Panoramic Exploration of the Core of European Civilization

REN Shijiang and WANG Yuantian

In view of when European civilization formed, what was its relationship with ancient Greek-Roman civilization, Israeli civilization and ancient Germanic tradition, and who played a major role in the creation of European civilization, relevant scholars have made valuable macro thinking and evaluation, especially on the panoramic exploration of its civilization core, which is unusually brilliant. It has become a consensus to grasp the pulse of the times, broaden research horizons, deepen the study of European civilization and make efforts to launch excellent works with penetrating thinking.

The Crisis of 1297: The First Contest and Compromise between Parliament and the King in Medieval England

GU Yanfang

The crisis of 1297 was one of the most serious political crises in medieval England. It was triggered by the Gascoigne territory dispute of in the European continent, entangled with the Welsh rebellion on the British Island and the Scottish national struggle against Britain, and once seriously impacted the legitimate authority of the House of Plantagenet in British rule. Under the pressure of the parliament, the church and the public, Edward I was forced to adjust his political ideas, confirmed the Magna Carta and the Forest Charter three times, and recognized and expanded the legitimate rights and interests of the representatives of the subjects. The King's power was restricted from collecting taxes wantonly in the name of “urgent need” and “public welfare”. The connotation of “public will” or “public permission” was further enriched, and the concept of “king under the law” had once again become a social consensus. The crisis was temporarily resolved in favor of the parliament, which promoted the growth of the British Parliament and also had an important impact on the domestic economic environment and foreign relations.

The Scheme and Practice of the Land Bank in the Early Modern Britain

Li Xinkuan

   There was an upsurge of establishing land bank in Britain in the 1790s; three schemes were implemented, but they all failed. The reasons for the failure of the land bank in the financial revolution era were the defects of system design, the deterioration of currency shortage, and the secret obstruction of a few Whig ministers. Whig historians have always portrayed the idea of the land bank as a conspiracy of the Tory Party to deal with the Whig Party’s Bank of England. This view that the establishment and failure of the land bank were attributed to party politics is not in line with historical facts. The purpose of establishing land bank was to solve the problem of currency shortage and expand the circulation of money. The idea of issuing credit currency by mortgage land appeared very early. The advocators of establishing land bank were not landowners or engaged in land related occupations. All these show that the failure of land bank had little to do with party politics.

Research and Reflection on Neoliberal Reform of the NHS in the UK

HU Li

Neoliberalism is both an economic theory and an ideology. Due to the extreme fear of the government, it opposed the nationalized social welfare system, criticized the NHS in the United Kingdom, and advocated a gradual reformation which the government should withdraw from the field of medical services for the public, establish a market mechanism in this field and maintain its operation. Since the late 1970s, for different reasons, the Conservative Party and the Labor Party have successively changed their ideas, abandoned Keynesianism, embraced Neoliberalism and its medical security concept, carried out market-oriented reform of the NHS, eventually established a “quasi-market” mechanism. These reforms show that there is a certain tension between the medical service and the market mechanism. It is necessary to reflect on the relationship between government and market defined by Neoliberalism，face up to the public attribute and value of social service.

Cultural Orientation and the Success or Failure of the Rise of Empires

WANG Jiafeng

Cultural orientation or value orientation was one of the decisive factors for the rise of any empire. When the Empire rose, with the expansion of the scope of governance and the growth of the Empire, it generally faced the problem of revising or changing the original value orientation. They either enforced the religion or ideology of the conqueror, or conditionally tolerate other beliefs. The reason why some famous historical figures were praised by later generations was that they could consider more about the cost of conquest and the stability of the rule, had the ability to defy popular opinions, and made a more correct choice without being influenced by secular prejudice, adopted flexible policies in cultural orientation, and resolutely put them into practice, so as to achieve the goal of Conquest with less sacrifice or damage, and made the Empire strong and consolidated in a certain period of time. In modern times, human rights or people-oriented became their basic pursuit, and the fate of the Empire was also closely related to this policy, as evidenced by the Third Reich of Germany and the Japanese Empire.

Re-discussion on the Formation of the Unified Market in Russia: Also on the Characteristics of Russian Economic Development in the Late 19thCentury

DENG Peiyong

There are great differences between domestic and foreign historians on when the unified market of Russia was formed. There are mainly two viewpoints: the first is that the formation of the unified market in Russia was in the 17thcentury, which was put forward by some Soviet scholars whom is interpreted Lenin's view. It was once popular, but its supporters gradually decreased; the second is that unified market of Russia was formed at the end of the 18th century, which has been gradually recognized by more scholars, but it still needs to be verified, because at that time, the commodity market was just beginning to take shape, the capital and labor markets were even more out of the question, and the political territory of Russia map hadn't been finalized, so the unified market cannot be formed. At the end of the 19thcentury, Russia's commodity market became increasingly prosperous, the capital and labor markets gradually improved, and the unified market of Russia was finally formed; it shortened the distance of commodity circulation between regions and promoted the process of industrialization and urbanization. In the process of formation of the unified market in Russia, it also presented many characteristics of economic development, such as the southward shift of economic center of gravity, high dependence on foreign capital, government policies to promote the development of industry and commerce, the formation of monopoly organizations, and so on.

The Living Conditions of the Failed Scholars in Imperial Examinations in the

Golden Age of Three Emperors

SUN Yongxing

In the Golden Age of Three Emperors, most scholars' pursuit of entering the officialdom through the imperial examination could only stay at the ideal level. But even if they couldn't be officials, because of their cultural knowledge, they could get much better living conditions than ordinary people by conventional means such as being private tutors, being apparitors, managing property, collecting proofreading fees, practicing divination and medicine; and by unconventional means such as accepting gifts, selecting eight-part essays and doing business. “To be a scholar is to be the top of society” had its profound social and economic foundation, and being able to become an official was only one reason. In the traditional society, the scholars were in the state of “relative poverty” in “universal poverty”, and people subconsciously attached the poverty of other groups to them. Scholars had the conditions to get better economic income, but they gave up the pursuit of material wealth because they were addicted to the imperial examination. The relative poverty of scholars was also closely related to their own unique living habits. The image of the poor scholars was related to the convenience of their knowledge and communication, which was the embodiment of the right to speak in the traditional society. The deep reasons for the scholars to get such living conditions are that the scholar class was an important part of the traditional social governance, and it still need to improve the institutional factors.

The Competition between Harbin Electric Power Company and “Northern Manchuria Electric Co., Ltd”

Guan Jinghua

In the early 20th century in Harbin, electric power industry had been applied to life and production. In order to fight for the power supply right and power generation right of the “Northern Manchuria” regional center city, China and Japan had launched fierce competition. On behalf of China was Harbin Electric Power Company, and on behalf of Japan was Northern Manchuria Electric Co., Ltd. The two sides competed for several years from bidding for power rights to bidding for electricity charges, until the puppet Manchuria “Northern Manchuria Electric Co., Ltd” was established and annexed them. As the vanguard of economic aggression, “North Manchuria Electric Co., Ltd” showed the ambition of Japan's economic control and industry monopoly. As the representative of the national power companies resisting imperialist capital, Harbin Electric Company showed the unyielding determination of the Chinese nation to resist aggression and recover its rights.

Coronation and the Construction of the Divine Power in the Kingdom of Jerusalem

SU Zeming

Coronation ceremony was the fixed form for European monarchy to construct hereditary monarchy, and it was one of the symbolic sources of monarchy’s sanctity and legitimacy. In the 11th century, the coronation was introduced into the kingdom of Jerusalem by the Crusaders. Through coronation ceremony, the two principles of “divine right of kings” and “hereditary monarchy，were introduced into Jerusalem. With the help of the symbolic meaning of the coronation itself and the imagination it inspired, the kingdom of Jerusalem was able to construct the legitimacy source of kingship as God and lineage, which was, divine and hereditary, and thus eliminated the influence of electoral factors, and finally completed the construction from “electoral sovereignty” to “divine hereditary monarchy.