This book offers a new perspective on the concept of modernity. Since its invention as a contrast to Antiquity or the Middle Ages, modernity has been tied to ideas of superiority, progress, and efficiency. As a counterpart to the Marxist “history of class struggle”, “modernization theories” have transformed modernity into an almost teleological concept of historical development. These strong connotations obstruct a clear look at other forms of modernity.
The contributions of the volume will show in a comparative perspective how modernity can also be understood and analyzed as multiple responses of societies and polities to organize themselves in facing ever more complex and integrated interactions at ever larger scales.
Author(s): Veronika Hyden-Hanscho, Werner Stangl
Series: Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 374
City: Singapore
Foreword
A Personal Reflection on Experiences of Globalization and Early Modern Spanish History
Literature
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
Ideas and Identity
Concepts and Viewpoints in Early Modern Iberian Imperial History and the Globalization of Historiographies
* * *
Bibliography
Art in Republics: Venice and the Netherlands
Introduction
Art Production
Art Market
Art Collecting
Self-Imaging
Conclusion
Bibliography
Watchtowers in the Eighteenth-Century Philippines: Material Representations of Colonial State Power
The Philippine Setting
Watchtowers in the Philippines
The Shape and Development of the Watchtowers in the Philippines
The Construction of the Watchtowers
The Functioning of the Warning and Defense System
The Semantic Aspect
Representativeness, Transmitters, and Recipients
Possible Contents of the Message “Watchtower” for the Natives
Synopsis
Bibliography
Agents of Modernities
Piracy and Local Alliances in an Empire of Archipelagoes
Introduction
An Empire of Archipelagoes
Alliances in Flandes Indiano: Dutch Privateers and Huilliche Indians in Southern Chile
Darien Indians, the Key to the South Sea
Conclusions
Bibliography
The Phoenix and the Eagle: Catalan Political Economy and the Habsburg Monarchy of Charles III/VI
Introduction
The Background to Archduke Charles in Spain
The War of the Spanish Succession: The Arrival of Archduke Charles in Spain
The Phoenix Arises
Conclusion
Bibliography
“When a Snake Is Cut into Pieces”: Austria’s Imperial Relations and the Downfall of Spain’s First Minister Ensenada in 1754
Introduction
Austria and Spain on the Eve of the Diplomatic Revolution
Migazzi’s Machinations at Madrid’s Bifurcated Court
The Wiggling Snake: Ensenada’s Arrest and Its Aftermath
Conclusion
Bibliography
Monopoly Claims and Moral Economy: Extralegal Practice in British Global and Local Trade c. 1660–1800
The Moral Economy, Long-Distance Sailors, and International Trade
“This a Poor Man Hath to Hearten Him”
Extralegality and Material Civilization
A Proliferation of Many Small Things: The Sailor’s Privilege
Corporate Aims, Commodity Culture, and Mariners’ Initiatives
Conclusion
Bibliography
Formation of State Institutions
Troublemakers in a State-Run Enterprise: Conflict Management and the Limits of Social Disciplining in the Königliches Lagerhaus Berlin, c. 1720–1760
The Lagerhaus in a Global Context
“Cannot be brought to order”: Abraham Elin
Former Soldiers: Custodian Thiele and His Wife
Internal Jurisdiction: The Case of the Frentzels
Obligations and Expectations
Bibliography
All Roads Lead to Mexico? The Postal Network of Late Colonial New Spain as an Integrated Communication Space
Introduction
The Document and Its Creator
The Spatial Organization of the Late Colonial Postal System
Conclusions
Bibliography
A Parable and Ancient Fables: Shaping the Governance of Mining Activities and the Silver Trade in Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth-Century New Spain
Introduction
Some Features of Sixteenth-Century Castilian Law
Limits of Castilian Law in the Indies
The Shaping Elements of Mining Legislation in New Galicia
Tomás de Mercado, Natural Law and His Views on the Pricing of Bullion in New Spain
Scarce Economic Resources, Social Confrontations, and the Rejection of Regulatory Policies in Zacatecas
Conclusions
Bibliography
Administration of Mining, Science, and Technology in Europe in the Age of American Silver (1550–1700)
Introduction
The Administration of European Silver Regions in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century
Collecting Stones and Minerals in Central Europe in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century
Bridging the Public and Private Mining Sector in the Spanish Empire
Professionalization of the Spanish Public Mining Administration
Conclusions
Bibliography
Glocal Economies
The Peso or the Marsilie—The Standard Currency Unit of the Armenian New Julfa Merchants?
An Armenian Merchant’s Manual of 1699
The Commercial Network of the Armenian New Julfa Merchants, ca. 1700
The Marsilie as the Standard Currency Unit of the Armenian New Julfa Merchants?
Conclusion
Bibliography
Foreign Merchants and the Introduction of New Hot Beverages in the Prince-Bishoprics of Münster and Paderborn During the Long Eighteenth Century
Westphalian Villages and Towns at the Crossroads of European Trade
From Unpopular Peddlers to Well-esteemed Merchants
History Repeats Itself in the Prince-Bishopric of Münster
New Luxury Foodstuffs as a Gateway for Foreign Merchants and Vice Versa
Conclusion
Bibliography
Lighter and Brighter: Indian Cottons in Brussels in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century
Introduction
The GIC: From Extralegality to State Formation and Back Again
Selling Cottons—The Savage Sales Book
Buying Cottons
Cultural Consumption Patterns
Conclusion
Bibliography
Conclusion
Formative Modernities in the Early Modern Atlantic and Beyond—Critical Remarks on Old Concepts
Bibliography
