Foreign Merchants Research Articles

عمارة الوکالة .... مابين أصالة الماضى والإحتياجات المعاصرة دراسة حالة: وکالة الجورى بالمحلة الکبرى Historical Agency Architecture ”Wekala .... between the Authenticity and Contemporary needs “A Case Study: Al-Gori Agency, Greater Mahala”

تعد عمارة الوکالة من أهم الإنجازات الحضارية التي حققتها العمارة الإسلامية حيث أنشئت الوکاله بالمدن العربية والاسلامية فى البداية بوصفها مبنى فندقيا لخدمة التجار الغرباء الوافدين فکانت بمثابة مبنى مجمع للخدمات والتجارة والسکن ويرصد البحث ويوثق نشأة المنشأت التجارية والوکالات في مصر وکذلک دورها داخل النسيج العمرانى کما يرصد تخطيط الوکالات وأهم العناصر المعمارية المکونة لها ومواد البناء وطرق الإنشاء حيث يتناول البحث بالدراسة واحدة من أقدم الوکالات وربما تعد المنشأه التجارية الوحيدة الباقية فى الوجه البحرى وهى وکالة الجورى بالمحلة الکبرى حيث يوضح البحث بعض الحقائق عن الوکالة والفروق والتصحيح لبعض الأخطاء الشائعة واللبث التاريخى فى تحديد هوية وتاريخ ومنشىء الوکالة ورصد الوضع الراهن لها والتعديات التي طرأت عليها و أنماط التدهور التى ظهرت عليها وکذلک مراحل وخطوات التدخل الغير مدروسة التي تمت عليها والتى ساهمت هى الأخرى بدورها فى فقدان العديد من العناصر الأصيله للوکالة ومن ثم يطرح البحث خطة مدروسة للتدخل والعلاج لإعادة ترميم الأجزاء المتهالکة وإستعادة صورتها التاريخية فى ضوء المواثيق العالمية ميثاق فينسيا1964 وإعادة تأهيلها داخل النسيج المحيط بها فى إطار مستدام بما يجعلها جزءا من التراث الحضاري والثقافي للمدينة . The old commercial agency is considered one of the most important civilizational achievements in Islamic architecture. It was established for the first time in Arab and Islamic cities as a hotel for foreign merchants, so it is considered a complex building for services, trade, and housing. The research records the development of the commercial agencies in Egypt, as well as their role within the urban. It also describes the agency “Wekala” components and the most important architectural elements as building materials and construction methods. The study records one of the oldest commercial agencies Wekalat Al-Gory” in Delta cities. It was considered the only remaining commercial historical building which is a unique model for the archaeological commercial in the Greater Mahala. The research records the historical background of Wekala and clarifies some facts and corrections of some common mistakes for historical broadcasts in identifying the agency, the date and origin of the agency, monitoring the current situation and the encroachments on it, and the random intervention process that were made on it, which contributed in losses of many original elements, and then the research attempts to present a suggested plan for intervention and treatment to restore and complete the missing parts and historical image in light of global conventions Venice Charter 1964 and rehabilitate it within the surrounded fabric as a part of the cultural heritage of the city.

“A mere business affair”?Women in the social and commercial worlds of nineteenth-century Madagascar

ABSTRACT The port of Mahajanga in northwestern Madagascar was home to a diverse commercial community during the nineteenth century. Merchants from East Africa, India and the Arabian Peninsula drew upon extensive contacts within Madagascar to obtain commodities they would then sell to Americans and Europeans. Women living in these coastal communities, however, rarely entered into Western accounts of long-distance exchanges, despite their roles as wives, traders and community members in creating the cosmopolitan economic world of Mahajanga. While not directly participating in commerce with Americans and Europeans, women engaged in agriculture and other economic activities, in addition to forming close relationships with foreigners. To offset the Western trading documentation that ignores female contributions, this article relies upon a detailed source, the diary of British merchant John Studdy Leigh, to place women more fully into this history of exchanges. By expanding our consideration of economic contributions, we can examine how women bridged the diverse economic communities in northwestern Madagascar through their marriages with foreign merchants as well as their work in supporting commerce.

ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE CITY OF PRIZREN XIII - XV CENTURY

Prizren during the c. XIII-XV was a developed economic center. This development was made possible thanks to several factors: Prizren was an important center of medieval roads for the region; In Prizren, the Ragusan consulate (1332) was opened as a requirement for the development of more successful business activities. Thus Prizren in the 13th-15th century was a city of traders and trade exchanges. Traders in defense of their own interests created their own associations, such as shoemakers in Prizren. Commercial products came from the most developed countries, such as Venice, Naples, Ragusa, Constantinople etc. Traders operating in Prizren, besides importing economic products, they also exported numerous products such as cereals, barley, fern, silk, honey, etc; As well as mining products such as: lead, zinc, and gold-plated silver, known as silver (galam). The sources speak for a large number of traders, as well as for large monetary circulation through the form of lending and debiting. Among many foreign merchants, there were also distinguished prizrenas merchants, who either come as debtors or creditors, where Bogdan Chirisma. In the 13th-15th centuries, besides trade developments, in Prizren and the surrounding area, agricultural and livestock activities have also been successfully developed. This development is evidenced by numerous sources such as: The Monastery of St Archangel 1348, which included 93 villages; Decan Monastery Charter 1335. From the development of agriculture, the sources speak of successful aspects of viticulture, grain, barley, flax. The sources also speak for beekeeping, silkworm, etc.

Compagnie iberiche a Milano nel secondo Quattrocento

L'étude de la présence des marchands étrangers dans l'Europe du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance doit considérer leurs liens avec le pouvoir politique: ainsi, quand on trouve mention à Milan de marchands du Roya­me d'Aragon, même si elles sont peu importantes, si on peut analyser l'appui politique dont ils ont joui. Quelques marchands de Majorque étaient à Milan durant le milieu du XIVe siècle, quand le roi d'Aragon était allié avec Milan et Venise contre Gênes, mais les Catalans, engagés dans les trafics maritimes, ne semblent pas s’être intéressés à l'intérieur de l'Italie du Nord jusqu’à la deuxième moitié du XVe siècle, quand la conquête du Royaume de Naples par Alfonso el Magnánimo permit la pénétration de plusieurs marchands-banquiers catalans. Certaines parmi les plus grandes firmes eurent des rapports d'affaires avec des maisons marchandes de Milan et envoyèrent aussi sur place des représentants. Elles étaient favori­sées en cela par l'alliance, renforcée par les liens de mariage, entre Ferdi­nando I et les Sforza ducs de Milan. Un exemple bien documenté est celui de la firme valencienne des héritiers de Martin Ruiz: les Ruiz obtinrent le privilegium civilitatis de Milan en 1486 par l'intervention de Simonot Bell-prat, qui avait été trésorier du roi de Naples et était en ce temps-là ambas­sadeur à Milan. Ils s'étaient enfuis de Valence parce qu'ils étaient conver­sos et s’établirent à Milan.

Introduction: German trade in the North Atlantic

Trade from 1400 onwards had an impact upon the North Atlantic region quite out of proportion to its volume. The opening of a ready market for dried fish, in particular, but also cloth, train oil and sulphur encouraged the production for export on a much larger scale than before. In return, a greater range of finished goods and raw materials was supplied by German merchants. Initially, trade was channelled through Bergen, but this system broke down, largely because English merchants sailed to Iceland. From the 1470s onwards, the number of German ships travelling to Iceland and Shetland increased. The Danish government struggled to control the trade in their North Atlantic territories, but first in the Faroes and later in Iceland, they sought to impose greater restrictions on foreign merchants. The Danes licensed ships to trade at certain ports and from 1601 attempted to restrict the trade to their own merchants. The introduction summarizes the history of German trade in the North Atlantic, and outlines its economic and cultural impacts.

"What Makes You Beautiful"--Analysis of Translation Strategies on Cosmetic Brands from Perspective of Marketing

As a result of the economic globalization, as meanwhile, the development of Chinese economy and the improvement of people’s living standards, skincare products have become necessity. A large amount of skincare products from all over the world poured into our market, which is the communicative tool among different languages as well as the key to the market, instructions of skin-care products has become more crucial, thus much attention is also attached to their translations. A powerful brand identity of a cosmetic product is critical, because it can determine whether the product can survive the competition or be knocked out. Foreign skincare merchants have cudgeled their brains for earning money here. Obviously, translation of the brands should be a priority. The study attempts to explore the translation strategies of European and American cosmetic brands through case study, which aims to help cosmetic products achieve successful marketing in Chinese market. As meanwhile, the translation strategies also be discussed the cosmetic products’ special efficacy and conclude principles of translating European and American cosmetic brands to realize successful marketing in China.

Art History, Boundary Crossing, Making Worlds

Art History, Boundary Crossing, Making Worlds

Российские путешественники о правовых отношениях в Джунгарском ханстве XVIII в.

The article analyzes notes of Russian travelers on legal development of the Dzungar Khanate in the early-to-mid 18th c. While South and Northeast Mongolia had been annexed to the Qing Empire, the Dzungar Khanate reached its golden age and began active policy of conquest subjugating the Kazakh Elder and Middle Hordes, Tashkent, Eastern Turkestan. Establishing a large state with nomadic and settled regions, the Dzungar Khanate became the last ‘Steppe Empire’ of Central Asia, and this was reflected in its legal policy. Scholars have analyzed different aspects of legal history of the Dzungar Khanate on the basis of surviving Oirat legal monuments, such as Ikh Tsaaz (‘The Great Code’) and edicts of Galdan Khan, as well as data contained in Chinese chronicles. But valuable information on Dzungar law is to be found in notes of Russian diplomats, intelligence officers and merchants who visited the Khanate during the considered period, observed and even participated in legal relations. The article provides an analysis of legal status of vassal states of the Dzungar Khanate: obligations of vassal rulers, supreme jurisdiction of Dzungar khans over the latter, combination of Turko-Mongol and Islamic laws applied to regulate their relations. Economic development of the Dzungar Khanate forced its rulers to regulate different directions of national economic activities including agriculture and industry, status of ‘foreign specialists’ (mostly captives and fugitives from Russia). Trade activities were reflected in special legislation on status of Dzungar and foreign merchants, protection of their interests even in the court. The Dzungar system of taxation was well regulated and included taxes in kind (cattle, armor, clothes, etc.), trade duties, tributes to be submitted by vassal states (in money and textiles), obligations to participate in military campaigns of Khans, support foreign diplomats, etc. There was an advanced system of punishments for crimes in the Khanate, especially if a subject of vassal state offended an ethnic Oirat. At that punishments of noblemen were, as a rule, less severe: they might be sentenced to exile or expropriation. But property crimes of Oirats against foreigners usually were examined by court for a long time and without results. Some notices on the family and succession law show the high status of Khans’ wives and priority of sons from legitimate wives before ones from concubines. So, one can state that notes of Russian travelers contain most valuable information on legal situation in the Dzungar Khanate and substantially differ from the above-mentioned legal monuments and Chinese chronicles. The analysis allows to draw a conclusion on a high level of law and legal relations in the Dzungar Khanate during the early-to-mid 18th c., and its active development (one could also say, ‘modernization’) was forcibly interrupted by the Qing conquest of the Oirat state.

Fragmenty tkaniny wełnianej odkrytej w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim, woj. łódzkie

In 2005, in Piotrkow Trybunalski, at 4 Pijarska Street, rescue excavations were conducted by Dr Janusz Pietrzak from the University of Łodź. During the archaeological works, remains of a woollen sack were found. Owing to the fact that both the textile and seeds were discovered in one layer, it is justifiable to assume that the sack was used to store loose materials. The discussed textile remains were found in the layer of an object dated to the period from the mid-16th o the early 17th century.In the 16th century, Piotrkow Trybunalski was one of the leading centres of broadcloth industry in the area of the Sieradz Voivodship. At that time, broadcloth production in Piotrkow Trybunalski was organized within a guild. In order to protect the selling markets, a ban was introduced in 1532 that prevented foreign merchants from selling cloth of worse quality than the one produced by local craftsmen. Actions intended to control the trade in the town were mainly targeted against rural producers. The analyzed textile could be described as of simple execution. The material for the production of the Piotrkow sack is sheep wool. The textile’s weave is tabby. Additionally, partly preserved brocading is found on two fragments of the textile. It cannot be excluded that the discussed textile remains are remains of a sack that was produced of a reused piece of garment, for instance, a coat.

La política de embargos y el contrabando de productos de lujo en Madrid (1635-1673). Sociedad cortesana y dependencia de los mercados internacionales

A partir del análisis de la documentación almacenada en el Archivo de Simancas relativa a los procesos por causa de contrabando practicados por la Monarquía Hispánica en aplicación de su activa política de embargos comerciales, se ha procedido a realizar un primer acercamiento sobre la comercialización de los productos de lujo en la Corte entre 1635 y 1673. Junto a una descripción del entramado administrativo y judicial, de los mecanismos de represión dedicados al control del comercio ilícito y de la tipología de los productos, procedencia geográfica y canales de distribución, hemos ofrecido algunas indicaciones sobre las principales vías de transgresión, la corrupción y los límites en la aplicación de los embargos. La utilización de los mercados hispanos como un arma de guerra no permitió el cierre hermético de la entrada de productos enemigos pero sirvió para obstaculizar seriamente la libre circulación de mercancías y para otorgar unas ventajas considerables a aquellos comerciantes que gozaban de la protección de la Corona. El artículo intenta también dar algunas indicaciones sobre la naturaleza de las leyes suntuarias concebidas, más que como medidas proteccionistas, como un mecanismo de restricción social destinado a otorgar a la aristocracia un acceso privilegiado al mercado de productos de lujo. Ostentación y consumo creciente de objetos suntuarios que, habida cuenta de la ausencia de un tejido productivo en la capital, fueron un componente más en el proceso de periferización de la economía castellana a la vez que reforzaron los lazos de dependencia con respecto a la comunidad de mercaderes extranjeros encargados igualmente de distribuir los excedentes agrarios de la nobleza y de facilitar créditos a la Corona.

Was Aquinas a ‘Universal Economist’?

Many scholars claim that Thomas Aquinas (1225–74), in line with his master Aristotle, held a negative view of international trade and foreign merchants. The third chapter of the second book of De Regimine Principum is often invoked in support of this view. While there is an ongoing controversy regarding the author of the book, scholars claim that Aquinas criticized the moral corruption brought by merchants in the cities. I argue that this reading is incomplete, and that Aquinas did not truly hold that view. Conversely, I will show how Aquinas gave importance to international trade as a means for promoting friendship and virtue between peoples. This paper explores the possibility of regarding Aquinas as a ‘Universal Economist’, one among a group of pre-Modern thinkers who conceived international commerce as a means of Divine Providence for promoting wealth and friendship among nations.

Legal Analysis & Opinion – Analysis of Potential to Onboard Foreign Merchants Pursuant to the Laws of Malaysia – Risks Reviewed in the Fintech Industry

Legal Analysis & Opinion – Analysis of Potential to Onboard Foreign Merchants Pursuant to the Laws of Malaysia – Risks Reviewed in the Fintech Industry

Odam – the quintessential sewn boat of India

The article opens with a preliminary introduction to the trade routes that existed in antiquity and the role of Indian trade as regards these routes. India could have played a passive role and allowed foreign merchants to handle her commerce. This did not happen as the sub-continent had the wherewithal to play an effective role. This article will concentrate on the ships that handled this trade. Mariners are more open to innovation than settled communities and there was a corpus of Indian Ocean maritime tradition built on mutual adaptation and absorption in which the Arabs and Chinese played a role. India’s achievements in astronomy and mathematics were reflected in some of the maritime devices that made seafaring a pragmatic enterprise with unacknowledged theoretical underpinnings. This is mirrored in the Lakshadweep odam, which undertook seafaring voyages until the 1970s. The odam was a sewn boat and its features will be delineated against a backdrop of the community that brought it into being.

Evolving trade undercurrents at the regional level: tides of India’s preferential trading in the Indian Ocean and beyond

The Indian Ocean region has seen an exchange of goods and commodities since antiquity. Long before the emergence of modern nation states and the Westphalian concept of sovereignty, Indian territory saw a regular arrival of foreign merchants and commodities. At the same time, there is a long history of Indian merchants and commodities exploring the expanses of Southeast Asia, West Asia, Southeast Africa and beyond. The Indian Ocean region comprises a number of emerging and developing economies and is considered a dynamic region in terms of trade prospects. A number of preferential trade agreements are doing the round in this region which not only present a prospect to revive the age-old trade linkages within the Indian Ocean region but also foster a promising model of South-South cooperation. Being a large economy, India has an important role to play within the region. Not only that, platforms such as RCEP present India an opportunity to participate in rule-making in the realms of international economic law. Such engagements become even more significant when rule-making at the global trade institution WTO is experiencing a phase of stagnation and while the world is witnessing a wave of protectionism, isolationism, and very recently, a trade war between two giant economies.

Liverpool Merchants in 19th-Century Niger Delta

Abstract How does religion or worldview affect business practices and ethics? This tradition of inquiry goes back, at least, to Max Weber who, in the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, explored the impact of theological suppositions on capitalist economic development. But the connection can also go the other way. So the focus of inquiry can become: How does business ethics or practices affect ethics in a given nation or corporation? This paper inquires into how the political and economic conditions created and sustained by nineteenth-century trading community in the Niger Delta influenced religious practices or ethics of Christian missionaries. This approach to mission study is necessary not only because we want to further understand the work of Christian missions and also to tease out the effect of business ethics on religious ethics, but also because Christian missionaries came to the Niger Delta in the nineteenth century behind foreign merchants.

“Heavy Shekels” in Late Bronze Age Syria

Abstract This article deals with problems related to the use of different weight systems in international relations during the Late Bronze Age. Three case-studies have been chosen: the compensation for the murder of foreign merchants in Ugarit (“the Karkemish shekel”); the reimbursement of a debt at Emar (“the big weight of the country of Subaru”); the tribute of the king of Ugarit to the king of Hatti (“the heavy Hittite shekel”).

Tourism and Foreign Language Training for Local Merchants and Guides in Penglipuran Tourism Village of Bangli Regency

Community service in form of practical tourism and foreign language training for local merchants and guides in Penglipuran tourist village, Bangli regency was aimed at improving the knowledge of Japanese tourism and vocabulary and English in accordance with the appropriate grammar. The targets in this training were local merchants and guides in Penglipuran village who had less knowledge about tourism and the proper usage of foreign language. Not only the training of tourism and practical foreign languages, local merchants and guides were also given knowledge about the characteristics of domestic and international tourists, as well as ways of serving the tourists in accordance with the agreed standards. The special target of this dedication was to find a social formula to solve the problems that occurred in the tourist village of Penglipuran. The fostering system implemented so far was less effective so that it led to a decline in knowledge about tourism and foreign languages for local merchants and guides who were the tourism actors expected to provide correct information to the tourists. If this was left unchecked, the number of tourist arrivals and local merchants and guides who had international standard capability would continue to decrease annually. The method of devotion used was the workshop and FGD so that the results of teaching could be understood by Penglipuran village management to continue to conduct trainings that educate local merchants and guides.

Foreign Merchants and the Parish. Local Commemoration as a Part of the Integration Process in Late Medieval Bruges?

This paper examines the individual religious and charitable endowments of foreign merchants with the parish in the mercantile city Bruges. Previous research often assumed the foreign merchants reli...

The South Russia in Vision of the Europeans: The British Consular Reports on the Years 1882 and 1883

This article is dedicated to the analysis of the commercial activity of European merchants in Odessa in 1882 and 1883 from the British perspective. Along with the authors' researches and statistical tables, this article includes reproductions from reports of British Consuls of the second half of the 19th century. More specifically, the study analyses the prerequisites, general principles, directions of development and results of this activity in connections with the trade policy of the Tsarist Empire are explained. It is proven that the foreign merchants have exercised substantial influence on the development of commercial shipping in the Black Sea. The attention is concentrated on describing the international trade and navigation by Consuls of Great Britain, who perceived the foreign traders as of their main competitors in the region.

Haiti and the Uses of America: Post–U.S. Occupation Promises by Chantalle F. Verna

Reviewed by: Haiti and the Uses of America: Post–U.S. Occupation Promises by Chantalle F. Verna Millery Polyné Haiti and the Uses of America: Post–U.S. Occupation Promises. by Chantalle F. Verna. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2017. 234 pp. ISBN 0813585163. $99.95 hardcover, $29.95 paper. In Chantalle F. Verna's meaningful new book Haiti and the Uses of America, she presents the critical question that many urban elite Haitians of the 1930s and 1940s considered: "What place, if any, was there for foreign and … U.S. involvement in Haitian affairs?" (23). Washington's presence in the republic, specifically during World War I and the interwar period, in the form of military violence, discriminatory practices, and financial intervention, was deliberate and substantial. However, to frame Haitian responses to foreign aggression as simply unyielding or rebellious, as some scholars have done, remains insufficient. According to Verna, inter-American policy and programming that was largely facilitated and funded by Washington produced a complex set of agendas among urban elites regarding US international interests. Additionally, Haitian intellectuals' and government officials' recognition of the state's role in the development of nineteenth-century Pan-Americanism opened up a space for elite reassessment of the meaning and impact of political and economic cooperation in the Americas. Haitian decision-makers and social reformers sought to nurture ties with powerful foreign individuals and institutions, particularly in North America, for varied reasons, including "campaigns to secure political power, initiatives to educate individuals on the island, attempts to bolster the local economy, or efforts to contribute to contemporary international debates" (22). These intellectual, sociocultural, and political collaborations proved strategic, in order to advance Haitian progress and/or individual benefit. They also reveal the tragedy of North American imperial dominance a century after the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). Verna is not necessarily interested in the genre or tools of tragedy per se, but one reads in her monograph how the liberal projects of inter-American cooperation gave early to mid-century development and democratic ambition a "romantic" history of thwarting coloniality and dependence and thus defining a more humane and prosperous future.1 The reality of nineteenth-century post-independence economic and political marginality and the US Occupation of Haiti (1915–1934) produced a Hegelian tragedy, an imperial "collision" of military coercion, rapacious speculation, and land acquisition. At the same time, this tragic encounter allowed for and "prompt[ed]" Haitian sociopolitical contemplation on how to better "engage politically" and test the limitations and weaknesses of "the collision between receding [End Page 150] and emergent worlds."2 Inadvertently Verna reveals the complex layers of tragedy, opening up a new reading of Haiti–US relations during the pivotal moment of the US Occupation and the transitional period in Haiti of the 1930s and 1940s, a time that that "infused tremendous hope and expectation" (xii). Although the book's primary focus is the post-Occupation period, its initial chapters take a wide historical view of Haitian attempts to establish political, cultural, and economic connections within the Americas during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Verna highlights the important hemispheric engagements, emerging ideologies, and transatlantic challenges—from antiblackness to territorial security—that prompted Haitian statesmen and revolutionaries like Solon Ménos, Haiti's foreign minister to the United States (1911–1918); Henri Christophe; and Alexandre Pétion to seek pragmatic alliances and "good relations" with regional and transatlantic neighbors (21, 24, 26). In an effort to protect Haitian sovereignty and procure important assets for individual elites, the establishment of regional networks—and ideally reciprocal connections—was vital. At the same time, the corrosive culture of coloniality and antiblackness, components of the tragedy, sharpened critiques of foreign intervention by noted Haitians. Hannibal Price, a nineteenth-century Haitian diplomat, asserted that Haitian progress had been "retarded and compromised by the … revolutions and disturbances ceaselessly stirred up by foreign merchants or by bankers" (qtd. 38). Verna assures the reader that the air of cooperation and attempts at infrastructural development that permeated elite inter-American discourse certainly encountered castigation by key Haitian figures who saw such efforts as overseas aggression. Haitian workers, intellectuals, and government officials, along with many Caribbean and Latin American...