Cherishing the Memory of Professor Daiyi

The Early Modernization of English Banking

XU Bin

From the mid-16th to the 17th century, English bankers emerged from the trades such as merchants, scriveners, goldsmiths and others. Although the origins of English banking lagged far behind those of the European continent, it began to be an up-and-coming trade by endowing bills of exchange with new functions and issuing credit papers based on customers’ deposits. Through financial network, the bankers utilized these innovative instruments in their investment activities. With the support of these innovations and parliamentary authority, the Bank of England monetized the government debit and provided a large scale of currency supply. During periods of currency scarcity, the early banking of England thus evolved the function of money creation, allowing the monetary system relatively well to adapt to economic changes. English banking, by virtue of these innovations and creations in currency, surpassed its European peers and took the lead in modernization.

Principles of Land Compensation in English Parliamentary Enclosure

NI Zhengchun

Britain was the first country to establish clear land property rights in theory and practice, and parliamentary enclosure in the 18th century was the main way to establish land property rights. The basis for land proprietors to obtain compensation was not the area of land they hold, nor the quantity of common rights, but the market value of land and common rights. The compensation of land rights could be completed through a series of specific procedures, reflecting the characteristics of openness and legalization. The results of land rights compensation indicated that parliamentary enclosure was not a violent deprivation of peasants’ land; its purpose was to confirm and compensate for the land rights of various proprietors, taking into account the interests and needs of various social classes, and reflecting the principles of fairness, openness and impartiality.

The Transformation of Prussian Rural Governance During the German Empire

YUE Wei

In the 18th century, the serfdom was prevalent in Prussia, where the state formed an alliance with the lords and restricted their excessive exploitation of serfs. In the first half of the 19th century, royal power extended to the grass-roots level, with lords surrendering some of their power. The Autonomy of Landgemeinde was recognized by law, but lords still retained privileges in areas such as county magistrate appointments and rural security, and Landgemeinde in the eastern and northern regions did not receive autonomy. After 1871, the Prussian royal government realized that rural governance must be adjusted with the emancipation of serfs, and formulated county and Landgemeinde regulations for the eastern and northern provinces. These regulations normalized rural autonomy and established the authority of the state by nationalizing the police, professionalizing county magistrates, and expanding the participation rights of the bourgeoisie and peasants, thus promoting the modern transformation of the rural governance system. After the implementation of the county and Landgemeinde regulations, large landowners represented by Junkers still had a significant advantage in rural governance.

The City of London and the Eurodollar Market After World WarⅡ

SONG Chen

In the late 1950s, the Eurodollar market centered around the City of London gradually formed. This was the world’s first offshore financial market after WWII. The dominant position of the City was due to the interaction of multiple factors, among which the special relationship of Anglo-American and the historical conditions of London were the foundation, and the changes in the international situation were important external factors. Through the efforts of the British authorities and London’s financial elites, the Eurodollar market centered around the City had a significant impact on international financial development, and also enabled the City to embark on the path of international transformation, revitalizing its position as an international financial center. The Eurodollar replaced the Sterling as the main international reserve currency of the City, consolidating and strengthening the hegemony of the US dollar, accelerating the process of Anglo-American financial integration, promoting the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and the liberalization of global financial.

The Sterling Crisis and the Origin of the Colombo Plan After WWII

WU Leman

In the early post-war period, the internal economic structure of the British Empire was not in line with the economic strategy of the United States, and the British economy plunged into a prolonged balance of payments deficit, leading to frequent pound crises. While seeking economic assistance from the United States, Britain took a series of steps within the Commonwealth to cope with the pound crisis. By developing colonial resources and implementing the “non-US Dollar plan”, colonial income was linked to balanced international payments, and the Commonwealth’s imports from the US dollar area were strictly controlled. The UK, along with Australia, Canada and other countries, provided long-term economic and technological assistance to Commonwealth countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia, followed by the United States and non-Commonwealth countries in the region. This was known as the Colombo Plan. Confidence in the pound began to recover from the early 1950s, and the international payments of the Commonwealth tended to be balanced.

The Cognition of Albert Einstein on the Palestinian Issue

ZHANG Tenghuan

As a Jew, Albert Einstein advocated for equal rights for Arabs and Jews on the Palestinian issue. Initially, he advocated for the establishment of a “dual ethnic state” jointly built by the two ethnic groups, and opposed partition. But after analyzing the survival crisis faced by the Jews in Palestine, he accepted the rationality of Jewish establishment of the State of Israel. After the founding of Israel, he proposed the establishment of a “Jewish moral ideal community” that conformed to the Jewish national tradition in Israel, calling for equal status for Arab people in the country. Einstein had a certain understanding of the Palestinian issue, and his ideas and plans were also in line with the legitimate rights and interests of Arabs and Jews. However, the irreconcilable nationalist contradictions between the two sides meant that such a proposition could not be realized.

“Gentry Domination” or “Institutional Constraints” --Revisited the Irrigation Dispute on Lian Lake in the Qing Dynasty

Lian Lake was once the most important reservoir in Danyang County of Zhenjiang, and was enclosed in the early Western Jin Dynasty. Because there was no source of Lian Lake, it rose in summer and dried up in winter, making it easy to become farmland. Therefore, unauthorized cultivation of lake fields had been ongoing in all ages. Since the Tang dynasty, Lian Lake had been trapped in a continuous cycle of “change the lake into farmland” and “restore the lake from farmland”. In the early Qing Dynasty, Lian Lake went through three rounds of “farmland” and “lake”. After the restoration of the lake in the 48th year of the Kangxi reign (1709), the phenomenon of “change the lake into farmland” that had been repeatedly banned for hundreds of years came to a compete end with the lake residents “share the lake tax”. Compared with “gentry domination”, “institutional constraints” could better explain the process and outcome of the irrigation dispute on Lian Lake in the Qing Dynasty. Under the principle of “maximizing the government interests”, the irrigation dispute was not only power struggles or resource competition, but also multi-party games around the issue of state revenue. “Change the lake into farmland” or “restore the lake from farmland” was all related to this. Undifferentiated institutional constraints not only sacrificed individual interests, but also helped weaken identity privileges and maintained the bottom line of fairness in daily politics. This may provide another perspective for understanding principles of regional social order in the Qing Dynasty.