The Monetary Origins of the Price Revolution' Before the Influx of Spanish-American Treasure: the South German Silver-Copper Trades, Merchant-Banking, and Venetian Commerce, 1470-1540

This paper seeks to provide a new and chiefly monetary explanation for the origins of the sixteenth-century era of sustained inflation (c.1520 - c.1640) commonly known as the Price Revolution'; and in particular it provides an answer to the question: not, as traditionally posed, why did the Price Revolution commence so early; but rather why did it commence so late? Beginning with the French philosopher Jean Bodin (1568) and culminating with Earl Hamilton and Keynes (1929, 1936), most economists and historians had attributed this sustained European inflation to the influx of Spanish-American treasure', chiefly silver from Peru- Bolivia and Mexico. But with advances in our knowledge of price history in the post-war era, economic historians pointed out that European inflation had commenced as early as the 1520s, some three decades before any substantial amounts of silver had been imported from the Americas. They therefore sought an alternative explanation: unfortunately, one that wrongly made population growth the prime mover' for inflation, with grave deficiencies in their economic theory. Most have confused a change in relative prices (e.g. a rise in wheat prices) with a change in the overall price level (CPI). Only one (Jack Goldstone) has sought to link population growth, and urbanization in particular, to monetary variables: i.e. to changes in payment structures and thus to the income velocity of money (or to changes in Cambridge k).gold, silver, bullion, mining, inflation, Price Revolution, public finance, Spanish America, South Germany, England, Venice, Antwerp.

Report of the Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo

From the 21st of September to the 1st of October, 2008, the African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) in conjunction with the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), Global Fund for Women and women's right's activists from Guinea, Swaziland and Zimbabwe undertook a mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The aims of the mission were to: Show solidarity with Congolese women's rights organisations, gender activists and feminists whilst encouraging them to build strong women's movementsObtain a 'first hand' perspective of women's rights challenges in the DRC and to structure programmes to effectively support women's rights work in the countryGain a clearer understanding of women's rights challenges particularly in the mining and resource extraction centre

Building and Contesting post-war Housing in Dakar

After the Second World War, European welfare planning was transposed to the African colonies. With regard to housing this meant a true turning point in urban policy. For the first time the colonial state massively invested in the housing of the African urban dwellers. However, the segregationist underground and elite‐focus of the housing schemes at the same time reinforced fundamental inequities in the African city, thereby furthering colonial goals. The promotion of African emancipation was thus accompanied by a strong ‘social engineering’. Yet, Africans were no passive victims of development schemes. In this paper we will take a close look at the housing schemes of the Société Immobilière du Cap Vert (SICAP) in Dakar (Senegal) between 1951 and 1960 (independence). Notwithstanding the significant housing shortages in Dakar, archival records show that a substantial amount of the SICAP houses remained vacant after completion. Apart from too high rents, the main reason was that the SICAP-houses seemed to be designed with the average West-European middle-class family in mind. As a consequence, most houses proved too small and little adjusted to the extended African family, which is well reflected in the many alterations the SICAP houses underwent right from their completion until today. Moreover, the SICAP housing schemes, and in particular their segregationist and elitist underground, caused strong African opposition. Many Africans opposed to the more than 80.000 forced evictions, known in the colonial jargon as ‘déguerpissements’, that were caused by the implementation of the schemes. The result was a fierce battle over land between the government and the inhabitants of Dakar. In particular the Lebou-population demanded adequate compensation for its land in case of expropriation, even if they did not possess any official land title, with equal rewards for Africans and Europeans. Due various forms of active and passive protest of the inhabitants the implementation of the SICAP housing schemes regularly came to a standstill and the government often found itself in ‘a complete impasse’. The study of these different forms of agency and resistance in Dakar is important as it shows that, although colonial rule was strict and compelling, it was possible to escape from it to some degree

THE FRENCH MUNICIPAL AND EUROPEAN ELECTIONS, 2014

© 2014, McDougall Trust, London. This article examines the 2014 French municipal and European elections, which were effectively mid-term contests for President François Hollande and the Socialist Party, held in the context of a poor economic situation and low levels of popularity for the president and his government. The municipal election was won by the main opposition party, the UMP, while the extreme right Front National emerged as the leading party in the European contest. The Socialists were heavily defeated in both elections. In the wake of these contests both the Socialists and the UMP are facing significant problems (leadership, strategy and voter confidence), while the FN has strengthened its position as a significant third force in party competition