Hinterlands And Commodities

In Hinterlands and Commodities, well-known historians and an economist examine perennially important questions concerning temporal and spatial relationships among central places, hinterlands, commodities, and political economic developments in Asia and the Global economy over the long eighteenth century.

This book examines the role of mercantile networks in linking Asian economies to the global economy. It contains fourteen contributions on East, Southeast and South Asia covering the period from 1750 to the present.

This interdisciplinary book brings together eleven original contributions by scholars in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, America and Japan which represent innovative and important research on the relationship between cities and their hinterlands. They discuss the factors which determined the changing nature of port-hinterland relations in particular, and highlight the ways in which port-cities have interacted and intersected with their different hinterlands as a result of both in- and out-migration, cultural exchange and the wider flow of goods, services and information. Historically, maritime commerce was a powerful driving force behind urbanisation and by 1850 seaports accounted for a significant proportion of the world’s great cities. Ports acted as nodal points for the flow of population and the dissemination of goods and services, but their role as growth poles also affected the economic transformation of both their hinterlands and forelands. In fact, most ports, irrespective of their size, had a series of overlapping hinterlands whose shifting importance reflected changes in trading relations (political frameworks), migration patterns, family networks and cultural exchange. Urban historians have been criticised for being concerned primarily with self-contained processes which operate within the boundaries of individual towns and cities and as a result, the key relationships between cities and their hinterlands have often been neglected. The chapters in this work focus primarily on the determinants of port-hinterland linkages and analyse these as distinct, but interrelated, fields of interaction. Marking a significant contribution to the literature in this field, Port-Cities and their Hinterlands provides essential reading for students and scholars of the history of economics.

A sweeping account of how the sea routes of Asia have transformed a vast expanse of the globe over the past five hundred years, powerfully shaping the modern world In the centuries leading up to our own, the volume of traffic across Asian sea routes—an area stretching from East Africa and the Middle East to Japan—grew dramatically, eventually making them the busiest in the world. The result was a massive circulation of people, commodities, religion, culture, technology, and ideas. In this book, Eric Tagliacozzo chronicles how the seas and oceans of Asia have shaped the history of the largest continent for the past half millennium, leaving an indelible mark on the modern world in the process. Paying special attention to migration, trade, the environment, and cities, In Asian Waters examines the long history of contact between China and East Africa, the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism across the Bay of Bengal, and the intertwined histories of Islam and Christianity in the Philippines. The book illustrates how India became central to the spice trade, how the Indian Ocean became a “British lake” between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and how lighthouses and sea mapping played important roles in imperialism. The volume ends by asking what may happen if China comes to rule the waves of Asia, as Britain once did. A novel account showing how Asian history can be seen as a whole when seen from the water, In Asian Waters presents a voyage into a past that is still alive in the present.

In a world where most international trade is carried by sea, each port can be seen as a unique chokepoint competing to attract ever more traffic and economic activities. However, ports can also be seen as parts of a wider system, which can be defined as a system of two or more ports located in proximity within a given area. Their fate and governance is jointly influenced when belonging to the same region, country, or transnational space. Investments, shocks, innovations, and delays occurring in one port often affect other ports within a certain spatial range and time lapse. Further understanding of such co-developments in port systems is necessary to go beyond local specificities, through a multidisciplinary and multi-level contribution. Port Systems in Global Competition is an answer to the strong and urgent need for reviewing the relevant theories, concepts, methods, and sources that can be mobilized for the analysis of port systems. With contributions from reputable scholars coming from no less than 11 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America, this book delves into the analysis of port systems from diverse disciplinary angles (geography, regional science, economics, management, engineering, and mathematics/computer sciences), covering innovative empirical approaches to various port systems in the world. The theoretical and empirical knowledge can support and enhance decision-making in relation with the development of ports, supply chains, and transport networks in general. This book is an ideal companion to academics and upper-level students interested in the analysis of transport and economic systems in general, as well as the effective ways to answer complex issues in transportation and socio-economic development. It will be a valuable resource for those researching or studying transportation and supply chains, maritime and port economics, as well as regional development and human geography.

This book, originally published in 1983, demonstrates the importance of seaports in the growth of less-developed countries. The author focuses on the character of port activity within the context of transport systems and regional economic planning. General principles of port development are illustrated by detailed reference to one Third World port group, that of the Indian Ocean coasts of Kenya and Tanzania. The objective is not merely to illustrate the character of one specific group of ports, but to demonstrate methods of analysis and to underline the crucial role of ports in the development process.

Who defines the landscapes around us? What practices are employed as contemporary landscapes are produced? This issue argues that landscapes are made and remade through interrelations between people and the worlds around them – from geographers investigating the lives of urban wastelands to landscape architects projecting future cities, and from migrants navigating border systems to artists working with local residents. In contrast to tendencies to emphasise the physical forms of landscapes, with their potential to be redesigned and represented in drawings, this issue brings to the forefront the social constructedness of landscapes by focusing on a range of critical practices and daily actions. As conventional frames of landscape are challenged, other ways of measuring, mapping, imagining, designing, building and occupying them are revealed. For centuries, artists and designers have represented landscapes of power in paintings and have transformed them through their design proposals. But in recent years a number of researchers, designers, artists and activists have explored an expanded field of landscape, investigating populations fleeing conflict zones, reimagining cities facing ecological challenges, questioning territorial claims, and critiquing processes of urbanisation. This issue focuses on some of these individuals whose work and lives encompass a diverse range of practices, brought together through their critical redefinition of landscape relations. Contributors: Pierre Bélanger, Harry Bix, Neil Brenner and Nikos Katsikis, Luis Callejas and Charlotte Hansson, James Corner, Gareth Doherty and Pol Fité Matamoros, Matthew Gandy, Christina Leigh Geros, Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy, Nina-Marie Lister, Richard Mosse, Kate Orff, Toya Peal, Neil Spiller, Tiago Torres Campos and Tim Waterman. Featured practices: Advanced Landscape and Urbanism, Design Earth, East Anglia Records, Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, Furtherfield, James Corner Field Operations, Larissa Fassler, LCLA office, OPSYS and SCAPE.