Does the history of opening ports and trading influence the long-term business credit environment of cities? Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta region of China.

Based on the China City Commercial Credit Environment Index (CEI), a more scientific spatial DID model was used to examine the long-term impact of the opening of ports and trading in the late Qing Dynasty on the urban commercial credit environment, taking cities above the prefecture level in the Yangtze River Delta as a sample. The study confirms that: (1) the opening of ports and commerce in the late Qing Dynasty had a significant contribution to the urban commercial credit environment, which was conducive to the transformation of production methods and interpersonal relationships from traditional to modern, and to the improvement of the urban commercial credit environment. (2) Before the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the local forces of the late Qing Dynasty were resistant to the economic aggression of the Great Powers, and the positive impact of the opening of ports and trading on the commercial credit environment of port cities was more significant, but the impact was not obvious after the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. (3) From the history of the opening of ports for trade in the late Qing Dynasty, the economic aggression of the Western powers against the non-patronage areas by means of the buying class objectively strengthened the concept of rule of law and credit awareness in the local market and exerted a long-term influence on the commercial credit environment of the cities, but the impact of the opening of ports for trade on the commercial credit environment of the patronage areas was not prominent. (4) Cities located in the sphere of influence of the common law powers had a more pronounced impact on the commercial credit environment as their institutions and concepts were more easily transplanted, while the impact of the opening of ports and trading on the commercial credit environment of cities in the sphere of influence of the civil law powers was not significant. Policy Insights: (1) Enhance the ability to negotiate with foreign countries on economic and trade matters from a level-headed world perspective, and be bold and adept at fighting unreasonable rules, standards and requirements in order to better optimise the business credit environment; (2) Regulate the use of administrative resources and avoid undue administrative intervention, which is an important prerequisite for improving the basic system of the market economy to enhance the business credit environment; (3) Emphasise both connotative development to follow a Chinese style modernisation path, and (3) emphasising selective cooperation to promote outward development, promoting the interaction, convergence and matching of domestic and foreign regulations, and continuously improving the regional commercial credit environment.

Biomolecular analyses enable new insights into ancient Egyptian embalming.

The ability of the ancient Egyptians to preserve the human body through embalming has not only fascinated people since antiquity, but also has always raised the question of how this outstanding chemical and ritual process was practically achieved. Here we integrate archaeological, philological and organic residue analyses, shedding new light on the practice and economy of embalming in ancient Egypt. We analysed the organic contents of 31 ceramic vessels recovered from a 26th Dynasty embalming workshop at Saqqara1,2. These vessels were labelled according to their content and/or use, enabling us to correlate organic substances with their Egyptian names and specific embalming practices. We identified specific mixtures of fragrant or antiseptic oils, tars and resins that were used to embalm the head and treat the wrappings using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses. Our study of the Saqqara workshop extends interpretations from a micro-level analysis highlighting the socio-economic status of a tomb owner3-7 to macro-level interpretations of the society. The identification of non-local organic substances enables the reconstruction of trade networks that provided ancient Egyptian embalmers with the substances required for mummification. This extensive demand for foreign products promoted trade both within the Mediterranean8-10 (for example, Pistacia and conifer by-products) and with tropical forest regions (for example, dammar and elemi). Additionally, we show that at Saqqara, antiu and sefet-well known from ancient texts and usually translated as 'myrrh' or 'incense'11-13 and 'a sacred oil'13,14-refer to a coniferous oils-or-tars-based mixture and an unguent with plant additives, respectively.

The role of intellectual property rights on access to medicines in the WHO African region: 25 years after the TRIPS agreement.

BACKGROUND: It is now 25 years since the adoption of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the same concerns raised during its negotiations such as high prices of medicines, market exclusivity and delayed market entry for generics remain relevant as highlighted recently by the Ebola and COVID-19 pandemics. The World Health Organization's (WHO) mandate to work on the interface between intellectual property, innovation and access to medicine has been continually reinforced and extended to include providing support to countries on the implementation of TRIPS flexibilities in collaboration with stakeholders. This study analyses the role of intellectual property on access to medicines in the African Region. METHODS: We analyze patent data from the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI) to provide a situational analysis of patenting activity and trends. We also review legislation to assess how TRIPS flexibilities are implemented in countries. RESULTS: Patenting was low for African countries. Only South Africa and Cameroon appeared in the list of top ten originator countries for ARIPO and OAPI respectively. Main diseases covered by African patents were HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and tumors. Majority countries have legislation allowing for compulsory licensing and parallel importation of medicines, while the least legislated flexibilities were explicit exemption of pharmaceutical products from patentable subject matter, new or second use of patented pharmaceutical products, imposition of limits to patent term extension and test data protection. Thirty-nine countries have applied TRIPS flexibilities, with the most common being compulsory licensing and least developed country transition provisions. CONCLUSIONS: Opportunities exist for WHO to work with ARIPO and OAPI to support countries in reviewing their legislation to be more responsive to public health needs.

Tableware trade in the Roman East: Exploring cultural and economic transmission with agent-based modelling and approximate Bayesian computation.

The availability of reliable commercial information is considered a key feature of inter-regional trade if the Roman economy was highly integrated. However, the extent to which archaeological and historical sources of inter-regional trade reflect the degree of economic integration is still not fully understood, a question which lies at the heart of current debates in Roman Studies. Ceramic tableware offers one of the only comparable and quantifiable sources of information for Roman inter-regional trade over centuries-long time periods. The distribution patterns and stylistic features of tablewares from the East Mediterranean dated between 200 BC and AD 300 suggest a competitive market where buying decisions might have been influenced by access to reliable commercial information. We contribute to this debate by representing three competing hypotheses in an agent-based model: success-biased social learning of tableware buying strategies (requiring access to reliable commercial information from all traders), unbiased social learning (requiring limited access), and independent learning (requiring no access). We use approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) to evaluate which hypothesis best describes archaeologically observed tableware distribution patterns. Our results revealed success-bias is not a viable theory and we demonstrate instead that local innovation (independent learning) is a plausible driving factor in inter-regional tableware trade. We also suggest that tableware distribution should instead be explored as a small component of long-distance trade cargoes dominated by foodstuffs, metals, and building materials.

Tobacco industry and public health responses to state and local efforts to end tobacco sales from 1969-2020.

BACKGROUND: In June 2019, Beverly Hills, California, became the first American city in the 21st century to pass an ordinance ending the sale of most tobacco products, including cigarettes, and it is unlikely to be the last. Knowledge of previous efforts to ban tobacco sales in the US, both successful and unsuccessful, may help inform tobacco control advocates' approach to future efforts. METHODS: We retrieved and analyzed archival tobacco industry documents. We confirmed and supplemented information from the documents with news media coverage and publicly available state and local government materials, such as meeting minutes and staff reports, related to proposed bans. RESULTS: We found 22 proposals to end the sale of cigarettes or tobacco products from 1969-2020 in the US. Proposals came from five states, twelve cities or towns, and one county. Most came from elected officials or boards of health, and were justified on public health grounds. In opposing tobacco sales bans, the tobacco industry employed no tactics or arguments that it did not also employ in campaigns against other tobacco control measures. Public health groups typically opposed sales ban proposals on the grounds that they were not evidence-based. This changed with Beverly Hills' 2019 proposal, with public health organizations supporting this and other California city proposals because of their likely positive health impacts. This support did not always translate into passage of local ordinances, as some city council members expressed reservations about the impact on small businesses. CONCLUSION: Tobacco control advocates are likely to encounter familiar tobacco industry tactics and arguments against tobacco sales ban proposals, and can rely on past experience and the results of a growing body of retail-related research to counter them. Considering how to overcome concerns about harming retailers will likely be vital if other jurisdictions are to succeed in ending tobacco sales.

Fear and stock price bubbles.

I evaluate Alan Greenspan's claim that stock price bubbles build up in periods of euphoria and tend to burst due to increasing fear. Indeed, there is evidence that e.g. during a crisis, triggered by increasing fear, both qualitative and quantitative measures of risk aversion increase substantially. It is argued that fear is a potential mechanism underlying financial decisions and drives the countercyclical risk aversion. Inspired by this evidence, I construct an euphoria/fear index, which is based on an economic model of time varying risk aversion. Based on US industry returns 1959-2014, my findings suggest that (1) Greenspan is correct in that the price run-up initially occurs in periods of euphoria followed by a crash due to increasing fear; (2) on average already roughly a year before an industry is crashing, euphoria is turning into fear, while the market is still bullish; (3) there is no particular euphoria-fear-pattern for price-runs in industries that do not subsequently crash. I interpret the evidence in favor of Greenspan, who was labeled "Mr. Bubble" by the New York Times, and who was accused to be a serial bubble blower.

The 20-year impact of tobacco price and tobacco control expenditure increases in Minnesota, 1998-2017.

INTRODUCTION: Tobacco control programs and policies reduce tobacco use and prevent health and economic harms. The majority of tobacco control programs and policies in the United States are implemented at local and state levels. Yet the literature on state-level initiatives reports a limited set of outcomes. To facilitate decision-making that is increasingly focused on costs, we provide estimates of a broader set of measures of the impact of tobacco control policy, including smoking prevalence, disease events, deaths, medical costs, productivity and tobacco tax revenues, using the experience of Minnesota as an example. METHODS: Using the HealthPartners Institute's ModelHealth™: Tobacco MN microsimulation, we assessed the impact of the stream of tobacco control expenditures and cigarette price increases from 1998 to 2017. We simulated 1.3 million individuals representative of the Minnesota population. RESULTS: The simulation estimated that increased expenditures on tobacco control above 1997 levels prevented 38,400 cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes and respiratory disease events and 4,100 deaths over 20 years. Increased prices prevented 14,600 additional events and 1,700 additional deaths. Both the net increase in tax revenues and the reduction in medical costs were greater than the additional investments in tobacco control. CONCLUSION: Combined, the policies address both short-term and long-term goals to reduce the harms of tobacco by helping adults who wish to quit smoking and deterring youth from starting to smoke. States can pay for initial investments in tobacco control through tax increases and recoup those investments through reduced expenditures on medical care.

L'épidémiologie entre le terrain des épidémies et l'approche populationnelle, XIX-XXe siècle.

TITLE: L'épidémiologie entre le terrain des épidémies et l'approche populationnelle, XIX-XXe siècle. ABSTRACT: L'émergence d'une épidémiologie moderne est fréquemment associée au basculement de la discipline, d'une science des épidémies vers une science des populations. L'avènement et le développement d'une épidémiologie fondée sur une approche statistique et mathématique n'exclut cependant pas la persistance d'une épidémiologie sur le terrain des épidémies, dans le sillage de l'hygiène publique et de la bactériologie triomphante du tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles. De plus, l'histoire de l'épidémiologie ne saurait être cantonnée à une histoire de savoirs scientifiques ou de savoir-faire techniques et organisationnels. Elle doit intégrer, plus sans doute encore que d'autres branches de la médecine, les dimensions économiques et politiques qui participèrent à l'institutionnalisation et au développement de la discipline et à son inscription dans les processus de décision.

McKinsey and the 'Tripartite Monster': The Role of Management Consultants in the 1974 NHS Reorganisation.

The first major reorganisation of the National Health Service took place in 1974, twenty-six years after the service had been established. It has long been perceived as a failure. This article draws on archival records and a witness seminar held in November 2016 to provide a more nuanced assessment of the 1974 reorganisation and understand more fully why it took the form that it did. In particular it identifies the reorganisation as an important moment in the ongoing story of management consultants engaging with health policymakers, and explores the role of McKinsey and Co. in detail for the first time. Key explanatory factors for their involvement are identified, including the perceived lack of expertise and manpower inside the civil service and the NHS, and perceptions of their impact and effectiveness are discussed. Many debates about the use of management consultants today were directly foreshadowed during the early 1970s. Alongside this, the role of other groups of policy actors, including civil servants, politicians and medical professionals, are established and the extent to which British health policymakers have had to work within existing cultural, political, legislative and practical constraints when trying to initiate change is demonstrated. The fact that many of the 'mistakes' that were made have been repeated in the course of subsequent reforms, speaks to the poor institutional memory of Whitehall, and the Department of Health and Social Care in particular. In the run up to 1974 management consultants could make only a limited contribution to an imperfect compromise.

'Secret Lists and Sanctions': The Blacklisting of the John Lewis Partnership and the Politics of Pay in 1970s Britain.

In 1977, the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) was blacklisted for breaching the Labour government's pay controls under the Social Contract. As the Callaghan administration struggled to establish economic credibility, extending its reach into the private sector emerged as a political priority. JLP became a test case of government resolve months before the Ford strike of autumn 1978 that ushered in the Winter of Discontent. This article uses JLP records to create a more nuanced picture of the tensions, contestations, and vacillations of pay policy in the late 1970s. By doing so, gaps between policy conception and implementation emerge and intersect; both the business and the government faced constraints in implementing policy, despite powerful beliefs about the integrity of their actions. The article is not primarily a case study, however, and aims to contribute to broader debates. The constitutional significance, rather than the commercial impact, of government sanctions became a keynote of critique of JLP's blacklisting, suggesting that contemporaries recognized this was a confrontation of the political moment between the state and the private sector. By looking from a business's perspective, we also gain insight into how organizations approached, negotiated with, and responded to the government. Recovering the JLP blacklisting episode further shows how business archives offer great promise as resources for political history.

Kings and peasants from El-Zuma/El-Detti microregion in the Early Makurian period. Economic aspects of animal bones from funerary contexts.

Tumuli fields at El-Zuma and El-Detti were dated to the 2nd phase of the Early Makurian period, c. AD 450-550. They represented three types of tombs of different sizes and structures. The animal remains from these graves were analyzed in the context of animal economy practiced by the people who lived in the vicinity of the burial sites. aDNA analysis was conducted for cattle remains to explain its origin and significance for the inhabitants of the region. The research showed agricultural nature of the settlement located to the north of the Nile Valley with a great importance of cattle and sheep breeding. It also indicated the northern direction of trade and cultural contacts of the society based in the El-Zuma/El-Detti microregion and the deep social stratification within this group.

BODIES R US: Ethical Views on the Commercialization of the Dead in Medical Education and Research.

With the ongoing and expanding use of willed bodies in medical education and research, there has been a concomitant rise in the need for willed bodies and an increase in the means of supplying these bodies. A relatively recent development to enlarge this supply has been the growth of for- profit willed body companies ("body brokers") in the United States. These companies advertise for donors, cover all cremation and other fees for the donor, distribute the bodies or body parts nationally and internationally, and charge their users for access to the body or body parts. In doing so, they generate substantial profits. This review examines the historical development of willed body programs, the legal and economic aspects of willed body programs, and then provides an ethical framework for the use of willed bodies. The ethical principles described include detailed informed consent from the donors, comprehensive and transparent information about the process from the body donation organizations, and societal input on the proper and legal handling of willed bodies. Based on the ethical principles outlined, it is recommended that there be no commercialization or commodification of willed bodies, and that programs that use willed bodies should not generate profit.

Amber in prehistoric Iberia: New data and a review.

Provenancing exotic raw materials and reconstructing the nature and routes of exchange is a major concern of prehistoric archaeology. Amber has long been recognised as a key commodity of prehistoric exchange networks in Europe. However, most science-based studies so far have been localised and based on few samples, hence making it difficult to observe broad geographic and chronological trends. This paper concentrates on the nature, distribution and circulation of amber in prehistoric Iberia. We present new standardised FTIR analyses of 22 archaeological and geological samples from a large number of contexts across Iberia, as well as a wide scale review of all the legacy data available. On the basis of a considerable body of data, we can confirm the use of local amber resources in the Northern area of the Iberian Peninsula from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age; we push back the arrival of Sicilian amber to at least the 4th Millennium BC, and we trace the appearance of Baltic amber since the last quarter of the 2nd Millennium BC, progressively replacing Sicilian simetite. Integrating these data with other bodies of archaeological information, we suggest that the arrival of Baltic amber was part of broader Mediterranean exchange networks, and not necessarily the result of direct trade with the North. From a methodological perspective, thanks to the analyses carried out on both the vitreous core and the weathered surfaces of objects made of Sicilian simetite, we define the characteristic FTIR bands that allow the identification of Sicilian amber even in highly deteriorated archaeological samples.

The machine in the market: Computers and the infrastructure of price at the New York Stock Exchange, 1965-1975.

This article traces the development and expansion of early computer systems for managing and disseminating 'real-time' market data at the most influential stock market in the United States, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It follows electronic media at the NYSE over a roughly ten-year period, from the time of the deployment of a computer called the Market Data System (MDS) through debates surrounding the National Market System and the passage of the 1975 Securities Acts Amendments. Building on research at the archives of the NYSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), this history emphasizes the regulatory and managerial contexts in which market data became computerized. The SEC viewed market automation as both necessary for the viability of the securities industry and a mechanism for expanding regulatory oversight over the venues of stock trading. Moving from the MDS to later technical projects in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this article charts the changing meaning of electronic governance in a market increasingly conceptualized as a technical object. Adding to recent work in the social studies of finance and financial technologies, this history sites early NYSE computerization programs within managerial efforts to consolidate control over the clerical labor of financial markets, and in contests between regulatory and market institutions. It concludes by exploring the differing forms of electronic governance activated in these efforts to bring computers into the market.

A material political economy: Automated Trading Desk and price prediction in high-frequency trading.

This article contains the first detailed historical study of one of the new high-frequency trading (HFT) firms that have transformed many of the world's financial markets. The study, of Automated Trading Desk (ATD), one of the earliest and most important such firms, focuses on how ATD's algorithms predicted share price changes. The article argues that political-economic struggles are integral to the existence of some of the 'pockets' of predictable structure in the otherwise random movements of prices, to the availability of the data that allow algorithms to identify these pockets, and to the capacity of algorithms to use these predictions to trade profitably. The article also examines the role of HFT algorithms such as ATD's in the epochal, fiercely contested shift in US share trading from 'fixed-role' markets towards 'all-to-all' markets.

Pharmaceutical patenting and the transformation of American medical ethics.

The attitudes of physicians and drug manufacturers in the US toward patenting pharmaceuticals changed dramatically from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. Formerly, physicians and reputable manufacturers argued that pharmaceutical patents prioritized profit over the advancement of medical science. Reputable manufactures refused to patent their goods and most physicians shunned patented products. However, moving into the early twentieth century, physicians and drug manufacturers grew increasingly comfortable with the idea of pharmaceutical patents. In 1912, for example, the American Medical Association dropped the prohibition on physicians holding medical patents. Shifts in wider patenting cultures therefore transformed the ethical sensibilities of physicians.

Hashish in Morocco and Lebanon: A comparative study.

BACKGROUND: In the 1960s and the 1970s, Morocco and Lebanon became major producers of hashish for export to markets in West and Central Europe, Africa and the Middle East. By using a comparative approach, this paper aims to evaluate changes in production in the traditional areas of cannabis cultivation in the Rif (Morocco) and the Beqaa (Lebanon) and to better understand the role that these countries play in current trends in the global cultivation and consumption of cannabis. METHODS: The comparative approach takes in account the historical and institutionnal context, and the perception of cannabis in those two country. We rely on primary field research done in the Rif (from 2002) and in the Beqaa (from 1995) in the form of interviews and observations with farmers and intermediaries. Acreage and production estimates of hashish for both countries have been triangulated from different sources. RESULTS: Maghreb and Middle East have a long history of consumption, production and marketing of cannabis. Over the past 12 centuries, migration, trade and different spiritual practices and trends have led to the expansion of cannabis markets. This long period is marked by stages and rifts caused by foreign interference, a worldwide prohibition of cannabis at the beginning of the 20th century and increased global demand in the 1960s and the 1970s. Morocco and Lebanon are among the most important producers of hashish to be exported for trade for the last fifty years. The global prohibition of cannabis and the global sustained demand have created opportunities for poor farmers in the Rif and the Beqaa regions to survive and get wealthy. It is difficult to understand the reasons why areas producing cannabis are steadily increasing. If the Rif and the Beqaa share some features (such are marginalized areas of production, repressive legislation, huge international demand, range of comparable tasks and Mediterranean climate suitable for growing cannabis, etc.) then a comparison between the two countries makes it more easy to notice differences in contexts, in local and international markets (Stability in Morocco, instability in Lebanon; traditional market in Morocco, absence of local market in Lebanon, etc.) In Morocco, the stability and specialized skills among Moroccan growers of hashish have enhanced a competitive economy with various production areas, products and qualities, but also prices and strategies due to competition between Moroccan and European producers. Moreover, Morocco produces cannabis for its significant local market. CONCLUSION: As shown by comparing Morocco and Lebanon, allows us to examine their perverse effects caused by a global prohibition. The criminalization of growers has only increased their marginalized situation. The enforced eradication of cannabis has limited the cultivation for a short time but not in any sustainable way (resumption of cannabis cultivation in a time of conflict in Lebanon; replacement of local variety by hybrids in Morocco). The cultural heritage of cannabis and its social functions should not be ignored. In the light of the new global changes in the cannabis cultivation (Import substitution, technical progress in developed countries, etc.), hashish producers in the south countries are likely to face uncertain future.

Neoliberal science, Chinese style: Making and managing the 'obesity epidemic'.

Science and Technology Studies has seen a growing interest in the commercialization of science. In this article, I track the role of corporations in the construction of the obesity epidemic, deemed one of the major public health threats of the century. Focusing on China, a rising superpower in the midst of rampant, state-directed neoliberalization, I unravel the process, mechanisms, and broad effects of the corporate invention of an obesity epidemic. Largely hidden from view, Western firms were central actors at every stage in the creation, definition, and governmental management of obesity as a Chinese disease. Two industry-funded global health entities and the exploitation of personal ties enabled actors to nudge the development of obesity science and policy along lines beneficial to large firms, while obscuring the nudging. From Big Pharma to Big Food and Big Soda, transnational companies have been profiting from the 'epidemic of Chinese obesity', while doing little to effectively treat or prevent it. The China case suggests how obesity might have been constituted an 'epidemic threat' in other parts of the world and underscores the need for global frameworks to guide the study of neoliberal science and policymaking.