It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, January 20, 2022
The Essence of Commodification: Caffeine Dependencies In the Early Modern World
Through the Filter of Tobacco: The Limits of Global Trade in the Early Modern World
MATTHEW P. ROMANIELLO
History, University of Hawa’i
In 1663, an English Embassy lead by the Earl of Carlisle traveled to Muscovite Russia. Failing to make any significant breakthroughs in Anglo-Russian trade relations, a member of the Earl’s Embassy observed that the Russians “will Intime leave off that rustick and barbarous humor, which is so natural to them, and learn by degrees to live with more civility And were they under a gentler Government, and had a free Trade with every body, no doubt but this Nation would in short time be taken with our civility and decent way of living.”
Even in this short passage, the plan for English economic expansion was clear. The first step was the establishment of free trade between the countries, which would produce widespread cultural change as the Russians adopted the superior English customs. In the end, a transformed Muscovy would become a natural market for English goods, producing only increased profits. This plan remained essentially unchanged from the beginning of regularized trade between England and Muscovy in the sixteenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth, despite the lack of success in changing Muscovite culture in the direction of an English-inspired model.
Of the China Root: A Case Study of the Early Modern Circulation of Materia Medica
Anna E. Winterbottom*
Summary. The early modern rise of syphilis provoked similar anxieties to those that more recently ac-companied the global spread of HIV/AIDS. It also stimulated global demand for remedies.
I discuss one of the most popular, known as China root ’and usually identified with various species of Smilax. The drug and instructions for its use were spread westward from Chenab traders of all nationalities from 1535 onwards.
Demand became global before being largely replaced in Europe by supplies of various American Smilax species, known collectively as ‘Sarsaparilla’. I examine the economic, political and cultural dynamics of this process and draw from them some conclusions about the early modern drugs trade and its effects on medical thought.
Reconstructing Mercantilism: Consensus and Conflict in British Imperial Economy in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Author(s): Jonathan BarthSource:
The William and Mary Quarterly,
Vol. 73, No. 2 (April 2016), pp. 257-290Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and CultureStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.73.2.0257Accessed: 17-06-2017 18:16 UTC
'In We Dream Together' Anne Eller breaks with dominant narratives of conflict between the Dominican Republic and Haiti by tracing the complicated history of Dominican emancipation and independence between 1822 and 1865. Eller moves beyond the small body of writing by Dominican elites that often narrates Dominican nationhood to craft inclusive, popular histories of identity, community, and freedom, summoning sources that range from trial records and consul reports to poetry and song. Rethinking Dominican relationships with their communities, the national project, and the greater Caribbean, Eller shows how popular anticolonial resistance was anchored in a rich and complex political culture. Haitians and Dominicans fostered a common commitment to Caribbean freedom, the abolition of slavery, and popular democracy, often well beyond the reach of the state.
‘‘That Abominable Nest of Pirates’’ St. Eustatius and the North Americans, 1680–1780
VICTOR ENTHOVEN Free University of Amsterdam
abstract The aim of this essay is to depict the long-standing trade relations between St. Eustatius and the thirteen British North American colonies between 1680 and 1780. For Americans, the otherwise virtually unknown Caribbean island of St. Eustatius is intimately linked to the history of the American Revolution. Indeed, the enduring relationship between them was instrumental to the growth of both sets of colonies and ultimately to the success of the American Revolution. Yet the connection that linked the tiny Dutch island with the mainland Anglo-American colonies was far deeper than is often realized in the existing historiography, which focuses predominantly on the Revolutionary years. St. Eustatius and the thirteen North American colonies were natural allies in the war against protectionism.
Smugglers before the Swedish throne: Political activity of free people of color in early nineteenth-century St Barthélemy
Ale Pålsson
Department of History, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
ABSTRACT
The Swedish colony St Barthélemy, established in 1785 and under Swedish rule until 1878, was an attractive island for neutral transit trade and for a large number of free people of color, many of whom became naturalized Swedish subjects. As subjects under the Swedish crown, they sought political rights through petitions, stressing their place within the colonial system. Free people of color were also connected to the Greater Caribbean and the mobility of the free port allowed for inter-colonial networks. The Swedish Governor Johan Norderling compared the activity of free people of color in the Swedish colony with other colonies, as well as Haiti and the USA. For him, free people of color throughout the Caribbean were grouped as belonging to the same community. Thus, the examples of activity in other colonies exemplified the dangers of further political rights in the Swedish colony. He also used the Caribbean network to communicate with other French, Spanish, and Dutch governors about a revolutionary plot planned by free people of color. Yet despite being nodal points within network for planning subversive plots, St Barthélemy was not particularly radical space in terms of independence or antislavery, but rather a space facilitating subversive actions between empires
Plague was a harsh trial for early modern communities. Responding to he heavy toll of sickness and death presented tough ethical problems: Who must act? What risks must they accept? This paper examines the role and obligations of English medical practitioners during epidemics. It focuses on the key question of whether they should stay to treat the sick or could flee to safety. Historians have often condemned doctors who fled, assuming that this was equally unacceptable to contemporaries. However, such assumptions are mistaken. While magistrates and clergymen were expected to remain, medical practitioners had no special obligation to stay. Physicians’ lack of specific duties reflected their economic and social position as private practitioners, and the acknowledged limits of medicine itself. At times, however, some English medical practitioners did claim special responsibilities during plagues. But this was rare, and usually related to disputes over medical regulation in London. During and after the 1665 epidemic, in particular, plague became a theme in disputes between irregular practitioners, especially chemical physicians, and the London College of Physicians. Irregular practitioners had long sought to use plagues for self-promotion and legitimisation. Now, some attempted to overturn the College’s monopoly on medical practice on the same basis. To do so, they constructed an image of the epidemic as a medical emergency and a test of ability, courage and charity. To understand these claims, we need to set them against the political, economic and legal framework of medical regulation. Epidemics thus reveal the limits of early modern medical practitioners’ status, and the historical and political fluidity of medical ethics.
In Early Modern Europe court physicians exerted great influence in service to their royal patrons. These medical practitioners acted as learned conduits, whose knowledge of natural philosophy, which often included occult theories of healing, natural magic and astrology, was able to serve the broad interests of their patrons. Thus, in addition to being charged with maintaining the health of a ruler, physicians were often exploited by monarchs seeking to enhance the general health of their body politic. This case study of the German physician Andreas Engelhardt examines his decade-long ser- vice in Moscow between 1656 and 1666 at the court of Aleksei Mikhailovich. This study of Engelhardt's role at court at a time of increased Western influence in Muscovy aims to reveal how the tsar sought to utilize the learning of his German physician in a variety of* Robert Collis is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at The University of Sheffield(UK). His publications include the monograph The Petrine Instauration: Religion, Esotericism and Science at the Court of Peter the Great, 1689-1725 ways. Engelhardt not only administered Western medical remedies, including the use of unicorn horns, to the royal family, but was also instructed to ascertain whether various Russian and Siberian folk remedies possessed beneficent qualities. This process of legitimization and containment of medical knowledge coincided with an attempt to suppress the authority of folk healers, thereby reflecting the autocratic nature of Aleksei Mikhailovich's reign. Furthermore, this article demonstrates that the tsar drew on Engelhardt’s supposed expertise in astrology and divination in order to know how Muscovy would be affected by the appearance of a comet in the winter of 1664-1665.
Russia and the Medical Drug Trade in the Seventeenth Century
Clare Griffin*
Summary.
This article deals with the trade in medicines into Russia in the seventeenth century. Both the early modern medical drug trade, and Russian medicine, have previously received substantial attention, but no work has thus far been undertaken on the Russian angle of the drug trade. Drawing on previously unused documents, this article traces the kinds of drugs acquired by the Moscow court. In contrast to the dominant view of official Russian medicine as divorced from native healing practices and fundamentally reliant upon Western European trends, these documents re-veal that drugs were sourced as locally as Moscow markets, and from as far afield as East Asia and the Americas, but that not all drugs were accepted. As many of these imports came through Western European markets, this article also sheds further light on what drugs were available there, demonstrating the great diversity of drugs traded in early modern Europe.
Exotic Drugs and English Medicine: England’s Drug Trade, c 1550–c. 1800
Patrick Wallis*
Summary. What effect did the dramatic expansion in long distance trade in the early modern period have on healthcare in England?
This article presents new evidence on the scale, origins and content of English imports of medical drugs between 1567 and 1774. It shows that the volume of imported medical drugs exploded in the seventeenth century, and continued growing more gradually over the eighteenth century. The variety of imported drugs changed more slowly. Much was re-exported, but estimates of dosages suggest that some common drugs (for example, senna, Jesuits ’Bark) were available to the majority of the population in the eighteenth century. English demand for foreign drugs provides further evidence for a radical expansion in medical consumption in the seventeenth century. It also suggests that much of this new demand was met by purchasing drugs rather than buying services
Regrettably the TPNW has been rigorously opposed by the United States and other nuclear armed states, as well as those allied states under “nuclear umbrellas.” However, the five original nuclear-armed states, the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France and China are required “to pursue negotiations in good faith” to end the nuclear arms race “at an early date and to nuclear disarmament" under another treaty. That treaty, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), entered into force in 1970. The States Parties to the NPT meet for month-long review conferences every five years. The 10th NPT Review Conference, originally scheduled for May 2020 and postponed several times due to Covid, was supposed to take place starting January 4 at the United Nations in New York, but it was postposed again due to the surging pandemic. Nonetheless, after months of planning and preparation, there’s been a burst of activity around the NPT.
On January 10, a comprehensive Joint Statement from Civil Society to the States Parties of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, was released by Reaching Critical Will on behalf of more than 90 organizations worldwide including United for Peace & Justice. The joint statement presents three key messages: Global support for the NPT is strong, but its long-term viability cannot be taken for granted; the grave state of global affairs and the rising risk of nuclear conflict and arms racing requires new and bolder leadership from responsible states; and those that resist change also say the “environment” is not right for further progress, but responsible actors everywhere are rising to the challenge. A video presentation is available here. More people are becoming aware that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a strong proponent of nuclear disarmament. In 1963, he wrote: “I am convinced that the church cannot remain silent while mankind (sic) faces the threat of being plunged into the abyss of nuclear annihilation. If the church is true to its mission, it must call for an end to the arms race.” On January 11, 2022, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico released a new pastoral letter urging the local community and the world to join “a renewed commitment to the cause of peace” with the goal of eliminating all global nuclear weapons arsenals. Titled, “A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament,” the 50-page document can be downloaded here.
Two months before his tragic assassination,Dr. King declared: “We have played havoc with the destiny of the world and we have brought the whole world closer to nuclear confrontation . . . I am still convinced that the struggle for peace and the struggle for civil rights as we call it in America happen to be tied together.” Some groups are linking the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday (this year, Jan. 17) with celebrations of the one-year anniversary of entry-into-force of the TPNW on Jan. 22. Click here for Resources for MLK Holiday and Ban Treaty Anniversary, including a banner, quotes, and a sample letter to the editor.
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work, weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism, into one “moral fusion” campaign. The Poor Peoples Campaign Jubilee Platform calls for cutting U.S. military spending by half including by closing 60% of U.S. foreign military bases, ending the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere, and dismantling and eliminating nuclear weapons.
It is increasingly clear that the multiple national and global crises we are confronting, including nuclear weapons, climate change, systemic racism, a growing wealth gap and rising national authoritarianisms arise from the same foundational causes, and that we are unlikely to prevail on any of them as single issues. We need to come together as never before to build political power through durable, diverse, multi-issue coalitions, networks, and networks of networks based on our shared commitments to universal, indivisible human security.
Forward together, not one step back! The UFPJ Coordinating Committee
FOLLOWING MLK QUOTE THIS IS APPROPRIATE
HISTORIES OF INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN AN ERA OF
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
With Crystal Gail Fraser, Ph.D.
University of Alberta
Sunday, January 30, 2022
3 pm EST
In May of 2021, the remains of 215 children were found in an unmarked mass grave next to the former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. In June, 751 human remains were uncovered next to the former Marieval residential school in Saskatchewan. Other sites have been investigated since these appalling discoveries.
The history of residential schools became widely known in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) (2007–2015). In its report, the TRC estimated that "of the approximately 150,000 children who attended residential schools, at least 3,200 never returned home. Since then, the figure has been revised significantly upwards; it is believed that at least 6,000 children died in the residential schools."
In this presentation, Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser will share the history of Indian Residential Schools, discuss the tragedy of the thousands of unmarked graves of Indigenous children who were institutionalized, and how we need to continue focusing on these hard truths during this era of reconciliation.
Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser is Gwichyà Gwich'in, an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta, an intergenerational Indian Residential School Survivor. Her work is dedicated to better understanding colonial histories in northern Canada and the complexities of residential schooling histories through oral histories and working with survivors. Crystal co-authored 150 Acts of Reconciliation for the Last 150 Days of Canada's 150, which has been foundational to advancing reconciliation among Canadians.
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Regrettably the TPNW has been rigorously opposed by the United States and other nuclear armed states, as well as those allied states under “nuclear umbrellas.” However, the five original nuclear-armed states, the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France and China are required “to pursue negotiations in good faith” to end the nuclear arms race “at an early date and to nuclear disarmament" under another treaty. That treaty, the 
On January 4, Peace & Planet went ahead with its 
More people are becoming aware that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a strong proponent of nuclear disarmament. In 1963, 
