Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Hocquet, Jean-Claude, Le marchand et les poids et mesures. (Variorum Collected Studies) 312 pp. 2022:10 (Routledge, UK) <679-394>
ISBN 978-1-03-234547-5 hard ¥36,025.- (税込) GB￡ 125.00 *

Published in French in this Variorum volume, these chapters represent over twenty years of scholarship and publication. Many have been updated and translated from German and Italian into French for the first time. The chapters all deal with merchants, of whom the author is a world-renowned specialist, and their use of local weights and measures during the Middle Ages and the modern period. The reader is taken on a journey from the Carolingian Empire to pre-Columbian Mexico and post-colonial Java or Madagascar, from the measures of ancient Rome to the aluminium can of the 21st century. As the author has specialised in the history of salt and saltworks or of the sea, the book also makes room for salt springs, fish and fishing ports in northern Europe, and finally the scholarly investigation leads to the history of food, bread and cereals. The book expands on the earlier survey published in the Variorum series, which dealt mainly with Venice and salt, and was very well received by the educated public, who still wonder how people overcame the chaos of the old measures. The revolution of 1789 put an end to this situation by inventing the metre and the decimal system. (CS 1107).

〔独訳〕T.ピケティ著　平等小史
Piketty, Thomas, Eine kurze Geschichte der Gleichheit. 2. Aufl. Aus dem Franzoesischen von S. Lorenzer. 320 S. 2022 (Beck, GW) <679-395>
ISBN 978-3-406-79098-0 hard ¥6,077.- (税込) EUR 25.00 *

"Das ist ja interessant, was Sie schreiben, aber koennen Sie es vielleicht auch kuerzer sagen?" Diese Frage ist Thomas Piketty, der mit seinen voluminoesen Bestsellern "Das Kapital im 21. Jahrhundert" und "Kapital und Ideologie" eine internationale Debatte ueber die Ursachen sozialer Ungleichheit in Gang gebracht hat, oft gestellt worden. Piketty hat diese Bitten ernst genommen und sich an die Arbeit gemacht. Das Ergebnis ist eine Weltgeschichte der sozialen Konflikte und Konstellationen und eine Lektion in globaler Gerechtigkeit: das eine Oekonomie-Buch, das wirklich jeder gelesen haben sollte. Thomas Piketty hat mit seinen Buechern die soziale Ungleichheit wieder zurueck ins Zentrum der politischen Debatten gebracht. Er sieht und benennt den Fortschritt in der Geschichte, und er zeigt uns, mit welchen Mitteln er erzielt wurde. Aber zugleich verwandelt er die historischen Einsichten in einen Aufruf an uns alle, den Kampf fuer mehr Gerechtigkeit energisch fortzusetzen, auf stabileren historischen Fundamenten und mit einem geschaerften Verstaendnis fuer die Machtstrukturen der Gegenwart. Denn auf dem langen Weg zu einer gerechteren Welt stellt sich fuer jede Generation die Frage, ob sie ein neues Kapitel der Gleichheit aufschlaegt ? oder eines der Ungleichheit.

Brasseul, Jacques, Petite histoire des faits economiques: des origines a nos jours. 6e ed. (Collection U. Histoire) 384 p. 2022:5 (A. Colin, FR) <679-389>
ISBN 978-2-200-63089-8 paper ¥7,293.- (税込) EUR 30.00 *

Gardner, Leigh A., Sovereignty without Power: Liberia in the Age of Empires, 1822-1980. (Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series) 320 pp. 2022:8 (Cambridge U. Pr., UK) <679-391>
ISBN 978-1-00-918110-5 hard ¥21,615.- (税込) GB￡ 75.00 *

What did independence mean during the age of empires? How did independent governments balance different interests when they made policies about trade, money and access to foreign capital? Sovereignty without Power tells the story of Liberia, one of the few African countries to maintain independence through the colonial period. Established in 1822 as a colony for freed slaves from the United States, Liberia's history illustrates how the government's efforts to exercise its economic sovereignty and engage with the global economy shaped Liberia's economic and political development over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Drawing together a wide range of archival sources, Leigh A. Gardner presents the first quantitative estimates of Liberian's economic performance and uses these to compare it to its colonized neighbors and other independent countries. Liberia's history anticipated challenges still faced by developing countries today, and offers a new perspective on the role of power and power relationships in shaping Africa's economic history.

de Riquer, Borja / Toledano, Lluis Ferran / Rubi, G. (eds.), Money, Politics and Corruption in Modern Spain. 240 pp. 2021:4 (Sussex Academic Pr., UK) <679-236>
ISBN 978-1-78976-070-5 hard ¥28,820.- (税込) GB￡ 100.00 *

It is common to think that Latin countries, in southern Europe or Latin America, are naturally corrupt regions when, in reality, this is a modern-day cliche that merely legitimises alleged superiority. This book provides the interpretative tools to investigate political corruption in contemporary Spain and its colonies, in a comparative and interdisciplinary historical perspective, conducted and developed by specialists in economic history, political and administrative history, and political science. Addressing the historical functionality of corruption in Spain, and its weakening of the democratic ideal, provides an investigatory template and research model for combating and better understanding the evolution of corruption in Western democracies and other international arenas. Key to the investigation are the interrelations established between political power bases and different economic interest groups, against the background of elites who have become state players over time. The most frequent corrupt practices are bribery, favouritism, tax fraud, embezzlement of public funds, revolving appointment doors, influence peddling and political control of local territories through electoral corruption (caciquismo). Discussion centres on preventative measures to combat such practices. These behaviours exist historically both in continental Europe and in Great Britain, but with notable differences regarding the impunity of crimes, the lack of division of administrative and political oversight, and the absence of a culture of accountability. Chapter contributions explain the impact and circumstances of corruption in business, the economy, and national and local administrations. The work covers a wide historical range, including the imperial penetration of corruption in Restoration Bourbon Spain; hunger and bribery under the Franco regime; and the consequences of the financial crisis of 2008. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies.

Germain, Gilbert, Non a un plan Marshall pour l'Afrique subsaharienne. Tome 1: 3.000 milliards de dollars d'aides depuis 1960. (Etudes africaines. Economie) 2022:5 (L'Harmattan, FR) <679-254>
ISBN 978-2-343-25284-1 paper ¥5,712.- (税込) EUR 23.50

A.O.ハーシュマン著　戦後経済秩序－国家の復興と国際協力
Hirschman, Albert O., The Postwar Economic Order: National Reconstruction and International Cooperation. Ed. by M. Alacevich et al. 320 pp. 2022:11 (Columbia U. Pr., US) <679-200>
ISBN 978-0-231-20058-5 hard ¥26,928.- (税込) US$ 120.00 *
ISBN 978-0-231-20059-2 paper ¥6,732.- (税込) US$ 30.00 *

Years before he became renowned as one of the most original social scientists of the twentieth century, Albert O. Hirschman played an active role in the rebuilding of postwar Europe. Between 1946 and 1952, he worked as an economic analyst in the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States, focusing on the reconstruction of Europe and the Marshall Plan. In that capacity, Hirschman wrote a number of reports about European economic policies, the first efforts at intra-European cooperation, and the uncertainties that surrounded the shaping of a new international economic order with the United States at its core.The Postwar Economic Order presents a collection of these interrelated reports, which offer incisive firsthand analysis of postwar Europe and give a behind-the-scenes view of American debates on European economic recovery. They feature nuanced and sophisticated discussion of topics such as the postwar "dollar shortage," U.S.-European relations, and the first steps toward European economic integration. Hirschman provides original and perceptive interpretations of the struggles that European governments faced along their paths toward economic recovery. Throughout, Hirschman's stylistic gifts and characteristic ways of reasoning are on full display as he highlights the counterintuitive and paradoxical aspects of economic and political processes. Shedding new light on the origins of European economic cooperation, this book provides unparalleled insight into the development of Hirschman's thinking on economic development and reform.