The Neolithic of the Mediterranean

Agricultural intensification is a crucial indicator of land-use efficiency and structural transformation in agrarian economies. This study examines the trend and growth pattern of cropping intensity in Bargarh and Sambalpur districts over the period 1994-95 to 2019-20. The analysis is based on secondary data collected from official agricultural records. Cropping intensity was calculated using the ratio of gross cropped area to net sown area, and growth performance was evaluated using annual growth rates, compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and a semi-log regression model. The results reveal considerable inter-annual fluctuations in both districts, with Sambalpur exhibiting greater volatility compared to Bargarh. The semi-log regression analysis indicates a positive, statistically significant growth trend in cropping intensity in both districts. The estimated CAGR is 0.39 per cent for Bargarh and 1.05 per cent for Sambalpur, suggesting relatively stronger growth in Sambalpur during the study period. However, moderate R² values indicate that factors beyond time, such as irrigation expansion, climatic variability, and technological adoption, also influence cropping intensity. The study concludes that while agricultural intensification has progressed in both districts, stability and sustainability remain critical challenges. The findings emphasise the need for improved irrigation management, climate-resilient farming practices, and strengthened institutional support to ensure balanced and sustained agricultural development.

In the Caribbean region, the movements of peoples and their development during the different periods of settlement played a fundamental role from the beginning of the Holo- cene. It can be said that, little by little, they formed the natural and human aspect of these tropical regions and that they are at the base of their specific cultural evolution. From this point of view, the historical "créolisation" could be considered the actual phase of a phenomenon linked to insularity, the origins of which are very ancient, as they integrate an Amerindian heritage constituted in itself of ethnic and cultural mixes which archaeology is only just beginning to identify. The first peoples arriving in the islands are prehistoric, their livelihood depending on fishing, gathering and the making of stone and shell instruments. Neolithic societies then followed, their economy based on agriculture and the making of ceramics. From these societies emerged an entirely original people, admirably adapted to their insular environment, but, at the same time, maintaining relations with their continental neighbours. In order to present these founding events in chronological order, we will go back to a general outline proposed by the author in a previous article (1991), which was inspired by the works of Rouse and Cruxent (1963), Willey (1971), Meggers and Evans (1978) and Rouse and Alegria (1990). This comprises for the mo ment three chronological periods defined by socio-economic traditions: 1 - Archaic period (4000 ВС / 100 ВС) corresponding to the moment when the islands were occupied by nomadic fishermen-hunters and gatherers; 2 - Formative period (100 ВС / 300 AD) when the establishment of a complex hierarchy of settled cultivators first becomes apparent, as well as their interactions with groups belonging to the former prehistoric cultures; 3 - Caribbean period (300 AD / 1500 AD), which is the result of previous socio-economic interactions, culminating in the development of a new civilisation that intensifies its relations with the rest of America.

Interregional long-distance trade in silk certainly existed in ancient and medieval times, but the transcontinental and regular «Great Silk Road», whether overland or even maritime, is a myth, a phantom. Its existence is not confirmed either by written sources or by archaeological data. A concept of the Silk Road implies at least know­ledge of macro-routes and their final destination, as well as transcontinental connectivity. The latter, if it existed in antiquity and medieval times at all, was much more occasional than regular and intentional. As a rule, such trade involved many middlemen. The «Silk Road» and the trade in silk, even a trans-regional one, are quite different notions. The transcontinental overland trade existed in but a few short-lived historical periods; it was neither confined to silk nor was it even a road. The «silk roads» were only one of many long-distance continental and transcontinental trading itineraries that existed in the Old World in premodern times. It is also important to remember that transcontinental trade was limited only to high-value, low-volume goods. The exotic appeal of long-distance trade in luxuries combined with a striving for political correctness often results in distorted and exaggerated opinions on premodern commerce in general. Not only silk and other luxury and prestige goods, but also people, religions, languages, scientific knowledge, inventions, innovations, new technologies, know-how, chemicals, minerals, metals, plants, medicine, cultural transmissions and artistic styles and fashions, cuisine, and musical instruments moved along its numerous itineraries, but on the negative side, epidemic diseases and epizootics were also disseminated across Eurasia along with them. Finally, it is worth stressing again that the long-distance Eurasian trade not only directly or indirectly stimulated movements of people and created ethnic diasporas. Frequently it was just members of these diasporas who brought new knowledge and technological knowhow and contributed to their practical applications in the new milieus. That was the main achievement of Eurasian trade, with no continuity between the trade in silk in the ancient and medieval times.

As far as our economic growth is concerned, we are growing rapidly .This statement is easily supported by GDP growth. Is this the growth of our whole economy? Ours is an agrarian economy and if people living in those rural areas are not being taken into account properly, then, it will be wrong to say that we are growing rapidly. A major portion of India lives in villages and that area is being excluded by the financial service providers. This article talks about the potential areas i.e. states regarding financial inclusion. This article tries to look into the problems faced by the bankers while opening up a branch in rural areas and problems the faced by customers. Ultimately, financial service providers have to foray into that field. This article gives an insight regarding financial inclusion. An attempt is being made by RBI , they have given some policies in which it is written clearly that Financial inclusion should be there. But it will be worth while to see the supply barriers in this field. The paper talks about those aspects too. This article discusses the issues raised in Andhra Pradesh recently, which should already be avoided by financial service providers. After all, the efforts of financial service providers should be more target oriented and packed with some strategy regarding financial inclusion and this paper just focuses upon some strategies. A survey of a rural area in Bareilly district was made to know the concerns of rural people regarding financial services. This paper is an attempt to peep into the different facets of financial inclusion but it will become effective only then, when policymakers show their required concern over it.

Reviewed by: Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese in Maritime Asia, c. 1585–1800: Merchants, Commodities and Commerce by George Bryan Souza Claudia Rei George Bryan Souza. Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese in Maritime Asia, c. 1585–1800: Merchants, Commodities and Commerce. Farnham, Surrey, UK and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2014. xx + 326 pp. ISBN 978-1-4724-1700-8, $165.00 (cloth). By the closing of the sixteenth century, the arrival of Europeans in the East opened a new and long-lasting stage of trade between Europe and Asia. Portuguese, English, Dutch, French, Danes, and Swedes all established companies to carry out long-distance trade with Asia through the Cape of Good Hope. Whether affiliated with companies or not, Western traders also engaged in trade connections between different ports in Asia, an activity formerly dominated by Chinese merchants. Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese in Maritime Asia, c. 1585–1800 offers thirteen essays focusing on the roles of Western and Eastern merchants in the changing nature of Asian markets and the development of trade in new commodities. All but one of the essays [End Page 735] have been published or presented at conferences between 1984 and 2009, so the book summarizes Souza’s extensive work in this particular field. Chapter 1 presents the Asian market conditions before the arrival of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the early 1600s. The Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511 and their trade center in Macau disturbed China’s sphere of influence in the Far Eastern trade. The establishment of the Dutch in Batavia, the decline of Portugal’s empire, and the change of China’s dynasties from Ming to Ch’ing further modified trade patterns in Asia and changed the status quo in existence before European involvement. The remainder of the book is divided into chapters that focus on merchants (Chapters 2 to 8) and those that focus on commodities (Chapters 9 to 13), allowing for a more encompassing perspective of Asian trade than the usual European- or Asian-centered analysis. Chapters 2 through 6 analyze the variety of Portuguese roles in Asian commerce. Beyond royal traders and administrators, Portuguese private merchants also participated in country trade, and the crown relied on their success for the continuous supply of goods to bring to Europe (Chapter 2). Although these traders were independent from the royally owned organization, they often helped to finance the defense of colonial cities, such as Cochin and Macau, to protect their own commercial and municipal interests (Chapter 3). The decline of Portugal’s empire after 1600 did not necessarily translate into the decline of Portuguese country trade in the Far East, as demonstrated by the maritime losses of private vessels until 1754 (Chapter 4). Portugal’s presence in the East endured well beyond its golden age; so did royal administrators. Souza reflects on the life of one such administrator from 1681 to 1715, highlighting the impact of an individual’s ancestry, military career progress, and business-oriented behavior on the inner workings of the empire (Chapter 5). The introduction of American tobacco in Asia brought a modest revival of Portugal’s empire and a new institutional setting with commissioned agents—as well as the Jesuits—operating as managers of the crown’s commercial interests (Chapter 6). The Dutch brought a new impulse to Eastern trade, both inter- and intra-continental. The Dutch East India Company’s (VOC’s) purchase and sale of products from multiple origins across 109 Asian ports denote a policy of price stabilization in the commodities brought to Europe, where demand was steady but elastic (Chapter 7). The involvement of the VOC in the opium trade, together with Chinese, Muslim, and indigenous traders, played an expressive role in the development of business practices (such as the use of grantors and credit purchases) in a market where the Chinese traditionally dominated (Chapter 8). [End Page 736] Chapters 9 through 13 concentrate on the role of particular commodities in the expansion of Asian trade. Chinese zinc and sugar served as the main ballast goods in the 1600s and 1700s; these products were traded in India and Batavia for pepper or cinnamon, which would be partially sold in Manila for American silver, thus illustrating...

Promoting the sustainable development of virtual water trade is of great significance to safeguarding China’s water resource security and balanced regional economic growth. This study analyzes the virtual water trade network among 31 Chinese provinces based on multi-regional input–output tables from 2012, 2015, and 2017, using total trade decomposition, social network analysis, and exponential random graph models. The key findings are as follows: (1) The total virtual water trade volume remains stable, with Xinjiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong as the core regions, while remote areas such as Shaanxi and Gansu have lower trade volumes. The primary industry dominates, and it is driven by simple value chains. (2) Provinces such as Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, and Jiangsu form the network’s core. Network density and symmetry increased from 2012 to 2015 but declined slightly in 2017, with efficiency peaking and then dropping, and the clustering coefficient decreased annually. Four economic sectors exhibit distinct interactions: frequent two-way flows in Sector 1, significant inflows in Sector 2, prominent net spillovers in Sector 3, and key brokers in Sector 4. (3) The network evolved from a core-periphery structure with weak ties to a stable, heterogeneous, and resilient system. (4) Influencing factors, such asper capita water resources, economic development, and population, significantly impact trade. Similarities in economic levels, population, and water endowments promote trade, while spatial distance has a limited effect, with geographic proximity showing a significant negative impact on long-distance trade.

This chapter gives insights into the development of small-scale long-distance trade between post-Soviet countries, the Caucasus, and China. It starts with a description of the activity of the so-called chelnoki (челноки) (suitcase-traders, or trade tourists), who pioneered the market economy and international trade in Eurasia in the early 1990s. The chelnoki and their situation are then compared with the new generation of traders, who are referred to as biznesmeny (бизнесмены‚ biznesmeni). The term biznesmen encompasses a whole spectrum of entrepreneurs, including some very poor and some very rich , who started to do business in the post-Soviet sphere. The chhapter’s focus is on bazaar traders dealing in Chinese merchandise, some of whom travel to Beijing regularly. After having portrayed the evolution of bazaar trade since the 1990s, the author turns to the current situation and describes a business trip of contemporary bazaar traders to Yabaolu Market in Beijing in China. The case study describes the Chinese marketplace and reflects the perspectives of four individuals, three Georgians and a Russian, three men and one woman. Three of them started their businesses in the 1990s, one of whom belongs to the younger generation. Analyzing the data, the author comes to several conclusions that concern the practices, motivations, and networks of Georgian traders: (a) traders’ motivations are linked to family and kinship obligations, and profits are usually put into housing; but (b) these traders usually base their business on contacts other than those linked to kin networks. These other relationships develop while doing business—on the one hand between other travellers and fellow post-Soviet traders within and outside the own ethnic group, on the other, between post-Soviet and Chinese businesspeople. These relationships, even though they are conceptualized in local terminologies, have a very specific content and context. Long-distance trade creates a reality, a “culture” of its own, which encompasses complex social contexts, relations and interactions, codes of conduct, and moral judgments—and an ideology that partially contradicts local sociocultural paradigms and formal institutional frameworks.KeywordsHistory of shuttle tradeSuitcase traders Chelnoki Businesmeny Yabaolu MarketKinshipBrotherhoodFriendship

The sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries witnessed European-Asian encounters and the establishment of long-distance maritime trade routes crossing the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, which ultimately led to the rapid expansion of the world market for Chinese commodities and the continual flow of American and Japanese silver into the Ming empire. The development of lucrative maritime trade significantly contributed to the prosperity of Southern Fujian on China’s coast, especially in the port city of Zhangzhou. Using material evidence, this article explores the artistic and technological exchange between the kilns in Zhangzhou and Jingdezhen, two prominent production centres of export porcelain during the late Ming Era (1573–1644). It suggests that the rapid economic development in Zhangzhou guaranteed success and employment opportunities, which attracted skilled Jingdezhen artisans with promising advanced techniques to migrate to the region, leading to the innovations and remarkable technological advancement of Zhangzhou kilns during the early seventeenth century.

This paper surveys production and commerce in Mesopotamia in the Iron Age, i.e., in the first millennium BC, on the basis of the rich textual data from Assyria and Babylonia. In this period the Mesopotamian economy underwent several transformations that - while maintaining the basic patterns of an agrarian economy sustaining a pre-industrial society - changed its character in important ways. The states/empires, whose reach exceeded substantially that of their Bronze-Age predecessors both quantitatively and qualitatively, interfered increasingly in agrarian production by heavily investing in the infrastructure, thereby increasing the economic output and, concomitantly, the taxable surplus. Especially in Babylonia one observes a tendency towards the specialized production of cashcrops for the market: an additional stimulus for economic growth not only on the extensive, but also on the intensive margin. Economic growth and increasingly complex consumption patterns among the elites furthered artisanal production. Commerce depended on the increasing monetization of exchange. Long-distance trade always saw an important element of state interference through the involvement of royal merchants, but local and interregional trade in staples and in artisanal products was overwhelmingly in private hands. Overall, however, the agency of the state was crucial for economic stability and growth also in this sector of the economy: the state created not only much of the demand for finished products, but also a framework of legal and economic institutions that answered the needs of an increasingly complex system of economic exchange. In conclusion it is argued here that the approach of the Northian school of New Institutional Economic History is particularly well-suited for describing the patterns of economic change in the period under discussion.

This chapter examines economic structures and activities that helped spread the use of Latin, and of literacy, across the Roman West. Latin was spread to the provinces by the movement of people—settlers and colonists; the army; some kinds of mobile craftsmen (principally miners and potters); traders; and slaves—and also by the movement of documents, inscribed objects, and the practice of inscribing things in Latin. Slaves, if they were not brought up speaking Latin, had to learn it to survive. Traders learned it for commercial advantage, in preference to using interpreters. The evidence for professional interpreters is largely limited to military contexts or to the imperial court. Language learning lowered transaction costs when trading across different linguistic spheres—which long-distance trade in the Empire was bound to do. Craftsmen migrating from core provinces towards the periphery in search of economic opportunity brought their Latin with them. These processes occurred alongside, and sometimes independently of, any impetus from the army or the administrative apparatus of the state to use or learn Latin. But the spread of Latin, and literacy, arguably also helped the growth of the Roman economy: the development of a lingua franca lowered transaction costs in all areas of commerce and trade, while a larger-scale and more complex economy functioned better with written records, and with the investment in human capital that even basic education represented.

This article seeks to make a contribution to comparative history at the level of interpretative concepts. The argument is that the concept of provides a lens that is useful for the examination of Japanese history, even as the application of the concept to Japanese material discloses questions that might usefully be pursued by historians of communalism in Europe. In its original historiographical setting (Upper Germany in the late medieval and early modern periods), the concept was put forward as a way of describing how rural and urban communities developed a corporate character and were thus able to take over functions on the local level, such as the making of ordinances, the administration of justice, and preservation of the peace. For purposes of comparison with Upper Germany, this essay focusses on Central Japan. One similarity between the two regions may be seen in the way villages were formed. Both in Europe during the High Middle Ages and in Japan during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, changes in the agrarian economy and in rural settlement patterns provided the background for the appearance of village communities. In both areas the fixed peasant household was a foundation stone of the emerging village. While the concept of communalism stresses the importance for Upper Germany of the village assembly of householders, together with the village council and village court, research on Japanese villages has emphasized the importance of cultic associations and the functional division of villagers into age-group associations. Despite such internal divisions, village government in Japan also had a basis in the community as a whole. As in Upper Germany, a vigorous communal organization developed in medieval Japanese villages. It was the community that controlled the functions, so important to the proponents of the communalism thesis, as well as certain economic and religious functions. The corporate activity of Central Japanese villages was, in fact, even more impressive than their Upper German counterparts, for in Japan the village could also function-unlike in Germany-as a community of fighting men defending their collective interests with military means. The strong position of Japanese villages was due not least to the upper stratum of village society, which during the wars of the sixteenth century separated itself more and more from ordinary villagers and approximated the status of the warrior estate (samurai). These rural warriors also formed regional associations that transcended village boundaries. In Japan there were no parliaments or representative assemblies at the territorial level, as in Europe and especially in Upper Germany, where village communities often had a voice in such bodies. By contrast, villages in Central Japan formed the basis for regional federations entered into by the warrior upper stratum of village society and the local nobility. These associations represented, in sixteenth-century Japan, a counterpart to the state building efforts of territorial princes. In sum, the village communities of Central Japan and of Upper Germany have a number of features in common that seem adequately to be described by the concept of communalism. By the same token, the distinctive characteristics of village life in Japan-the segmentation into age groupings, the military enterprises of the villages, and a militarized upper stratum building networks across village lines-raise questions that deserve further examination by historians of village communities in Europe.

Migration, socioeconomic transformation, and land-use change in Mexico’s Mixteca Alta: Lessons for forest transition theory

This paper is concerned with the development of the silk trade and in particular with silk-ikat production. Early origins are explained and issues relating to the development of long-distance trade are discussed. The principal trading participants are identified and the focus is turned to silk-ikat production in Central Asia. It is recognised that the vast bulk of trade, along what became known as the 'Silk Route' (or 'Silk Road'), did not involve straight-forward or direct exchange between powers to the far east of the route and powers to the far west, but rather was done in stages between adjacent or not too distant locations. Diffusion of ideas was not therefore immediate and operational at one eastern or western extreme of a trading network but, rather, was a gradual process influencing adjacent participants, at stages between the geographic extremes over a long period of time.

Enlargement of the EU in 2004 from 15 to 25 countries was a significant moment in European history. The process of bringing countries and peoples together is likely to continue forming a larger EU and Greater Europe. The formation of Europe over many millennia has created diverse ethnic groups, cultures and languages. The genetic and cultural origins are briefly described. European values developed under Judea-Christian influences. The EU is not intended to homogenize this human biodiversity but to provide unity without uniformity. The paper focuses upon agriculture as a historic formative influence and argues that its future role must embrace rural and environmental quality of life issues as well as food. The model of intensification and scale in agriculture developed in the 20th century in Western Europe under government policies has brought an abundance of cheap food and also massive demographic movements of people from rural to urban locations. The paper argues that this model should not be adopted for the enlarged EU and Greater Europe because of the inevitable consequence of further migrations of up to 73 million people from the land, creating enormous new socio-economic problems. The paper calls for animal and agricultural scientists to develop, with other disciplines, a new model for European agriculture which will not divide rural from urban society and will enable the former to share prosperity and quality of life with the latter. New values of community and recognition of social capital are needed if this endeavour is to succeed.

The 6th century BCE marked a formative phase in Indian economic and political history, widely recognized as the age of the Mahajanapadas. Among the sixteen great states, Anga, with its capital at Champa (modern Bhagalpur, Bihar), emerged as a significant center of political power and commerce. Its strategic location on the banks of the Ganga River and near the Bay of Bengal enabled it to act as a gateway for India’s early maritime and inland trade networks. Anga’s geographic advantage facilitated the movement of goods, people, and ideas, linking local economies with distant South-East Asian regions. The state exported a variety of commodities, including agricultural produce, metals, forest products, spices, and textiles, while importing goods that were scarce or culturally significant. Champa, the economic hub, attracted local artisans, traders, and foreign merchants, fostering urban growth and craft specialization.1