Vol. 72, No.3

Pat HUDSON
Choice and habit in history

This paper questions the current disciplinary boundaries between action defined as ‘economic’ (and analysed by economists and economic historians as such) and the rest of social life, which is generally left to other specialists. This involves addressing the supposedly antithetical approaches of social science on the one hand and hermeneutic enquiry on the other. Starting with a brief autobiographical excursus that implicitly highlights the close relationship between the subject and the object of study, the supposed polarisations between science and description, deduction and induction, quantitative and qualitative approaches, numbers and words are considered. Finally, the concept of everyday life is discussed as a sort of second nature in which people orientate themselves without deliberate reflection: a set of influences that frame all decision making within norms and values that emanate from home, family, community and locality. Everyday life — habitual and unreflective — has not been the focus of either history or social science. It has been particularly absent from economic analysis because of exclusive concentration upon deliberative, ‘rational’ action and choice. Via brief discussion of the overlap between heterodox economics and a hermeneutic understanding of everyday actions that have a material impact, the paper concludes with an argument in favour of a complementarity rather than a bifurcation of approaches in economic history.

<Conference report>
Yoshitaka SUZUKI
Europe catches up with the East

It is well known that during the pre-modern era the industrial and economic levels of some East Asian regions were often more advanced than those in Europe. This situation reversed itself by the mid-eighteenth century. In Europe, income inequality made it possible for some people to use their surplus income to buy tasteful goods, thus forming fashion and luxury markets, and a series of innovations took place targeting such demand.

Yoshitaka SUZUKI
East Asian goods and the substitution of raw materials in European industries during the eighteenth century

Throughout the seventeenth century, East Asian products were the standard of beauty and taste in Europe. Practical and tasteful modern goods produced in Asia, such as cotton, silk, porcelain, and lacquerware, were far superior to European products, such as fustians, Levant silk, majolica and stoneware, and Italian lacquerware. But by the end of the eighteenth century, European manufacturers caught up with and surpassed their Asian counterparts in both quality and cost. This paper demonstrates that the main factor that brought about this change was in the substitution of materials in European industries.

Beverly LEMIRE
Shaping demand, making fashion: Asia, Europe and the trade in Indian cottons — a well-worn tale reconsidered, c. 1300-1800

This article rethinks a well-worn tale of East-West trade. First, I have explored the importance of the long history of India’s textile trade with Eurasian cities. Next, I have suggested the early impact of the direct trade between Europe and the Indian sub-continent to give a fuller picture of Indian-European interaction. Finally, I have considered global trade dynamics in the light of India’s role as the world’s pre-eminent provisioner of fabrics for soft furnishing and apparel before the advent of European industrialization. In shaping markets and serving fashion, Indian cottons prepared consumer markets for the modern industrial age.

Hiroshi AOKI
The mobilization of science and the ‘Research Groups’ under the National Research Council of Japan during World War II

This article focuses on the activities of the Research Groups (Kenkyu han) promoted by the National Research Council of Japan (NRCJ) during World War II. Research collaboration has recently attracted the attention of many scholars as a factor in the development of Japanese technology. In fact, there were a large number of research collaboration activities during the period, and the Research Groups were one of the largest of such groups.

NRCJ, established in 1920 under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, had been mainly involved in the promotion of international academic collaboration until World War II. But when the Board of Technology (Gijutsuin) was established for the mobilization of science and technology and the tide of the Pacific War turned against Japan, the Ministry of Education enforced a reform so that NCRJ could launch widespread research collaboration throughout the country.

The Research Groups were organized in 1944, and at its peak had 193 groups and a total of over 1,900 scientists. Typical research issues included electronics, scarce and rare materials, and public health. These were similar to those of the Research Neighborhood Groups (Kenkyu tonarigumi), which were promoted by the Board of Technology, resulting in some duplication of activities between the two groups and leading to inefficiency in the mobilization of science and technology research.