浅析明朝私人海上贸易与白银货币化之关系

明朝是中国历史上的重要发展阶段,在这个时期,中国社会面临着巨大的发展变迁。在明初,白银并不是合法的流通货币,但由于明朝社会内部的变动,特别是明朝在对外贸中长期保持顺差,在明朝中后期通过私人海上贸易使大量的白银流入中国,为白银的大量流通奠定了基础。白银货币化在长期的历史进程中自下而上再自上而下逐渐完成,而明朝的白银货币化猛烈刺激了中国的白银需求,进一步拉动了海外私人贸易的发展。私人海上贸易与白银货币化的双向互动,见证了明朝市场经济的发展与繁荣,并且成为了明朝与世界联系的纽带,使得明朝参与了世界贸易体系的初步架构,在世界贸易的整体化过程中扮演了举足轻重的作用。     

Balancing domestic regulation and trade liberalisation under the GATS: universal access issues in South Africa's telecoms sector

The service sector increasingly has become the cornerstone of a great number of economies in both the developed and developing world. The main barrier to trade in services is the imposition of domestic regulations which are aimed at ensuring the affordability, availability and efficiency of services. Such domestic regulations are important for services and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) consequently recognises the right of countries to regulate in order to achieve these goals. The GATS, however, also seeks to discipline such regulations to ensure that they do not hinder trade in services. This article seeks to assess these seemingly competing interests in the context of South Africa's history and its burgeoning telecommunications sector.     

Participation of African member states in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) multilateral trading system

Abstract

The core purpose and goals of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are to enhance growth by allowing each country to trade freely according to its comparative advantage. The other stated main objectives of the WTO are: raising standards of living; providing full employment; reduction of tariffs and non‐tariff barriers; and the elimination of discriminatory treatment. According to the current orthodox economic view, trade openness is essential for growth: countries that liberalise their imports and orientate production towards exports are assumed to have faster growth than those that do not, and the faster the rate of opening, the greater will the prospect be for development. The emphasis on trade liberalisation and export orientation in the past ten years following the adoption of the Uruguay Round has led to phenomenal growth in world merchandise trade, which has grown consistently faster than output. The orthodox view approach is today expanded and modified with the view that liberalisation measures are not sufficient by themselves and should be accompanied by other factors such as sound macroeconomic policies, good governance and a modern infrastructure. Africa's dependence on primary commodities as a source of export earnings has meant that it is vulnerable to weather conditions, market vagaries, and price volatility, arising mainly from supply shock and the secular decline in real commodity prices. The attendant terms of trade losses have exacted heavy costs in terms of incomes, indebtedness, investment, poverty and development. Therefore, the basic approach that liberalisation has a direct link to economic growth and should be undertaken as fast as possible is being questioned and has been challenged by empirical studies in recent years. The relevant studies have shown that there is a lack of relationship between the degree of trade liberalisation and the rate of growth. The emerging paradigm accepts that there are possible costs, as well as potential benefits of trade liberalisation to a particular developing country, depending on the conditions in that country, and the type of liberalisation undertaken. The other impediments and weaknesses identified as affecting effective, efficient and economical participation of African members in the WTO include rapid liberalisation as potential source of fiscal instability; general absence of peace, security and democracy; globalisation and lack of competitive ability; supply‐side constraints; high export concentration ratio; problems of implementation; exclusion and/or marginalisation from knowledge‐based economy; and lack of capacity. The Doha Development Round was initiated to attend to, and address, these problems, and it is still too early to predict the outcome. African countries need to look for African solutions to their socio‐economic and political problems, adopting transdisciplinary approaches in the context of the African Renaissance paradigm.     

South Korea under the United States–China rivalry: dynamics of the economic-security nexus in trade policymaking

With the advent of the Trump administration and the subsequent U.S.–China trade conflict, South Korea's trade policy is under immense pressure. The KORUS FTA has been pushed for renegotiation while the China–South Korea trade relations have stumbled after the THAAD deployment to South Korea. This challenge can be characterized by the economic-security nexus shifted from positive to negative: that is, South Korea is compelled to either sacrifice its economic benefits in favor of security interest or vice versa. In contrast to Japan that seeks to retain TPP as a way of benefitting from a regionwide trade integration and balancing both Trump unilateralism and Chinese mercantilist influence, South Korea is forced to play a more complex game. Given its deep yet asymmetric economic interdependence with China and North Korean security threats, South Korea needs to accommodate China while at the same time courting US engagement in resolving the North Korean nuclear problems.     

Working with Caribbean Immigrants After the World Trade Center Tragedy

SUMMARY

Caribbean immigrants were among those transfixed by the destruction and human suffering caused by the World Trade Center tragedy. An emergent cliché is that life will never be the same after September 11th. This study explores the issues that impact the health and well-being of English-speaking Caribbean immigrants and challenges social workers to reassess their intervention with immigrant populations in the Post 9/11 era.     

Wildlife management,the multilateral trade regime,morals and the welfare of animals 1

Abstract

Various states (and groups of states such as the European Community) have adopted legislation designed to raise standards of animal welfare in many areas including agriculture, companion animals, experimentation and testing, transport, and hunting and trapping methods. Much of this legislation has resulted from extensive lobbying and intense political wrangling. Where the legislation affects animals as products (or animal derivative products such as their pelts or their meat), legislators frequently resort to external facing trade measures to support the moral stance taken in the legislative instrument. At this point potential conflicts with the precepts of the multilateral trade regime operated by the World Trade Organisation arise. The extent to which the relevant provisions in the WTO portfolio of agreements (and the predecessor text of the GATT 1947) assist the cause of animal welfare is limited by both the texts themselves and the narrow interpretation of those texts by WTO/ GATT dispute panels. Non‐governmental organisations involved with animal welfare issues are concerned that the WTO regime will inhibit the development of animal welfare protection legislation and are also concerned that the net result may be a retardation of the development of animal welfare measures in the face of open market competition. This article explores the background to, and substance of, this contention particularly in the context of the European and International legislation designed to deal with the welfare of trapped wild animals and also with other animal welfare legislation having international trade implications. Moreover, the findings of such an examination have much broader implications in that they have relevance to any legislation based on public morality which seeks to enforce that morality through external facing trade measures.     

The Spanish Parliament and EU Affairs in the Post Lisbon Treaty Era: All Change?

The new provisions on national parliaments in the Lisbon Treaty were welcomed with scepticism by some scholars and with hope by others. Sometime after the new provisions came into force, their impact on the role of national parliaments in the EU can already be examined. This article looks into the effect of the implementation of the Early Warning Mechanism and the other provisions on the parliamentary scrutiny of EU affairs in Spain. It also reflects on the possible implications for the EU political system. Although the scope and actual effect of the new measures have been quite modest, the new regulations allow for a better scrutiny of EU law, a tighter control of the executive on EU affairs and closer cooperation with EU institutions.     

21世纪海上丝绸之路与中国—东盟自由贸易区升级版建设:印度尼西亚视角

本文主要阐述了21世纪海上丝绸之路与中国—东盟自由贸易区升级版建设的关系和首要任务。文章认为,21世纪海上丝绸之路建设与东盟国家的经济走廊发展规划相衔接,与东盟国家的金融政策和金融业务相协调,与东盟国家不断加强人文交流合作,有利于建设好21世纪海上丝绸之路,推动打造中国—东盟自由贸易区升级版。     

越南进口贸易与经济增长的互动效应研究:1990～2010年

1986年越南政府实施革新开放政策,大力发展外向型经济发展战略,积极融入世界经济体系。20多年来,越南进口贸易保持了高速增长。实证研究表明,进口贸易是越南国内经济快速增长的重要引擎;同时,越南国内经济发展也进一步推动了进口贸易的快速增长,两者之间存在着互动效应关系。     

中国-东盟自由贸易区中的东南亚华商

东南亚华商在东盟地区的社会经济发展中具有重要的地位,与中国具有同文同种的优势,具备了在东盟和中国两地投资创业的成功经验,因而东南亚华商在中国—东盟自由贸易区的建设进程中独具优势,参与积极性也更高。随着中国—东盟自由贸易区建设的深入,东南亚华商在促进中国与东盟之间的双边贸易和双向投资,尤其是中国企业对外投资等方面将发挥重要作用。这将有利于加强中国与东盟国家间的全面友好关系,同时也为海外华侨华人自身提供更为有利的生存与发展环境。