International Trade Routes Research Articles

Properties Around Damascus in the Nineteenth Century

HE CITY of Damascus is surrounded by a perennially irrigated region known as the Giuta, watered by the Barada river and its branches. Historically the Guita has been well known for the abundance and variety of its fruits and vegetables, contributing to Damascus's reputation as a verdant paradise. The Guita's boundaries are well defined to the north, west and south by hills and mountains, but no natural barrier separates it from the Syrian desert to the east. Between the GuiCta and the desert is a transitional region called the Mar' ( ), irrigated by the Barada only part of the year, and known principally for its grain. Over the centuries the Guita and Mar' have been integral parts of Damascus's economy. Although the city's periods of greatest prosperity have been linked to its role in international and regional trade, the existence of the Giuta explains Damascus's historical continuity. This irrigated hinterland has been a guarantor of Damascus's survival even when trade became depressed or trade routes shifted away from it. The Gluta provided Damascus with a variety of foodstuffs, as well as raw materials for the city's artisanal production, for which Gu-ta villagers were a major market. At the very least, the raw and processed products of the G(uta ensured that Damascus would be an important market for its own central Syrian hinterland, and that Damascus would have a regional trade even when major international trade routes bypassed it. Therefore, the Gu-ta and adjoining regions (including the Mar', the Barada river valley and some smaller river valleys) have been significant in the economic history of Damascus. The rural

Growth in a dual economy — the Norwegian experience 1814–1914

Abstract For a majority of the advanced nations today, the key to economic growth has been the foreign sector. By entering the international trade routes and international markets, state after state has escaped the constraints of its traditional home economy. When home markets lacked infrastructure and buying power, and when the home economy was too undifferentiated to justify risk-taking in new technology, the world market, in contrast, gave each state the chance to utilize its comparative factor advantages, and specialize in areas where each had an advantage over its competitors. Moreover, with larger markets came the opportunity to realize economies of scale, since, in turn, risks became more tolerable.

天山北路の歴史的あり方

Dsungaria (T'ien-shan Pe-lu) played not a less great historical role than Kashgaria (T'ien-shan Nan-lu), from the view point of its being the main route of the communication, trade and cultural contact between eastern and western Asia. For that reason we can call the way running through this district the “Dsungarian Silk-road”. But the district, having the geographical condition as one steppe connecting directly with Mongolia and Kazakstan, has developped the history of the life chiefly nomadic since remote antiquity. This is the fundamental difference from the Kashgarian Silk-road which runs through the Tarim basin. The present paper treats the circumstances how agricultural spots were sporadically formed in the desert and steppe of Dsungaria and how they, as oases, becoming markets of nomads, formed an international trade route.

Foreign-Trade Zones of the United States

IN THE world pattern of international trade routes the United States has long occupied a chiefly terminal position. Until recently we apparently have not had the desire to alter that status quo. Endowed with power and resource materials, possessing an unparalleled capacity to produce and to consume, unchallenged by effective competition from other parts of the hemisphere, this country has shown little interest in importing or re-exporting merchandise on a grand scale. The pivot of global trade, the primary entrepot to which materials gravitate, has remained on the shores of Northwestern Europe. It now appears, however, that the United States may be seeking to compete more actively in re-export trade: within the past i5 years six foreign-trade zones have been established on or near the coast. In concept, a foreign-trade zone' is a device designed to stimulate the import and re-export trade of a country that maintains protective tariffs. Inasmuch as the bulk of international trade is oceanic, foreign-trade zones are almost invariably in seaports, though a few may be found in favorably located railroad or airline centers. The zone is an areally segregated and patrolled district where certain foreign goods may be stored temporarily without payment of customs fees and without customns inspection. Regulations of some zones permit manipulation (grading, sorting, mixing with domestic products, etc.) and exhibition of the warehoused merchandise; limited manufacturing privileges may also be granted. If the goods are eventually brought into the country, the usual domestic duties must be paid and customs inspection administered; if they are reshipped to a foreign land, they are exempt from both. Although the device of the foreign-trade zone has been utilized for nearly eight centuries, few nations possess the economic and geographic requisites for its establishment. Paramount is a national policy of substantial tariffs, without which a zone obviously would have no reason to exist. Of slightly less significance is location. A customs-free district should occupy an advantageous position on a major international trade route, and/or in proximity to a group of economically active sovereign states. Within the