Récits de voyages marchands dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle : portrait du négociant en héros

Dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle, pendant le règne de Louis XIV, encouragés par le pouvoir, les voyages connaissent un essor spectaculaire, et avec eux les récits qui en sont faits. Parmi eux, le récit de voyage commercial occupe une place importante. Des voyageurs comme Tavernier (Les six voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier…, 1676) et Chardin (Voyages de Monsieur le Chevalier Chardin en Perse et autres lieux de l’Orient, 1686), tous deux experts en joaillerie, incarnent la figure du négociant cultivé et audacieux, représentatif de cette période.Travaillant pour leur propre compte et fortune, ces voyageurs sont en phase avec l’ambition nationale de conquête. Leur parcours individuel s’inscrit donc dans un contexte d’épopée collective. L’aventure commerciale est marquée par un ennoblissement idéologique et le négociant, soudainement valorisé, y gagne un statut de protagoniste. Avec lui, le monde concret, généralement fort peu présent dans la littérature du XVIIe siècle, fait irruption dans la littérature de voyage : l’argent y est un thème omniprésent associé à celui de l’ascension sociale. Mais le voyage marchand est aussi le contexte d’une valorisation de la notion de « métier », de savoir-faire, et bien sûr de travail et d’effort.Au-delà, on assiste à la promotion littéraire de certaines valeurs « bourgeoises », qui avaient eu jusque-là un statut plutôt marginal. Le récit devient souvent la preuve tangible d’une réussite sociale et matérielle, et la somme de connaissances est à l’image des profits que le voyage a permis d’effectuer : l’exigence de « rendement » intellectuel répond ici à l’impératif de profit commercial.In the second half of  XVIIth century, during the reign of Louis XIV, there was a spectacular increase in the number of voyages, and of narratives made about them. Among these, the narrative of commercial voyage occupies an important place. Travellers like Tavernier (Six voyages of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier…, 1676), and Chardin (Journal du chevalier Chardin en Perse et aux Indes orientales, 1686), both expert jewellers, typify the cultivated and daring trader representative of this period. Working for their own fortune, these travellers are also in phase with the national ambition of conquest. The commercial venture is heightened by an ideological ennoblement, and the trader of higher stature, suddenly becomes a protagonist. With him, the real world, generally absent from XVIIth century literature, comes to the fore : money as a tool to social climbing is everywhere. But the commercial voyage also serves to valorise the concepts of trade, work and effort. Beyond that, one witnesses the literary promotion of certain «middle-class» values, which had been until then rather marginal. The narrative often becomes tangible proof of a social and material success and a sum of knowledge, with intellectual and material profit becoming equals

Measuring of Fiber/Matrix Adhesion in Thermoplastic Polymer Composites: A Preliminary Study

The possibilities of the application of microbond test and cylinder tests for determining the interfacial shea r strength at the fiber - matrix interface in thermoplastic matrix polymer composites were investigated . Possibilities of test specimen preparation were also investigated. Finally the applicability of the method to make high precision measurement of interfac ial shear strength was evaluated

Images pittoresques, texte « romanesque » : La représentation de l’indigène dans le Voyage du chevalier d’Arvieux (Paris, André Cailleau, 1717)

En 1717 paraît la relation du voyage fait par le chevalier d’Arvieux en Palestine, à la cour des Bédouins (voyage effectué de 1664 à 1665). Au fil de ce récit, on relève trois illustrations représentant les indigènes côtoyés et décrits par le narrateur. Leur fonction première, traditionnelle dans le genre du récit de voyage, semble documentaire. L’image a aussi dans ce récit une valeur discrètement pittoresque et tend à figer les personnages représentés en « types ». Au-delà, l’image semble parfois avoir une troisième fonction, plus originale. Elle participe à la « dérive romanesque » du récit, fréquente dans les récits de voyage, et c’est par la mise en relation avec le texte qu’elle acquiert cette fonction. Ainsi, rien n’indique dans la légende de la première illustration (« Cavalier arabe ») qu’elle pourrait représenter le chevalier d’Arvieux lui-même ; pourtant, elle est insérée au milieu de la description du déguisement « à l’arabesque » que le voyageur-narrateur adopte au début de son voyage, pour déjouer les périls de la route. L’image dans ce récit a donc un statut ambigu : censée représenter l’autre, elle tend en même temps à représenter le voyageur (narrateur) lui-même, sous les oripeaux de l’indigène ; supposée apporter des précisions documentaires et objectives, elle introduit le thème du déguisement, du masque et de la supercherie et, au-delà, révèle le processus de métamorphose identitaire à l’oeuvre dans le voyage.The year 1717 saw the publication of the travelogue kept by the chevalier d’Arvieux in Palestine and at the Bedouins’ court from 1664 to 1665. Throughout this narrative, three illustrations of the local inhabitants emerge that are primarily of documentary value (as is usually the case in such writings). Yet these depictions also tend to typecast the people in a somewhat picturesque fashion. As well, these images serve a third, more original purpose, their close relationship with the words causing the diary to evolve into a novel, a drift not uncommon to travelogues. For instance, nothing in the caption of the first image (“Arab rider”) rules out the possibility that the man is the chevalier d’Arvieux himself. Yet it intersperses the description of the “arabesque” disguise adopted by the author at the beginning of his journey to thwart upcoming dangers. This image is therefore ambiguous, supposedly depicting “another” while illustrating the author in local garb, providing objective documentary clarifications while suggesting hidden meanings of deceit and disguise, and possibly bringing to the fore the apparent morphing of the author’s identity with the characters he describes

Indirekt påverkan från barn till förälder

Ett väl utforskat område inom sociologin är hur föräldrar påverkar sina barn. Få studier har dock gjorts på hur barn i sin tur kan påverka sina föräldrar, därmed behandlar denna studie ett outforskat område. Hälsogruppen, som har sin verksamhet i en kommun i södra Sverige, arbetar med att skapa livsstilsförändringar hos överviktiga barn och ungdomar. Förutom att verksamheten har positiva hälsoeffekter på barnet uppger vissa av föräldrarna att även deras hälsa har förbättrats, som ett resultat av deras barns medverkan. Syftet med den här studien är att utforska hur barn indirekt kan påverka sina föräldrars upplevda hälsa positivt genom att vara deltagare i en hälsofrämjande verksamhet. I denna kvalitativa studie intervjuas sex stycken föräldrar till barn som deltar i Hälsogruppensgruppens verksamhet. The transactional model används som teoretisk referensram. Studiens resultat visar på att barnens deltagande i den hälsofrämjande verksamheten indirekt bidrar till en ökad fysisk aktivitet hos sina föräldrar. Ett annat resultat av detta är att relationen mellan vissa föräldrar och deras barn har förbättrats. Flera föräldrar nämner att ökningen av den fysiska aktiviteten inte hade skett om barnet inte hade fått möjligheten att delta i Hälsogruppen

Investigation of fiber/matrix adhesion: test speed and specimen shape effects in the cylinder test

The cylinder test, developed from the microdroplet test, was adapted to assess the interfacial adhesion strength between fiber and matrix. The sensitivity of cylinder test to pull-out speed and specimen geometry was measured. It was established that the effect of test speed can be described as a superposition of two opposite, simultaneous effects which have been modeled mathematically by fitting two parameter Weibull curves on the measured datas. Effects of the cylinder size and its geometrical relation on the measured strength values have been analyzed by finite element method. It was concluded that the geometry has a direct influence on the stress formation. Based on the results achieved, recommendations were given on how to perform the novel single fiber cylinder test

Resource Extraction in Brazil. Trade Misinvoicing in the Mining Sector

LATINDADD (Red Latinoamericana por Justicia Económica y Scoial), em conjunto com o Instituto Justiça Fiscal do Brasil, elaboraram um estudo que analisa os fluxos financeiros ilícitos no setor de mineração no Brasil, encontrando evidências de como as empresas extrativas aplicam práticas de evasão fiscal e remetem os lucros para territórios com baixa ou nenhuma carga tributária

Conflict inflation and autonomous demand: a supermultiplier model with endogenous distribution

The disciplinary role of unemployment has long been acknowledged in economic theory. Seminal works on conflict inflation have included the unemployment rate as a determinant of workers’ bargaining power, which thus affects distribution and inflation (Rowthorn, 1977). In extensions to the long run, however, conflict inflation models have shifted away from this analytical approach and replaced the unemployment rate with the rate of change in unemployment as a determinant of workers’ claim (Cassetti, 2002; Lavoie, 2022). A similar approach is found in Nah and Lavoie (2019), who introduced conflict inflation in an autonomous demand-led growth model in which the unemployment rate – contrarily to empirical evidence – has no permanent effect on wage claims and income distribution We propose here an alternative way to combine conflict inflation and autonomous demand-led growth in a Sraffian supermultiplier model. We introduce the unemployment rate as a determinant of workers’ claim in a conflicting claims model. Modeling of the labor market relies on an endogenous adjustment of labor supply to demand (Fazzari, Ferri, and Variato, 2020). We extend the typical results of short-run conflict inflation models to the long run, finding that high (low) unemployment rate reduces (increases) both the equilibrium wage share and conflict inflation. By incorporating income distribution as an endogenous factor through a conflicting claims process, we establish a direct relationship between the growth rate of autonomous demand and the wage share. This relation discloses a conflict underlying the determinants of autonomous demand growth. We conclude that in the political economy of growth and distribution it is crucial to consider the impact of autonomous demand growth on workers’ bargaining power and income distributio

State-owned and multinational enterprises partnership as an import substitution strategy: A narrative ARDL approach to the case of oil contracts in Argentina (1958–1962)

To avoid balance of payments crises, two Argentinian presidents tried to make deals (‘oil contracts’ ) with multinationals to transfer technology and know-how to YPF, which is a state-owned company in the oil sector. The aim was to substitute imports. The ‘oil nationalism’ doctrine opposed these agreements, arguing that multinational companies are a threat to the national security. In both cases, the story ended in a coup d’´etat, first in the period 1954/1955 (against President Juan Domingo Perón) and the second in 1962/1963 (against President Arturo Frondizi). Based on a demand-led growth model in small open economies, we show that the process of import substitution led by government agreements with multinational firms can result in an increase of national production. Using an original dataset, we corroborate this theoretical result by applying a narrative ARDL approach to the Argentinean experience (1958-1962), where a government policy to promote technological transfer, from multinational firms to YPF, to substitute imports was in place. We conclude that the oil contracts were successful