Full Cups, Full Coffers: Tax Strategies and Consumer Culture in the Early Modern German Cities

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the excise taxes (Ungeld) paid by town residents on the consumption of beer, wine, mead and brandy represented the single most important source of civic revenue for many German cities. In a crisis, these taxes could spike to 70–80% of civic income. This paper examines civic budgets and ‘behind-the-scenes’ deliberations in a sample of towns in southern Germany in order to illuminate how decisions affecting consumer taxes were made. Even during the sobriety movements of the Reformation and post-Reformation period, tax income from drinkers remained attractive to city leaders because the bulk of the excise tax burden could easily be shifted away from privileged members of society and placed on the population at large. At the same time, governments had to maintain a careful balance between what they needed in order to govern and what the consumer market could bear, for high taxes on drinks were also targeted in many popular revolts. This led to nimble politicking by those responsible for tax decisions. Drink taxes were introduced, raised, lowered and otherwise manipulated based not only on shifting fashions and tastes but also on the degree of economic stress faced by the community. Where civic rulers were successful in striking the right balance, the rewards were considerable. The income from drink sales was a major factor in how the cities of the Empire survived the wars and other crises of the early modern period without going into so much debt that they lost their independence.

Ancient History as a Means of Transforming Colonial India in the Late-Eighteenth and Early-Nineteenth Centuries

This article focuses on the studies and discourses of mostly British scholars of the early colonial period belonging to two schools of thought. It shows how the studies of both schools – European orientalism and utilitarianism – were intricately connected to the political development of the emerging British paramountcy over the South Asian sub-continent, as both were looking for means of establishing and/or strengthening colonial rule. Nevertheless, the debate was not just a continuation of discussions in Europe. Whereas the ideas of the European Enlightenment had some influence, the transformation of the Mughal Empire and especially the idea of a decline of Muslim rule offered ample opportunities for understanding the early history of India either as some sort of “Golden Age,” as the orientalists and their indigenous supporters did, or as something static and degenerate, as the utilitarians did, and from which the population of sub-continent had to be saved by colonial rule and colonial values. Fearing the spread of the ideas of the French Revolution, the first group of British scholars sought to persuade the native elites of South Asia to take the lessons of their past for the future development of their homeland. Just as the classicists back in Europe, these scholars were convinced that large-scale explanations of the past could also teach political and moral lessons for the present although it was important to deal with the distant past in an empirical manner. The utilitarians on the other hand believed that India had to be saved from its own depravity through the English language and Western values, which amounted to nothing less than the modern transformation of the true Classical Age.

Vertical mobility in the Swiss Alps. The alpine pass Schnidejoch and indications of early pastoralism.

Since 2003 a melting ice field on the Schnidejoch pass (2756 a.s.l) delivered several hundred objects from the Neolithic, the Bronze and Iron Age as well as from Roman and Early Medieval times. The oldest finds date to the beginning 5th millennium BC, the youngest ones date around 1000 AD. Most of the objects stem from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age and are of organic origin. A series of more than 70 radiocarbon dates confirms that the Schnidejoch pass, linking the Bernese Highlands with the River Rhone valley, was in use at least from 4800–4500 BC on. The accessibility of the pass was easy when the glaciers descending from the nearby Wildhorn mountain range (peak on 3248 a.s.l) were in a retreating phase. In contrary glacier advances closed the way to the pass. In 2010 a palaeoecological study of sediment cores researched nearby Lake Iffig (2065 m a.s.l.). The results show clear indications of early human impact in this alpine area. Linking archaeological finds from Schnidejoch pass and River Rhone valley with the palaeoecological data can be interpreted as early indications of alpine pastoralism and transhumance. The combined archaeological and paleoecolical research allows to explain vertical mobility in the Swiss Alps.

“Delendum est Imperium Ottomanorum“: War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and the End of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire’s status as a full member of the international community of civilized states, which was bound by the rules of international law, had been challenged again and again during the formative period of the international law in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. When the First World War began, it was the first global military conflict, in which these rules of international law were put to the test. In the case of the Ottoman Empire quite a few questions were not yet settled, not least because the country was still bound by unequal treaties and because it had never ratified the renewed Hague Rules of Land Warfare of 1907, which it had only signed under reservations. Against this background the contribution will therefore focus on the debate amongst legal scholars on violations of the laws of war (and humanity) in regard to the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

Una profesión insólita y lucrativa : la captatio testamenti

El presente trabajo se propone: 1. Determinar las distintas formas de testar que adoptó el derecho romano, a lo largo de su evolución histórica. 2. Caracterizar la captatio testamenti, una profesión insólita y lucrativa cuya existencia se constata ya en la Roma republicana, a través del testimonio de Plauto en el Miles gloriosus y que se difundió notablemente durante los primeros siglos del Imperio, en los que se convirtió en un medio de progreso social. 3. Analizar esta actividad desde diferentes perspectivas de acuerdo con los tipos humanos que participan en ella: los captatores testamentorum o heredipetae y los testatores. El corpus trabajado abarca a Plauto (Miles gloriosus), Horacio (Sátira 2,5), Séneca (De beneficiis y Epist. 95), Marcial (Epigramas), Petronio (Satiricón), Juvenal (Sátira 12), Plinio el Viejo (Hist. Natural), Plinio el Joven (Epist. 2, 20).

Producción en masa, economía monetaria y vitalidad comercial del Mediterráneo

Se argumenta que la arqueología y la historia monetaria reúnen entre sí el potencial para proyectar una imagen de la economía romana muy diferente a la que sugieren los estereotipos minimalistas. Se discuten las implicancias de esta argumentación para el período tardoantiguo en particular, rechazando el catastrofismo con el que Rostovtzeff concluía su célebre historia del temprano imperio. En el imperio tardío la fortaleza de los intereses privados se mantuvo tan firme como siempre, en una economía caracterizada por la integración de los negocios públicos y privados antes que por un supuesto conflicto o antagonismo entre ambos. El imperio de Oriente conservó estas tendencias en forma pura, con niveles sostenidos de comercio y circulación monetaria hasta las décadas centrales del siglo VII. En este trabajo se argumenta que pensar en términos de ciclos económicos sería para los historiadores más razonable que la patología convencional de la "declinación", "decadencia", etc. Este patrón es notablemente evidente en la historia económica bizantina, marcada por abruptas fluctuaciones entre los siglos V y XII.

Producción en masa, economía monetaria y vitalidad comercial del Mediterráneo

Se argumenta que la arqueología y la historia monetaria reúnen entre sí el potencial para proyectar una imagen de la economía romana muy diferente a la que sugieren los estereotipos minimalistas. Se discuten las implicancias de esta argumentación para el período tardoantiguo en particular, rechazando el catastrofismo con el que Rostovtzeff concluía su célebre historia del temprano imperio. En el imperio tardío la fortaleza de los intereses privados se mantuvo tan firme como siempre, en una economía caracterizada por la integración de los negocios públicos y privados antes que por un supuesto conflicto o antagonismo entre ambos. El imperio de Oriente conservó estas tendencias en forma pura, con niveles sostenidos de comercio y circulación monetaria hasta las décadas centrales del siglo VII. En este trabajo se argumenta que pensar en términos de ciclos económicos sería para los historiadores más razonable que la patología convencional de la "declinación", "decadencia", etc. Este patrón es notablemente evidente en la historia económica bizantina, marcada por abruptas fluctuaciones entre los siglos V y XII.

Producción en masa, economía monetaria y vitalidad comercial del Mediterráneo

Se argumenta que la arqueología y la historia monetaria reúnen entre sí el potencial para proyectar una imagen de la economía romana muy diferente a la que sugieren los estereotipos minimalistas. Se discuten las implicancias de esta argumentación para el período tardoantiguo en particular, rechazando el catastrofismo con el que Rostovtzeff concluía su célebre historia del temprano imperio. En el imperio tardío la fortaleza de los intereses privados se mantuvo tan firme como siempre, en una economía caracterizada por la integración de los negocios públicos y privados antes que por un supuesto conflicto o antagonismo entre ambos. El imperio de Oriente conservó estas tendencias en forma pura, con niveles sostenidos de comercio y circulación monetaria hasta las décadas centrales del siglo VII. En este trabajo se argumenta que pensar en términos de ciclos económicos sería para los historiadores más razonable que la patología convencional de la "declinación", "decadencia", etc. Este patrón es notablemente evidente en la historia económica bizantina, marcada por abruptas fluctuaciones entre los siglos V y XII.

Effects of conservation interventions on the archaeological Roman site of Merida (Spain). Advance of research.

Research on the assessment of the effects of conservation/restoration treatments on stone material has been significant in recent years, with focus on the early observation of decay caused by the application of these treatments. However, in the case of archaeological sites, research is still scarce and few studies on the subject have been published. Restoration, as everything else, has changed according to trends, mainly guided by the release of new products and technologies, an experimental field where scientific assessment of suitability, efficacy and durability pre-evaluations of treatments are not always conducted. Some efforts have been made to solve this problem in the architectural field, where functional needs and technical requirements force to set clear standards. Unfortunately, archaeological sites, unlike historic buildings, have specific features that preclude the extrapolation of these results. A critical review of the methodologies, products and restoration materials is necessary, coupled with deeper research on degradation mechanisms caused by these treatments in the mid- and long-term. The aim of this paper is to introduce the research on the above issues using Merida as a case study.

Empire de la Porte ottomane en Europe, en Asie et en Afrique avec les pays qui lui sont tributaires

dressé par les Frères Lotter.

The Turkish Empire in Europe, Asia, and Africa: dividid into all its governments, together with the other territories that are tributary to it, as also the dominions of ye Emperor of Marocco [sic] according to the newest and most exact observations

by H. Moll.

Estats de l'Empire du grand Seigneur des Turcs en Europe, en Asie, et en Afrique divisé en tous ses Beglerbeglicz ou Gouvernements; où sont aussi remarqués les Estats qui luy sont tributaires: dressé sur les plus nouvelles relations à l'usage de Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne

par son très humble et très obéisant Serviteur H. Iaillot.

Personal recollections and observations of General Nelson A. Miles, embracing a brief view of the Civil War; or, From New England to the Golden gate, and the story of his Indian campaigns, with comments on the exploration, development and progress of our great western empire;

A campaign against Apaches [1885-86] (Captain Maus' narrative): p. 450-471.