Wool Exports Research Articles

Identification and prevalence of ticks on Merino sheep in Lesotho.

For over a decade, export of wool accounted for 58.3% of agricultural exports from Lesotho. Even though the sheep subsector contributes significantly to the economy, its development is hampered by different constraints. One of the most important constraints of sheep production is poor animal health due to widespread diseases including those caused by ticks. This study aimed to identify tick species parasitizing sheep and to determine whether tick prevalence on sheep was influenced by agroecological zone, sheep age, and seasonality. Ticks were collected from 720 sheep in the four agroecological zones of Lesotho, namely lowlands, foothills, Senqu River Valley, and highlands, during December 2018-May 2019. Ticks were picked from their sites of attachment then taken to the laboratory for identification to species level. No ticks were found on the sheep examined from the highlands and, as a result, this agroecological zone was excluded from further analysis. The following five tick species, with their overall prevalence, were identified: Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi (38.0%), Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus (1.6%), Hyalomma rufipes (1.0%), Otobius megnini (1.0%), and Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (0.3%). Four of the species were hard ticks (Family Ixodidae). The only soft tick species found was O. megnini (Family Agarsidae). Tick prevalence was influenced by seasonality that varied across agroecological zones. Foothills and lowlands had highest tick prevalence in December and January, respectively, and lowest prevalence in February and May, respectively, whereas Senqu River Valley had highest tick prevalence in May and lowest in March. The age of the sheep did not significantly influence prevalence of tick infestation.

Models and Forecasts of the Export Potential of the Regional Economic System

Introduction. The export potential of the regional agricultural market causes great interest from both the scientific community and government agencies. Many scientific studies are devoted to the search for methods to increase the export potential in order to ensure the sustainable development of regional economic systems. The article proposes and tests the original author’s algorithm for creating a dynamic econometric model for forecasting the volumes of production, sales and exports of the main types of livestock products at the regional level. The purpose of the article is to assess the export potential of the main products of the regional agricultural market based on the built dynamic econometric models. Materials and Methods. The research is based on a set of empirical data of result and input variables characterizing the production, sales and export of the main livestock products in the region for the period 2010–2020. Research methods include dynamic analysis, econometric modeling and forecasting. The dynamic analysis carried out made it possible to assess the change in the production, sale and export of the main agricultural products in the region, to assess the current trends. Based on the constructed econometric models, the most significant factors influencing the resulting variables were identified, the specifications and verification of the models were carried out. The method of extrapolation of the identified trends made it possible to evaluate the predicted values of the resulting variables for the medium term. Results. Based on the selected input variables, models of production, sale and export of milk, wool and eggs by agricultural producers in the region were built. From a variety of alternative models, models with the best statistical quality characteristics were selected. The high level of quality of the obtained models made it possible to use them for predictive calculations of the levels of resulting variables for the period 2021–2026. Comparison of the results of the forecasts made it possible to identify the types of livestock products that already have a high level of exportability. In addition, types of products with a low level of exportability were identified, which have a high potential for increase. Discussion and Conclusion. As a result of using econometric modeling methods, dynamic models were obtained that made it possible to obtain a forecast for the development of livestock in a region with a high export potential in the near future. The practical significance of this article lies in the possibility of influencing the production, sale and export of livestock products in the region through a change in the corresponding set of factor variables of the models. Thus, the resulting dynamic models can be used both by agricultural producers for planning economic activities, and by regional authorities when drawing up regional development programs.

A Comparison between Russia-Qing Trade and Anglo-Chinese Trade in 1802–1860

During the first half of the nineteenth century, tea became an essential commodity in the Kyakhta trade, accounting for over 90 % of total imports. Russia increased tea imports to address its growing demand for tea. The country handled the increasing tea imports by simultaneously increasing the exports of fur, wool, and cotton. British trade with China in Guangzhou was for smuggled opium in exchange for tea. When the Qing dynasty attempted to eradicate opium trade, the UK waged two wars and legalised the opium trade. The UK’s illegal opium trade and military provocations had a significant impact on China’s politics, economy, and society, as well as a decisive impact on the decline of the Kyakhta trade. Opium, which was banned, became a monopoly product for the British, and Russia’s export products — except for silver — could not compete with opium. The UK’s illegal sale of opium increased China’s opium consumption. Consequently, this reduced the purchasing power of the Chinese, worsening the sales conditions of Russian export products. In the end, the opium trade led to a shortage of silver and an increase in the value of silver coins in China. Chinese merchants preferred silver or silver coins to other products when trading with Russia. As a result, the Russian government approved the exchange of silver, effectively ending barter trade throughout Kyakhta.

Wool Smuggling and the Royal Government in England, c.1337–63: Law Enforcement and the Moral Economy in the Late Middle Ages

The process of law enforcement helped to shape the state in the Middle Ages. This article uses an extensive array of court records to provide the first detailed account of royal efforts to police the illegal export of wool in mid-fourteenth century England, when the wool trade was subjected to unprecedented levels of taxation and discussed in moral, as well as fiscal, terms. It shows that these efforts remained heavily centralized in terms of both personnel and institutional form when many other areas of royal law enforcement were becoming increasingly devolved. The article then situates this centralized enforcement form within contemporary criticisms of royal taxation, the place of the royal courts in the wider legal geography of commercial regulation, and the localized dynamic underpinning many legal processes. It argues that the enforcement process was shaped and, indeed, blunted by a critical debate over the extent of royal power and its place within England’s “moral economy.” By situating the regulation of the wool trade in this series of regulatory and economic contexts at a particularly important moment in the development of the late medieval tax state, this article reveals wool smuggling to be a subject of wider significance to historians interested in the nature and—particularly—the limits of royal power and royal law in medieval England.

Giovanni Battista Giorgini: Designing the Future

This paper aims to highlight the history of Giovanni Battista Giorgini, “The Father of Italian Fashion”. Thanks to Giorgini, Italian Fashion becomes famous all over the world. Fashion journalist Elisa Vittoria Massai, one of the era’s most authoritative analysts of custom and economics and a guest at the 12 February 1951 Villa Torrigiani show, wrote: “By 1957, Italy was the leading European supplier of fabrics and clothing items to the U.S. Italy had surpassed both England and France. It is an absolute certainty that this would not have been possible had the Palazzo Pitti events, which were of incalculable promotional and advertising value, not been held with a seasonal cadence and had Giorgini’s professionalism as a commission agent and representative of the best-placed of the American stores not convinced competing agents and stores to jump in. The incredible success story, almost a fairy tale, of Italian fashion abroad comes clear in just a few numbers. Exports of wool and silk fabrics, for example, quintupled in six years; exports of knitwear products multiplied eightfold; knit outerwear alone about doubled. Womenswear sales jumped from a paltry 45 million lire in 1950 to one billion, 800 million in 1957. Leather footwear, from 208 million in 1950 to almost nineteen billion in 1957. Even Italian buttons rose in importance, with their two billion and change of 1957 over a value approaching zero in 1950.

Stability Analysis of Australia’s Wool Exports- A Markov Chain Model

The present study is an attempt to analyse growth, instability and direction of trade of wool exports from Australia. Compound Annual Growth Rate, Cuddy-Della Valle Index and Markov chain analysis are the tools used for analysing data from 2008 to 2017. The growth rate of export in terms of quantity is negative and very low (-0.59% per annum) and the growth rate of exports in terms of value is positive (3.99% per annum). The instability index is low (2.78%) for exports in quantity terms and is medium (18.10%) for exports in value terms. China is the most stable market for export of wool from Australia with retention probability of 80.08%. The other reliable importers are Republic of Korea and Czech Republic. The study suggested the need to diversify Australian wool market.

Australia’s Forgotten Copper Mining Boom: Understanding How South Australia Avoided Dutch Disease, 1843–1850

Great Britain established the new colony of South Australia (SA) in 1834, and migration from Britain to the colony began in 1836. After seven turbulent years, the discovery of two large deposits of copper at Kapunda (1843–4) and Burra (1844–5) renewed the colony’s economic prospects. Over the 1845–50 period, SA supplied roughly 9 per cent of the world’s copper production. Immigration to SA from Britain soared, with the colony’s population more than tripling between 1844 and 1851. We use the Beine–Coulombe–Vermeulen model of an economy with a booming resource sector to frame our empirical investigation of the boom’s effects on the export of other traded goods and worker living standards. Using newly developed SA wage and price series for this period, we find that immigration mitigated and offset some Dutch disease effects: there were just modest increases in SA living standards, increases in the export of wool and wheat, and a larger share in production for non‐traded goods. Finally, we conclude that the decision by Governor Grey to force broad ownership of the ‘monster’ Burra mine and the use of revenues from land sales to subsidise immigration helped SA avoid the corruption and rent‐seeking associated with other resource booms.

Las galeras mercantiles venecianas y el puerto de Valencia (1391-1534)

Cet article a analysé le fonctionnement de la navigation des galere da mercato vénitiennes le long d'un des. littoraux parcourus, la côte de Valence. Ce système connu comptait aux XIVe-XVIe siècles jusque sept routes et servit à approvisionner l'Occident en produit orientaux et aussi pour acheter des marchandises dans les points d'arrêt. Les premières ga­lères qui arrivèrent au port de Valence (celles de Flandres) sont de 1391, mais la période la plus active de l’escale est celle des années 1450-1534 avec la route d'Aigues Mortes et de Berberie. Précisement, l'analyse com­binée des sources fiscales et notariales permet de découvrir que le réseau de cette flotte s'articulait sur l'importation de tissus, métaux et épices, et l'ex­portation de laine, esclaves et draps, bien que la fonction du marché interne servit de base au change de billon contre les épices. Les transactions favori­saient le marché, produisaient d'abondants bénefices fiscaux, mais surtout, garantissaient la position de Valence comme centre de réception et redistri­bution commerciales pour le bassin occidental de la Méditerranée.

Mites and merchants: the crisis of English wool and textile trade revisited, c. 1275–1330†

AbstractOn the basis of 7,871 manorial accounts from 601 sheep‐rearing demesnes and 187 tithe receipts from 15 parishes, this article addresses the origins, scale, and impact of the wool and textile production crisis in England, c. 1275–1350. The article argues that recurrent outbreaks of scab disease depressed sheep population and wool production levels until the early 1330s. The disease, coupled with warfare and taxation, also had a decisive role in depressing the volumes of wool exports. Despite this fact, wool merchants were still conducting business with major wool producers, who desperately needed access to the capital to replenish their flocks.

Los hombres de negocios en la ciudad de Soria durante el siglo XVI

En una línea de investigación orientada a profundizar en el conocimiento de la estructura socioeconómica de las ciudades castellanas en el siglo XVI, el presente artículo se centra en la caracterización del grupo social dedicado a los negocios mercantiles y financieros en esta época en Soria, ciudad de tamaño medio y punto central de una extensa región donde se producía gran cantidad de lana de ganado trashumante destinada a la exportación. Se presta particular atención a la identificación de los mercaderes sorianos que participaron en empresas de exportación de lana a Italia, Francia y Flandes. Y luego se analizan otras vías de participación en el negocio mercantil lanero abiertas a estos mercaderes. Se demuestra que muchos de ellos fueron también propietarios de rebaños trashumantes, y que además se dedicaron a otras muy diversas actividades económicas, entre ellas la fabricación de paños. Finalmente, para situarlos mejor en la jerarquía sociopolítica de la Soria del momento, se aportan datos sobre su grado de riqueza y composición de sus patrimonios

Editorial

Editorial Margherita Zanasi As I begin my tenure as the editor of Twentieth-Century China (TCC), I have come to reflect on the important role that this journal has played in the development of the fields of Republican and People’s Republic of China (PRC) history. When the first incarnation of TCC, the Chinese Republican Studies Newsletter, appeared in October 1975, it was the first journal to specialize in what was at the time a small, emerging field. The Newsletter represented the efforts of a few pioneers in Republican studies to bring together the small community of scholars who shared their research interests (Herman Mast III served as the first editor, followed by Barry Keenan and David Strand). Reflecting the fast growth of this field, in 1983, the fourth editor, Keith Schoppa, turned the newsletter into a full-fledged journal and changed its title to Republican China. In this new format, the journal continued to grow not just in readership but also in the scope of its academic interests. In 1991, Steven Averill, who had taken over the editorship, changed the journal’s name to Twentieth-Century China, signaling its expansion into the history of the PRC, previously the almost exclusive realm of political scientists. Today, TCC remains committed to exploring the history of the entire span of the long twentieth century, across the 1911, the 1949, and the Mao/post-Mao divides. TCC has come a long way since its pioneering beginnings. Today, the journal I am honored to join is firmly established as a leading publication for Chinese history, thanks to the intelligent management of the editors who preceded me—including Christopher Reed (who took over from Averill), James Carter, and Kristin Stapleton—and the support of both its active and engaged editorial board and its affiliated association, the Historical Society for Twentieth-Century China. As the new editor, I look forward to continuing TCC’s tradition of providing high-quality articles to a lively international community of scholars. The five articles included in this issue share a similar interest in placing Chinese history within an international or transnational context. Peter Gibson and Simon Ville explore the role played in the development of Chinese industrialization by Australian exports of wool to China. They emphasize how, for China, cooperation with a late-developing economy was more beneficial than that with industrialized powers such as Britain and Japan, which aimed to turn China into a major market for their finished goods, in direct competition with domestic products. Australian imports of [End Page 263] high-quality raw wool, instead, were essential to the Chinese effort to mechanize its textile industry and thus complemented its import-substitution program. In her contribution to this issue, Soonyi Lee discusses Liang Qichao’s, Zhang Junmai’s, and Zhang Dongsun’s cultural conservatism. These intellectuals presented their conservative visions as a response to the moral decay generated by scientific positivism, which, they argued, was responsible for the horrors of the First World War. In this context, they revisited Confucianism, associating it with themes of Kantian morality. They thus assigned universal value to a Chinese philosophical tradition—contesting European philosophy’s exclusive claims to “universality”—and proposed it as a source of inspiration for reestablishing morality worldwide. Also exploring international connections, Marilyn Levine emphasizes the wide impact of Lenin’s political ideas and practices in the development of early Chinese Communist Party ideology. Levine follows the lives of two prominent Communist leaders, Cai Hesen and Zhao Shiyan, to understand how their upbringings and study-abroad experiences influenced their perceptions of Leninism. Despite marked differences in their personalities and leadership styles, Levine argues, they both came to support Leninism as the best solution for the betterment of the Chinese people. In the fourth article, Ying-kit Chan illustrates the complex relations among ideas of ethnicity, nationalism, and modern nation building during the Second Sino-Japanese War. As the Nationalist government established its wartime base in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the ethnic diversity of this frontier region—and the fact that it was subject to centrifugal trends inspired by Pan-Thai nationalism—challenged the Nationalist message of national unity. These circumstances engendered an intense debate among intellectuals and...

Determination and Characterization of the Wool Fiber Yield of Kenyan Sheep Breeds: An Economically Sustainable Practical Approach for Kenya

The aim of this paper is to study wool fiber resources from Kenya that have been obtained from different breeds in order to characterize the basic properties of their wool to help improve the economic value of Kenyan wool. The Kenyan sheep industry has received less attention in terms of research and development when compared with large livestock. Wool quality and yield are essential to obtaining good returns in the international market. This study was conducted to analyze the wool yields and qualitative index of Kenyan sheep. The wool samples were taken from 95 crossbreed Dorper sheep comprising 23 males and 72 females between the ages of one and five years. Wool samples from the shoulders, flanks, back belly and legs were taken for analysis. The mean fleece weight was 2.04 ± 0.06 kg, with coefficient of variation of 37% for all the selected sheep; the average for the males was 2.06 ± 0.06 kg and the average for females was 2.02 ± 0.08 kg. The variation in the fleece weight was in the range of 0.7–3.3 kg. The yield percentages and impurities were analyzed and reported. The wide variations in fleece weight, the increase in sheep population and the trend of raw wool export suggests that there is potential for improving economic traits. Kenya can obtain trade benefits related to the wool industry by becoming a member of International Wool Trade Organization and by following economically sustainable practical approaches. It is essential to have good international and regional cooperation with countries that can share knowledge and training as well as marketing and information.

Los diezmos del mar y el comercio marítimo internacional en las Cuatro Villas de la Costa de Mar en la Edad Moderna

From information provided by documents relative to the sea tithes and wool exports, we try to define the manner in which the commercial channels between Castile and foreign kingdoms were set up during the sixteenth century in the ports of the Cuatro Villas de la Costa de la Mar. These trade flows were shaped by several different factors: the influence of the Velasco family, who was the beneficiary of the rights to the incomes provided by the sea tithes for nearly a century, as well as the peculiarities of the kind of transport available between the ports of the Cantabrian coastline and Burgos. In this work, we also detail how exports and imports were distributed between the ports of Santander and Laredo.

Spinning wool into silver

The novel Aves sin nido (1889) by Clorinda Matto de Turner has been principally read as a dramatization of the clash between modern civilization and backwards traditionalism. This article reconsiders this interpretation by situating the novel in the context of the economic boom in wool exports in the southern highlands of Peru. Reading Aves sin nido as a “romance of capital investment,” the article proposes that the central conflict animating the novel is the encounter between a liberal utopian vision of capital investment—exemplified by silver mining—and the violent on-theground realities of the wool export economy at the periphery of nineteenth-century global capitalism.

The Changing Role of Medieval Women

In his Perspective “Women, fertility, and the rise of modern capitalism” (25 October 2013, p. [427][1]), A. Alesina correctly pointed to the importance of the Black Death, alongside new Protestant ideas, in transforming Late Medieval European economies. He and other economic historians have noted that the Black Death substantially reduced the population of rural producers, bringing better returns to labor by comparison with earlier periods. Alesina also argues that women's fertility decreased as their labor in the fields increased. Alesina did not mention the export industry or social unrest, both of which contributed to economic changes and the status of women during this time. In the 14th century, England was becoming a major exporter of high-quality wool products. Initially, the benefits from these exports were enjoyed by the elite. However, centralized control of production was inefficient, and there was little to motivate their obligated labor force ([ 1 ][2]). Raw wool export also was increasingly supplanted by more local cloth production ([ 2 ][3]). The changing wool economy drew more female producers into the labor force. Women took jobs in weaving, basic production, and the growing service economy. The social unrest that characterized this period also contributed to women's changing roles. Growing commerce brought new opportunities for women, not only as producers, but also as marketers. As E. P. Thompson pointed out ([ 3 ][4]), women were often the leaders in riots in the marketplaces because they were more involved in market transactions than men, they understood market conditions in detail, and they had much to gain from institutionally improved market conditions. 1. [↵][5] 1. R. Hilton , Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism: Essays in Medieval Social History (The Hambledon Press, London, 1985). 2. [↵][6] 1. R. Britnell , Britain and Ireland 1050–1530: Economy and Society (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2004). 3. [↵][7] 1. E. P. Thompson , Past Present 50, 115 (1971). [OpenUrl][8] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1246228 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-2 [4]: #ref-3 [5]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [6]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [7]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3 in text [8]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DPast%2BPresent%26rft.volume%253D50%26rft.spage%253D115%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx

¿Ante el primer diccionario monolingüe judeoespañol?

Portuguese Conversos, many of them descendants of the Castilian Jews that were expelled in 1492, played a very important role in the export trade of the Crown of Castile during the 17 th century. Among their multiple activities, the export of Castilian wool to France, the Low Countries and other European regions, was a prominent one. In this article the author contributes to the reconstruction of the first phase of the process of involvement of these merchants in this business, from the last decades of the 16 th century onwards, after the merchants of Burgos abandoned it. He adopts a limited geographical perspective, because he circumscribes his analysis to a single region, that of Soria and its surroundings.

Mallorcan merchants in the medieval Maghrib: mercantile strategies in the port of Hunayn in the mid-fourteenth century

By the end of the Middle Ages, the Maghrib had become one of the largest suppliers of wool in the western Mediterranean. Its produce was soon forwarded to the marketplaces of the Crown of Aragon, where it would be redistributed to the textile centres of southern Europe. The boarding of a massive shipment of wool belonging to almost 100 Mallorcan merchants in a North African port gives us an insight into the procedures applied by the League of Hunayn in its attempts to monopolize the wool export trade in the sultanate of Tlemcen. This is the first record of a mercantile operation carried out by this association and sheds light on the mechanisms at work in the supply and transport of goods to the port of Mallorca. This wide-ranging commercial activity, which renewed trade with the Maghrib after the War of the Straits, required the chartering of a large ship from Barcelona which was used to cover the Sicilian and overseas routes, skippered by Arnau Espaer and Romeu d'Olzinelles. The particular details of this commercial undertaking are enriched by the ship's accounting records.

Wool and cloth production in late medieval and earlyTudorEngland

Estimates of wool production based on the exports of wool and cloth, and an assumption that domestic cloth consumption was, optimistically, constant, suggest that wool production fell by almost a third from the early fourteenth to the mid‐fifteenth century, and had not fully recovered even by the mid‐sixteenth century. However, after theBlackDeath, much ofEngland's arable was converted to pasture, mainly for sheep, and this process accelerated after 1470. These two observations are contradictory. This article provides new numbers of adult sheep based on estimates of domestic cloth consumption, cloth exports, the changing weight of cloth, and fleece yields. The conclusion is that the adult sheep population only declined by around 13 per cent from 1310 to 1440, and had risen dramatically by the mid‐sixteenth century.

‘The countrey is too colde, the people beastly be’: Elizabethan Representations of Russia

England's ‘discovery’ of Russia in 1553 opened up a vast, new empire where the English could vent their wool exports, explore swifter routes to the luxuries of the East and forge their reputation as a seafaring and adventuring commonwealth. The English encounter with this ‘barbaric’ and unknown land on the peripheries of Europe resulted in a wide range of literary representations of Russia, found in diplomatic and mercantile documents, travel narratives, plays and poetry. This article surveys Elizabethan representations of Russia by presenting the historical context for Elizabethan Anglo-Russian relations and providing a review of recent scholarship on the subject. In the scholarship of early modern exploration, travel and trade, the English ‘discovery’ of Russia has often been sidelined by more ‘exotic’ Western European encounters with the new worlds of the Americas and the East, despite its important role in English adventuring activities.

N balance and cycling of Inner Mongolia typical steppe: a comprehensive case study of grazing effects

Increasing grazing pressure and climate change affect nitrogen (N) dynamics of grassland ecosystems in the Eurasian steppe belt with unclear consequences for future delivery of essential services such as forage production, C sequestration, and diversity conservation. The identification of key processes responsive to grazing is crucial to optimize grassland management. In this comprehensive case study of a Chinese typical steppe, we present an in‐depth analysis of grazing effects on N dynamics, including the balance of N gains and losses, and N cycling. N pools and fluxes were simultaneously quantified on three grassland sites of different long‐term grazing intensities.Dust deposition, wind erosion, and wet deposition were the predominant but most variable processes contributing to N losses and gains. Heavy grazing increased the risk of N losses by wind erosion. Hay‐making and sheep excrement export to folds during nighttime keeping were important pathways of N losses from grassland sites. Compared to these fluxes, gaseous N losses (N2O, NO, N2, and NH3) and N losses via export of sheep live mass and wool were of minor relevance. Our N balance calculation indicated mean annual net N losses of 0.9 ± 0.8 g N/m2 (mean ± SD) at the heavily grazed site, whereas the long‐term ungrazed site was an N sink receiving mean annual inputs of 1.8 ± 1.1 g N/m2, mainly due to dust deposition. Heavy grazing reduced pool sizes of topsoil organic N, above‐ and belowground biomass, and N fluxes with regard to plant N uptake, decomposition, gross microbial N turnover, and immobilization. Most N‐related processes were more intensive in seasons of higher water availability, indicating complex interactions between land use intensity and climate variability. The projected increase of atmospheric N depositions and changes in rainfall pattern imposed by land use change will likely affect N sink–source pathways and N flux dynamics, indicating high potential impact on grassland ecosystem functions. Land use practices will be increasingly important for the management of N dynamics in Chinese typical steppe and, therefore, must be considered as key component to maintain, restore or optimize ecosystem services.