Search

The European consumer revolution has gained increasing attention in recent years. This paper goes beyond the previous scholarly focus upon western Europe in general, and Britain in particular, by studying the consumer revolution in the Baltic region in general, and Denmark and Sweden in particular. Previous research has underestimated the quantities of 'new luxuries' imported into the Baltic region. Disaggregating the region, the empirical evidence shows that the Danish population consumed approximately as much sugar for example as the British did, already by the late 18th century. The paper argues that this to a large extent can be attributed to the fact that real wages in Denmark were comparatively high at the time, even approaching the levels paid to workers in high-wage countries in north-western Europe. The high wages, together with a number of other factors, thus enabled an early consumer revolution at least in this part of the Baltic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the discovery of the oldest evidence for human presence in the southeastern Baltic Sea region. This paper presents an overview of the Riadino-5 archaeological site in the lower course of the Šešupė River (Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia) and direct infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) ages for the culture-bearing sediments from the site, which place the time of occupation well within the range of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (ca 57-26 ka). Luminescence ages were determined using the multiple-aliquot additive-dose technique, applied to sand-sized potassium feldspar. Four of the six IRSL samples from the site come from the cultural deposits, while two are from the surrounding sediments. The luminescence age of the deposits implies that human occupation of the southeastern Baltic Sea region occurred at least between 50 ka and 44 ka during the first half of MIS 3 and the Middle-Upper Paleolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I analyze how the histories of the Baltic Sea region have been constructed and used in the post-Cold War period. After 1989, historians assumed the role of region-builders. Historical narratives were constructed based on a definition of the region as a place of networks, with the aim to break with the traditional historiography of the belligerent Baltic Sea region. This approach, which was most visible in the 1990s, was conditioned by political and economic processes; but it failed to encompass the whole region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at a conference titled "Fear and Loathing in the North: Muslims and Jews in Medieval Scandinavia and the Baltic Region," which was held June 10-11, 2013 at Stockholm University in Stockholm, Sweden, is presented. Topics include the portrayal of Jews in medieval Swedish sermons, the religious views of Peter the Venerable, and the influence of Islamic scientific works in medieval Iceland.

This article focuses on the impact of growing transnational contacts among Baltic historians in exile in the Western world in the 1970s and 1980s, especially the role of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS). The AABS quickly developed strong ties to Baltic scholars in Western Europe and, working together, this transnational network played a key role in establishing Baltic studies as a recognized field of academic inquiry in the West. The methodology of area studies encouraged a broader and more comparative approach to Baltic history, which came to be increasingly practiced in these two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the shipping of five key Asian, African and American drugs through the Danish Sound in the period 1650-1850 suggests that the Baltic Sea area absorbed exotic medicinal drugs in significant quantities only from the second half of the eighteenth century--at least about a century later than northwest Europe. This may be an indication that the area differed significantly from northwest Europe in the development of medical services. We have analysed the shipping of five medicinal drugs: china root, sarsaparilla, rhubarb, senna and benjamin. The main source for this analysis is the Danish Sound Toll Registers (STRs), accessed via Sound Toll Registers Online, the STRs electronic database at www.soundtoll.nl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the institutional structure of medieval overseas trade to explain why trade thrived even in the absence of the state. The literature has dealt mainly with intra-coalition or intra-community relations. However, the literature does not answer the question of how institutions could be created that could support interaction between a large number of distant communities and between merchants who did not necessarily know one another. This article presents such an institution that prevailed in the Baltic Sea region in the late middle ages, referred to here as the inter-communal conciliation mechanism. In case of a dispute, conciliation took place between town councils, rather than the merchants involved in the dispute, thus combining individual liability and communal enforcement. Exploration of the documents reveals a task-specific regularity of behaviour, which was the general practice among merchants to turn to the council of their own community when they had problems in a foreign town, instead of being obliged to solve disputes by themselves. This institution provided a permanent, centralized, and relatively impartial enforcement mechanism to respond to breaches. It was therefore well adapted to large, at least partially anonymous markets, such as the Baltic Sea region, with dozens of towns and thousands of merchants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Historica Tallinnensia is the property of Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Comparativ: Leipziger Beiträge zur Universalgeschichte und Vergleichenden Gesellschaftsforschung is the property of Leipziger Universitaetsverlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Author-supplied Abstracts.)

This article explores the development of market integration within the Baltic Sea region and with England, from the 1840s to the late 1880s. It exploits two new datasets on grain prices. The degree of market integration is estimated using a wavelet variant of dynamic factor analysis that takes account of both time and distance. Additionally, we use the London corn market as the benchmark for the degree of market integration. Our results show that the role of distance disappeared in the wheat and rye, but not in the oats and barley trade, as the Baltic Sea Region became integrated into the Atlantic economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Questions of how agricultural science would be defined, who would conduct the research, where investigations and teaching would take place, and whose interests it would serve became significant issues in the Baltic provinces in the nineteenth century. The Baltic German elite made repeated efforts to bring scientific agricultural practices into the region and to build institutions that would disseminate them in ways that suited local interests. While previous studies have defined Baltic German endeavors in the agricultural sciences as successes, this study focuses on the frustrations, cultural complexities, ideological controversies, and even violence that came with efforts at agricultural modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author focuses on the history of the Baltic Sea region (BSR).

The concept of ‘information costs’ has attracted attention as a means of understanding economic dynamics. In the early modern trade economy, the costs of maintaining business correspondence were an important part of information costs. In this article, the Swedish general postage tariff (used in 1693–1747) is analysed in order to reveal the geographic pattern of information costs, measured as postage. It is shown that central parts of Sweden benefited, including the iron-producing regions and its export harbours, while important trade ports in the eastern parts of the empire faced high costs even though Sweden claimed control over large parts of the Baltic Sea area up to 1721. Swedish correspondence with western and southern Europe carried lower costs than correspondence with eastern Europe. This was an effect of a tariff constructed on postage-per-distance and of letting profitable lines subsidise a dense, territorial postal network. Sea post became particularly expensive as the volume of letters was too small for effective use of the post ships' carriage capacity; this challenges the view that early modern commercial networks were connected by sea since transport on sea was superior to land-bound transport. Transfer of information was often better provided on land. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article closely examines the development of the trade in timber between Norway and the Baltic region with Britain in the period 1780–1830. It looks also at the scale of the trade and its role in the economic development of the countries involved, as well as how it became a global trade. Moreover, it discusses the balance of power between what is commonly understood as centres and peripheries at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the Baltic Sea region in the context of international environmental cooperation. The region's history of intergovernmental, non-governmental, formal, and informal collaboration in environmental politics is noted. The discussion topics include the Baltic Marine Environmental Protection Commission or Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), multi-level governance across public, private, and civil society sectors in an institutionalized transnational-relations network, and the region's economic and political interdependence. The roles of the European Union, nongovernmental organizations, and HELCOM in regional environmental cooperation are noted.

The article discusses some scholarly aspects related to collective memory in the Baltic Sea region and beyond. The distinction between memory and history as well as communicative and cultural memory are discussed. It also highlights the national and transnational perspectives that shape public debates concerning collective memory.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including an outline of the scholarly discussions on collective memory and places of memory, as well as the Estonian memory templates, and analysis of Soviet memory politics in Vilnius, Lithuania.