The Exchange

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Markets, Law, and Ethics, 1400-1850," which will be held at the University of Sheffield on June 22-24, 2012. In the words of the organizers, This call seeks papers concerned with the culture of the market in the late medieval and early modern periods, conceived broadly as the norms, laws, customs and practices of exchange, including (but not limited to) buying and selling and lending and borrowing in 1400-1850. . . . This conference offers an opportunity for scholars from diverse historiographical backgrounds to come together and compare and contrast findings and thoughts across conventional chronologies and geographies, to reflect on the implications of supra-imperial and global approaches, and ponder possible future interpretations of late medieval/early modern market culture.     Paper proposals should include a title and 300-word abstracts, and should be emailed to Simon Middleton and J. E. Shaw by Decembe...

Bonus Army, Washington, D.C, July 1932 (Library of Congress) A number of scholars, including some business and labor historians, have been commenting on historical points of comparison for the current "Occupy Wall Street" movement. A brief rundown: Alan Brinkley , Columbia University, on Politico , "Bonus March and Occupy Wall Street" Steve Fraser , New York University, in The Nation , "OWS and the All-American Tradition of Resistance" Beverly Gage , Yale University, on NPR's "All Things Considered" (transcript and audio) Gary Gerstle, Vanderbilt University, in Salon.com and on YouTube Michael Kazin , Georgetown University, New York Times , "Whatever Happened to the American Left?" Kim Phillips-Fein , New York University, New York Times op-ed, "In Bleak '70s, Salvo of Protest" Judith Stein , City University of New York, at Dissent, "OWS: A Sign of Our Times" The History News Network is keep...

The Yale Program in Economic History and Yale Environmental History will co-sponsor a conference on the theme “Resources: Endowment or Curse, Better or Worse,” which will take place on February 24-25, 2012. The program has now been posted on the Program in Economic History website. Among the questions the conference will consider are: “How do the characteristics and availability of natural resources shape political institutions? How have states mobilized resources to bolster their legitimacy and extend their influence? How have economic and environmental historians, political scientists, and others approached the concept of resources in the past and what are some directions for future work?” The keynote address will be given by Richard White of Stanford University, who will speak on “Incommensurate Measures: Nature, History, and Economics.”     Further information and updates about the conference will be posted on the Yale Program in Economic History website as th...

The Economic History Association (EHA) will hold its next annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, on September 21-23, 2012. The theme for the meeting is "Revisiting the Transportation Revolution." The program committee (Robert Margo, Boston University [chair]; Ran Abramitzky, Stanford University; Leah Boustan, UCLA; and Eugene White, Rutgers University) welcomes submissions on all subjects in economic history, though some preference will be given to papers that specifically fit the year's theme. All papers should be submitted individually; authors may suggest that three particular papers would fit well together in a session but such suggestions are not binding on the committee.     Papers and session proposals should be submitted online at www.eh.net/eha/meetings/submissions . Paper proposals should include a 3-5 page précis and a 150-word abstract suitable for publication in the Journal of Economic History . The submission deadline is January 27, 2012...

Detail from Marinus van Reymerswaele, "The Usurers," c. 1540 Readers may be interested in an exhibit that opened in September at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, "Money and Beauty: Bankers, Botticelli, and the Bonfire of the Vanities." The exhibit "recounts the birth of our modern banking system and of the economic boom that it triggered, providing a reconstruction of European life and the continent's economy from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance." For those fortunate enough to be in Florence soon, the exhibit runs through January 22, 2012; others can read more about the exhibit and see examples of the artwork on a number of sites, in addition to the "exhibition walkthrough" material on the Palazzo Strozzi exhibition pages: The Economist , "The Benefits of Early Money-Laundering" The Wall Street Journal , "For the Love of Money: The Birth of Modern Banking and the Art That Made It Possible" Medievalists.net ...

The M6 Business History Group , an informal network of business historians who live and work near the M6 motorway in England, will hold its next workshop on January 26, 2012, at Coventry University. As detailed in the call for papers, the topic is "Firms' Responses to Globalisation in Different Periods of History." Although the workshop will focus on how firms have responded to globalisation, the submission of papers outside of the theme is also encouraged. Presenters from all disciplines are welcome to attend, as are those who work in archives. Those interested in presenting should submit a 200-word abstract to Andrew Smith before December 1, 2011 . Those interested in attending should complete and return the booking form , by January 19, 2012. The full call for papers is available here .

Origins is an on-line site for multimedia occasional papers published by the Department of History at Ohio State University. The current featured article, “Energy Policy and the Long Transition in America,” written by OSU professor William R. Childs , will be of interest to business and economic historians. The abstract states: Energy has been in the news lately: The natural gas industry appears to be developing a world market; the U.S. Army is experimenting with “alternative” and “renewable” energy sources; “green” and “conservation” are being marketed as sound corporate management strategies. A half century ago the emphasis on natural gas, alternative and renewable fuels, and conservation were not in the energy policy mix in the United States. The convergence of historical trends in the 1970s, however, ushered in a “long transition” in American energy policy-making that is on-going. This month historian William R. Childs untangles a few of the many complex strands that make...