomani and Ali Rahnema, London: Zed Books, 1994, 222 pp., $25.00 paperback.

Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith , Norman R. C. Cohn, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1993, x + 271 pp.

Indian Merchants and the Eurasian Trade ,1600–1750, Stephen Frederic Dale, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 162 pp.

Art of the Persian Courts: Selections from the Art and History Trust Collection , Abolala Soudavar, with a contribution by Milo Cleveland Beach, New York: Rizzoli, 1992, 423 pp. and 474 color illustrations, $85.

Sakhtarha‐ye ejtema'i‐ye ‘ashayer‐e Būyir‐Ahmad, 1300–1364 , H. Ghaffari, Tehran: Ney, 1368 Sh./1989, 287 pp., map, diagrams, illustrations.

In the Eye of the Storm: Women In Post‐Revolutionary Iran , Mahnaz Afkhami and Erika Friedl, eds., Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1994, 227 pp., $17.95 paperback.

Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia: Aspects of Administrative ,Economic and Social History, 11th‐14th Century, Ann K. S. Lambton, Bibliotheca Persica, Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, no. 2, Albany: SUNY Press, 1988, 351 pp., tables, maps, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

Tribal Rugs: Nomadic and Village Weavings from the Near East and Central Asia , James Opie, Portland, Ore.: The Tolstoy Press, 1992, 328 pp., 356 illustrations, 291 in color and 12 maps, $ 75.00.

The Kitáb‐i‐Aqdas: The Most Holy Book , Baha’ Allah, Haifa: Baha'i World Center, 1992, pp. viii + 296.

Planning and Power in Iran: Ebtehaj and Economic Development under the Shah , Frances Bostock and Geoffrey Jones, London: Frank Cass and Co., 1989, 238 pp.

Autocracy, Modernization, and Revolution in Russia and Iran , Tim McDaniel, Princeton University Press, 1991, 239 pp.

Iran und die Reformbewegung im Osmanischen Reich: Persische Staatsmänner ,Reisende und Oppositionelle unter dent Einfluβ der Tanzimat, Anja Pistor‐Hatam, Berlin: Kl. Schwarz, 1992, 260 pp., Bibliography, Index.

Die revolutiondre Bewegung in Iran ,1905–1911: Sozialdemok‐ratie und russischer Einfluβ, Sabine Roschke‐Bugzel, Europäische Hoch‐schulschriften 3, Frankfurt, Bern, New York, Paris: Lang Verlag, 1991, x + 341 pp., Bibliography.

After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy , K. L. Afrasiabi, Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1994, xii + 244 pp.

Poetry and Mysticism in Islam: The Heritage of Rūmi , Amin Ba‐nani, Richard Hovannisian, and Georges Sabagh, eds., Giorgio Levi Delia Vida Conference Proceedings 11, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, ix + 204 pp., Index.

Islam, Iran, and World Stability , Hamid Zanganeh, ed., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, xii + 243 pp., Bibliography, Index, $49.95.