Virginia and the West Indies Trade, 1740-1765

Although the historian of Virginia\u27s proud heritage has been diligent in the pursuit of various phases of Virginia\u27s political and economic life, the Old Dominion\u27s involvement with the West Indies trade has been all but neglected. The various facets of this trade and its profound effect on Virginia\u27s colonial well-being deserves to be written. Herein is an opportunity to reveal that Virginia\u27s participation in the Revolutionary War had several roots: not the least was the threat to its domestic trade. It goes without saying that this work is not intended to be definitive on the subject as there is yet more source material waiting to be uncovered, and there are a number of students as well as established historians pursuing this subject. The writer has found the pursuit of this quest fascinating and rewarding. I have tried to develop the subject with emphasis on the effect that the two wars, King George\u27s and the French and Indian, had on the trade. The fascinating illegal trade, o{ necessity, found a place in the narrative. and rightly so, as it played a major role in the West Indies trade of all the colonies, and Virginia was no exception

La invención de un imperio comercial hispano, 1740-1765

Hacia mediados del siglo XVIII se fragua un nuevo discurso imperial en el corazón de la monarquía hispana. Entre sus arquitectos intelectuales habría que incluir ministros de las nuevas secretarías borbónicas, la Junta de Comercio, y el Consejo de Castilla. Fieles estudiosos de la ciencia de comercio ilustrada, ya para 1740 dichos ministros habían delineado un nuevo sistema imperial en el que la única y exclusiva función de las colonias era consumir la mercancía de la metrópoli. Es decir, estos ministros ilustrados buscaban transformar la monarquía compuesta heredada de los Austrias en un imperio comercial, un tipo de estado cuyo poder derivaba de su capacidad para encauzar el mercado colonial a su propio beneficio. En este artículo intentamos reconstruir la manera en que se llega a proyectar ese anhelado imperio de naturaleza comercial.

Enlightenment, Nation and Empire in the Spanish Monarchy

Este ensayo parte de una consideración crítica de la relación entre cosmopolitismo y “nacionalismo” en el pensamiento ilustrado. A partir de ahí llama la atención sobre algunas cuestiones que caracterizaron el pensamiento “nacional” de la Ilustración en la monarquía española. Por una parte su inserción en el espacio de civilización europeo y, por otra, su propia condición imperial.From a critical perspective of the relationship between cosmopolitism and nationalism in the Enlightenment, this article considers two characteristics of the Spanish enelightened thought. On the one hand the insertion of Spain and its culture in the mainstream of the European civilization. On the other hand the intepretation of the “Spanish nation” in an imperial context

Experimental Investigation of a Constant-Velocity Traveling Magnetic Wave Plasma Engine

The previously reported traveling magnetic wave plasma engine has been redesigned to reduce the high heat loss to the tube walls downstream of the last magnetic-field coil. The present configuration uses a 3-inch-diameter pyrex tube flared out to a 6-inch diameter immediately downstream of the last magnetic-field coil. This configuration has been studied to determine the effects of flared-tube geometry, molecular weight of the propellant, engine length, and use of a ferrite core on the engine performance. Argon and xenon gases were used as propellants. Two engine lengths were tested. One engine was nominally 1-magnetic-wavelength long (4 coils) and the other nominally 2 1/2-magnetic wavelengths long (10 coils). The magnetic wave speed for both of these lengths corresponds to a specific impulse of 4750 seconds. The maximum kinetic efficiency of the 4-coil engine was 10 percent at a specific impulse of 3200 seconds using argon gas and 22.5 percent at 4200 seconds using xenon gas as the propellant

Convergences and divergences in mortality

Abdel Omran's 1971 theory of "Epidemiologic Transition" was the first attempt to account for the extraordinary advances in health care made in industrialized countries since the 18th century. In the framework of the Demographic Transition, it implied a general convergence of life expectancies toward a limit imposed by the new epidemiological features of modern societies. However, important failures, occurred in the past decades (mainly the health crisis in Eastern Europe and AIDS in Africa), seem to have stopped that process of convergence. In fact such failures do not really contradict the theory. The latter is much more ruined by the unexpected dramatic improvement in the field of cardiovascular disease experienced since the seventies, which results in a new step of a more general process. On the basis of the broader concept of “Health Transition†initiated by Julio Frenk et al., the present paper tries to rethink the full process in term of divergence/convergence sequences inferred by successive major changes in health technologies and strategies.cause of death, demographic convergences, epidemiologic transition, health transition, mortality, mortality trends

Historic Philadelphia Foodways: A Consideration of Catfish Cookery

This article explores the consumption of catfish in the Philadelphia area during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Although not extremley popular in the region today, in the past this fish was an important part of the culinary landscape, in particular as part of a meal referred to as catfish and waffles. Evidence from zooarchaeological and documentary research is used to justify this claim