Factual and Value Judgments in Historiography

YI Jianping

From the viewpoint of research purpose and method, there is no essential difference between “as it should be” state of historiography and other sciences such as physics. However, from the perspective of “as it actually be”, historiography, which should have been a science, has been seriously disrupted by value judgments since ancient times, making it “non-scientific” or “semi-scientific”. The direct objects of historical research are historical events, especially their protagonists. Therefore, historians are required to completely exclude value judgments in all processes of factual judgements, which is unrealistic and unnecessary– not all value judgments will interfere with factual judgments. How to make historians boldly make all value judgments without harming historical scientific research? The best way is to make value judgments by clearly realizing that he is just an ordinary person, not a historian. The historian should make a conscious distinction between the two activities of “seeking truth” and “seeking goodness”, as well as the two identities of “historian” and “ordinary person”, so as not to let the latter two interfere with the former two as much as possible.

 

Some Counterexamples of the Frankish Church on Manumission in the Early Middle Ages

LI Yunfei and ZHANG Jiamin

Slavery had evidently declined in Europe during the 10th and the 11th century. Many scholars attributed this decline to the efforts of the Church, especially in advocating for manumission. This viewpoint was influenced by the Abolitionist Movement of the 19th century, and was mostly based on the abundant advocacy of manumission in literature. The surviving medieval litigation texts regarding individual freedom, shed light on the claims made by those whose identity was in doubt and the ecclesiastical attitudes towards it. However, these texts have not yet received attention from the academic community. The twenty-six cases of the Frankish kingdom in the early Medieval Ages show that, although the Church actively advocated for the manumission of secular slave owners, it attempted to suppress its subordinate laborers with questionable identities who sought their freedom under ecclesiastical control, and even relegated some of them to the status of slaves. Therefore, the Church was not an active advocator of the manumission of slaves, but rather an obstacle when its own interests were at stake.

 

The Emergence and Improvement of Landscape Property Rights System in England

WANG Yuantian

In England, private ownership of land was established in the 17th century, and land rights had continued to be established in the subsequent practice afterwards. By the late 19th century, the public hindered real estate owners within the landscape area from developing land on the grounds of protecting the landscape. The landscape protection was actually protection of the public interest, while real estate owners had private property rights to use land legally, and the contradiction between the two often led to conflicts. In the process of exploring fundamental solutions, the National Trust constructed the landscape land ownership model by trust to achieve the coordinated development between landscape protection and private land ownership. Subsequently, relevant laws and policies were continuously introduced, which not only gradually institutionalized the model, but also effectively resolved the landscape protection within the framework of private ownership, and the private land ownership system had been developed and improved.

 

The Game Playing of Anglo-French Wine Trade Form the 15th to the 18th Century

CHAI Bin and QI Yufeng

From the 15th to the 18th century, wine trade was the most important bulk trade between England and France, which was deeply influenced by diplomatic relations between the two countries, and became a barometer for observing the changes in the relations between the two countries. England was the main consumer of French wine. During this period, England, as the primary consumer of French wine, frequently raised import tariffs on French wine to strike a blow to the French economy and gained dominance in diplomatic negotiations. This led to frequent wine trade crises between the two countries, triggered retaliatory measures from France, which also directly affects England itself. The tariff war between England and France over wine trade stemmed from the traditional European mercantilism policies pursued by both countries. The policy of mercantilism, characterized by its exclusivity and hostility, shaped the appearance and pattern of Anglo-French relations from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period in a certain sense.

 

Smuggling Trade and Tariff Regulation in Late Medieval England

YU Zhenyang

In the late Middle Ages, English foreign trade was more active, and the volume of trade increased, making customs duties an important source of revenue for the royal government. However, domestic and foreign merchants smuggled large quantities of export goods such as wool and woolen cloth in various ways to avoid customs duties, which sharply reduced the royal government’s revenue. In order to crack down on smuggling, the royal government not only took the conventional measures of confiscating goods and imprisoning smugglers, but also implemented targeted special measures of boarding, cargo mortgage and transportation certificate, and even resorted to punishing serious crimes. These regulatory measures to some extent curbed smuggling trade, but because due to the privilege of tariff policies during this period not benefiting all merchant groups, smuggling trade remained incessant after repeated prohibition, and also due to the increase of tax rates, the efficiency of tariff regulation was low . Until modern times, with the implementation of the free trade policies and the gradual relaxation of tariffs, smuggling trade gradually disappeared.

 

 

Inflation and Purchasing Power of Currency During the Weimar Period in Germany

ZHOU Jianming

After the unification of Germany in 1871, the Goldmark became the only official currency. After the outbreak of World War I, Germany issued a large amount of Papiermark due to the soaring fiscal deficit, which led to vicious inflation. During the Weimar Republic period, inflation was still uncontrollable, and the currency went through the evolution of the Goldmark, Papiermark, Notgeld, Rentenmark and Reichsmark. At the end of 1923, the Weimar government carried out the monetary reform, gradually reversing the large face value and quantity of paper currency and bringing the monetary system back on track. After 1924, the German economy gradually recovered, prices remained relatively stable, and the purchasing power of currency increased. In 1929, the world economic crisis broke out, with a sharp increase in unemployment rate, a decrease in people’s income, a contraction in market demand, and a continuous decline in commodity prices. The purchasing power of the same currency unit increased slightly as prices fell year by year, but in the case of shrinking popular incomes, the real purchasing power declined.

 

The Construction of the Macedonian Navy in the Reformation of Philip Ⅱ

WAN Liming

During the reign of Philip II, Macedonian grew up from an unknown small state at the Greek frontier to a military superior empire in the Balkan Peninsula and the eastern Mediterranean. Philip II’s opponents, the Greek poleis and the Persian Empire, had strong maritime power, so Philip also valued naval construction. He made full use of Macedonia’s timber resources and important seaports, recruited talents to build a navy, and used the navy to control maritime grain routes, forcing Athens to comply. Philip II’s construction of the navy laid the foundation for Alexander’s eastward expedition and the establishment of the empire.

 

Tianjin’s Self-Governance During the Period of the Republic of China

CAO Yuqing

Local self-governance originated from the implementation the New Policies of late Qing Dynasty. Local selfgovernance in Tianjin, like other parts of the country, went through the periods of the late Qing Dynasty, the Northern Warlord Government and Nanjing National Government. In the late Qing Dynasty, Tianjin’s selfgovernance was at the forefront of the country, especially when Yuan Shikai established a security area and issued some local regulations; subsequently, during the period of the Northern Warlord Government, Tianjin’s self-governance developed in twists and turns, from the self-governance of each district to the establishment of the Tianjin County Council as a deliberative body, with deputies elected; during the period of Nanjing National Government, Tianjin made significant progress in self-governance, not only establishing the municipal government and self-government institutions, but also clarifying the responsibilities and scope of self-governance.

 

The Rise and Fall of Tea Foreign Trade After the Opening of Fuzhou Port

XIE Biao

Before the Opium War, Chinese tea had already occupied more than 60% of the world tea market, and Fujian was the main source of Chinese exported tea. The huge demand for Fujian tea from the West had led Fuzhou to become one of the ports for opening and trading after the Nanjing Treaty. In 1853, the tea ban was lifted at Fuzhou Port, and the route for transporting Wuyi tea from the Minjiang River to Fuzhou was opened. This convenient transportation line allowed tea to be directly exported from Fuzhou Port, promoted the development of the tea market and industry. By the 1880s, the tea trade at Fuzhou Port had reached its peak. At the same time, tea production and trade in India, Ceylon, Japan and other regions had risen rapidly, occupying competitive advantages in tea making technology, marketing, and other aspects. Chinese tea quickly fell in the international market. Without the support of foreign trade in tea, Fuzhou had no bulk commodities available for export. Coupled with ideological concepts and geographical factors, Fuzhou, which was the earliest open to the outside world, returned to silence in the early years of the Republic of China. The brief prosperity and rapid decline of Fuzhou Port could be seen as a microcosm of China’s modern economy.