1.LIU Xinli, “The Enlightened Despotism and Its Social Influence of Germany”.
In the middle of the 17th century, Germany entered a period of autocratic monarchy. Unlike Britain, France or other countries, the autocratic monarchy of Germany was not founded at the imperial level, but on the state as the unit development. Its characteristics were mainly reflected in the spiritual autocracy of the monarch with religious tolerance and the despotism of the monarch dynasty including decentralization. On the basis of this prerequisite, Germany entered the period of enlightened autocracy in the middle of the 18th century. Autocratic monarchs, represented by the king of Prussia and the monarch of Austria, were both hierarchical and autocratic, both seeking for the welfare of the common people and safeguarding the rights and interests of the nobility, which shook the hierarchy structure of the ruling and the ruled in the feudal society, shook the essence of the relationship between the church and the state in the medieval society, laid a foundation for the transformation of modern German society.
2.MENG Zhongjie, “The Road to the End of Parliamentary Democracy: On the Fall of the Great Coalition (1928-1930)”.
The Cabinet of Hermann Mueller (1928-1930) is the last great coalition in Weimar Germany. Although it was the government, in which majority of parties took in and which had longest life in all cabinets in the republic, it was filled with kinds of crises and had to be faced with the Great Depression of the World Economy unfortunately. The whirlwind of dilemmas inside and outside Germany led to the rise of radical nationalism, including Nazis. Eventually, the controversies over the proportion in the system of unemployment insurance broke the will of democratic cooperation in the politic activities and violated the regulation of parliamentary democracy as well as ended the Weimar Democracy itself.
3.ZHENG Yinda, CHEN Yang, HAN Xinyang, “The Agricultural Policy and the Women’s Policy in Nazi Germany”.
In the German social transformation of the Nazi regime, the implementation of agricultural policies and women’s policies was dramatic. The Nazi authorities engaged in “peasant worship” vigorously and established the “Reich Food Corporation” as a quasi-government institution that strongly intervened in the agricultural economy. The “National Entailed Farms Act” was enacted to maintain large-scale agriculture, and the “Fostering New German Peasantry Law” was promulgated in order to promote the activities of colonization on a large scale. The Nazi government also implemented a series of “market order” measures to ensure the effectiveness of elaborate control from the end of sales chain. However, these measures did not achieve the desired goals. In the area of Women’s policy, aimed at countering the rise of German women’s status and divorce rate simultaneously and reversing the decline of the birth rate in the Weimar Republic, the Nazi authorities launched the “Mobilizing Women Home” campaign, trying to create a “church, kitchen, and children” triune field as a special stage for women. For this purpose, a large number of “mother schools” had been set up throughout the country, young women had to receive household management education and the former “labor service” system had been enhanced. Also, these measures did not work.
4.XU Jialing and MAO Xinxin, “On the Conceptions of Urban Management in the Book of Eparch”.
The Book of Eparch (Επαρχικον Βιβλιον) is a collection of laws using for governing the market and guilds of Constantinople. Through the guild organization and the head of gild council, the City Eparch strictly enforce the law and control the scale and quality of production in commercial activities. The legal requirements for the qualifications of law enforcers and practitioners highlight the unique management philosophy. The control of the gold, silver, jewelry, money and silk industry reflects the strict control on the commercial activities of the upper class of society by the city authorities. To understand these legal regulations concerning the life and urban construction of urban ordinary residents, is the key to understand the long-term prosperity of Constantinople. Although economic activity in Constantinople was restricted by the texts of the Book of Eparch, production and market order were stable, which was rare in medieval Europe and even the world.
5.MENG Yunmei, “On the Formation of the Gentry in the Later Medieval England”.
The formation and development of the gentry were the reflection of the political and economic reform in later medieval England. Because of the Royal political reform and economic characteristic, the knight transformed to the gentry during the crisis time. The precondition of the transition was the decline of the Feudal military service and the stripping of the non-economic factors of the land. The key of the transition was the diversity of functions and the enthusiasm of the land investment. With the activity of the land market and the prosperity of the industry and commerce, the other stratum became gentry. The development and rising of the gentry promoted the course of the transition.
6.Zhang Limin, “Economic Activities of Tianjin Yangliuqing People in Xinjiang from 1875 to 1930”.
In 1875, Zuo Zongtang’s army marched into Xinjiang. Tianjin Yangliuqing people did business with the army, commonly known as "catching up with the camp". They developed from small merchants to itinerant trader or shopkeeper, their scope of business has expanded from articles of daily use to financial exchange, agriculture and animal husbandry, native produce and catering services and so on, and became the most powerful and influential business group in Xinjiang. From the late Qing Dynasty to 1930s, the operation scale of Tianjin merchant on the entire Xinjiang reached its peak. They deepened and expanded the economic and trade exchange between the inland and Xinjiang, and became a significant force in the economic development of Xinjiang. In the late 1930s, Tianjin merchants declined pf political unrests in Xinjiang.
7.LI Xuezhi, “The city of Shanghai and the Establishment of the Republic of China”.
After the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, the Southern Revolutionary Camp faced a major problem to establish a unified regime. Hubei and Shanghai each proposed a plan to establish a government of the Republic of China. The Shanghai Plan which embodied the nature and purpose of the Revolution of 1911, led the whole process of the establishment of the Republic of China and organization of the Nanjing Provisional Government. The outstanding features of the Shanghai Plan are the planning of the national government, and the procedure of establishing a temporary government by the representatives of each province before organizing the building of the government. The agreements on the important issues, such as the Five-Color flag of the Republic of China and the election of the interim president, were also made in Shanghai. The Republic of China was established with the flag flying in Nanjing, but the soul of the Republic of China was shaped in Shanghai.
8.BIAN Linan, “A Critical Examination of Western Studies of Chinese Business and Economic History”.
During the past forty years (1978-2018), Western scholars of Chinese business and economic history posed and answered the following questions: When and how did industrial capitalism originate in China? What form did it take and in what industries did it become manifest? How did it evolve? What strategies did companies adopt to expand their businesses? How did the expansion of industrial capitalism contribute to the development of modern financial institutions? When, how, and why did the state create and expand state-owned industries and enterprises? What impact did the War of Resistance (1937-1945) and the Chinese Revolution of 1949 have on business enterprises? This article analyzes and assesses Western scholars’ answer to these questions, points out the existence of major gaps, and points to the direction for further research.
