The visual and material dimensions of legitimacy:Accounting and the search for Socie-ties

We are grateful to the Fondation Audencia for the financial support provided for our archival research.The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature on legitimacy by investigating its material and visual dimensions. By drawing on studies on rhetoric as a means of composing visions of social order and on an historical analysis of accounts in three paradigmatic eras (Roman times, Renaissance and Modernity), it shows how symmetry in accounts constituted an aesthetic code which tied members of a community together in ‘socie-ties’. We investigate the rhetorical process of ratiocinatio and explore how the visual and material dimensions of accounts provided social actors with an opportunity to explore their positions and ties within a community. This process augmented social actors’ understanding of their current relations by reducing them to a series of entries into an account, thus allowing them to reflect on what it meant to be a legitimate member of a society.PostprintPeer reviewe

Why do banks promise to pay par on demand?

We survey the theories of why banks promise to pay par on demand and examine evidence about the conditions under which banks have promised to pay the par value of deposits and banknotes on demand when holding only fractional reserves. The theoretical literature can be broadly divided into four strands: liquidity provision, asymmetric information, legal restrictions, and a medium of exchange. We assume that it is not zero cost to make a promise to redeem a liability at par value on demand. If so, then the conditions in the theories that result in par redemption are possible explanations of why banks promise to pay par on demand. If the explanation based on customers’ demand for liquidity is correct, payment of deposits at par will be promised when banks hold assets that are illiquid in the short run. If the asymmetric-information explanation based on the difficulty of valuing assets is correct, the marketability of banks’ assets determines whether banks promise to pay par. If the legal restrictions explanation of par redemption is correct, banks will not promise to pay par if they are not required to do so. If the transaction explanation is correct, banks will promise to pay par value only if the deposits are used in transactions. After the survey of the theoretical literature, we examine the history of banking in several countries in different eras: fourth-century Athens, medieval Italy, Japan, and free banking and money market mutual funds in the United States. We find that all of the theories can explain some of the observed banking arrangements, and none explain all of them

CIL IV, 9591 : un transport de bl\ue9 entre Ostie et Pomp\ue9i \u2013 II

CIL IV, 9591: A grain transport between Ostia and Pompeii. In a previous article (2016), we established the text of a seven-line inscription written on the wall of a small vase found at Pompeii, the container of a sample of grain. We outline here our comments. The grain originated from Africa and was bound for Ostia. To explain why it was redirected to Pompeii, we rely on the recently published inscription of the tomb of Alleius Nigidius Maius, which exemplifies the possibility of periods of shortage and high grain prices in Pompeii, in this case around the middle of the first century. We surmise that the same thing occurred after the 62 earthquake: the magister nauis arriving at Ostia was informed of a better price at Pompeii and decided to change the ship\u2019s destination. The inscription affords the only realistic price of maritime shipping in the Roman period. The article ends with a short commentary on the shipping costs and a study of the paleography of the inscription

Deterministic defect generation in selective laser melting: parametric optimization and control

International audienceSelective Laser Melting (SLM) is a powder based additive manufacturing process where parts are made layer-by-layer from a 3D file (STL). The complexity of a part is not a barrier in SLM, and thus the process opens new doors to design and elaborate intricate and complex shapes. This study focuses on the deterministic defect/pore generation SLM –i.e. leaving precisely unmelted powder zones in an SLM part on purpose. In order to get a high accuracy and part reproducibility, a thorough parametric optimization is required, especially for the laser contour scan, which determines both the roughness outside a part and the geometry inside a deterministic defect. Different sets of parameters must be used for the contour and hatch scans, in order to obtain a minimum porosity amount in the solid area while getting a minimal deformation around the pores. The deterministic pore generation gives new tools to characterize and develop new NDT techniques or simulate casting defects. Those pores could also be integrated in novel multifunctional materials, to implement damage detection (structural health monitoring) or to attain better thermal properties while still keeping good mechanical performances