This study investigates the differences in the way bribery and extortion is perceived by two different cultures — American and Nigerian. Two hundred and forty American business students and one hundred and eighty Nigerian business students were presented with three scenarios describing a businessman offering a bribe to a government official and three scenarios describing a businessman being forced to pay a bribe to an official in order to do business. The Reidenbach-Robin instrument was used to measure the ethical reactions (...) of the two samples to these scenarios. Results indicate that ethical reactions to bribery and extortion vary by (a) the nationality of the person offering the bribe, and (b) the country where the bribe is offered. In addition, Nigerians perceived some of the scenarios as being less unethical than did Americans. (shrink)

Souvent délaissée, la pensée politique de l’international chez Hobbes et Bentham recèle plus de points communs qu’on ne pourrait le penser. Pour reconstruire philosophiquement cette pensée, en s’attachant plus spécifiquement au rapport entre économie et politique, on explique d’abord leur commune opposition aux colonies et aux politiques étrangères bellicistes. On montre ensuite comment ils comprennent le commerce international, l’économie et le marché en relation avec l’État, et enfin qu’on ne saurait constituer une théorie politique internationale assurant la (...) sécurité, la paix et la prospérité qui soit autonome et séparée de la théorie de l’État. (shrink)

Notwithstanding International Economic Law’s (IEL’s) inevitable distributional effects, IEL scholarship has had limited engagement with theoretical work on global distributive justice and fairness. In part this reflects the failure of global justice theorists to derive principles that can be readily applied to the concrete problems of IEL. This article bridges this gap, drawing on existing coercion-based accounts of global justice in political theory to propose a novel account of global distributive justice that both resolves problems within the existing theoretical (...) literature and can be directly applied to both explain and critique concrete issues in IEL, including in particular WTO law. By complementing existing coercion-based accounts with a more nuanced typology of international coercion, it distinguishes two morally salient classes of economically relevant measures: External Trade Measures (ETMs), which pursue their goals specifically through the regulation of international economic activity; and Domestic Economic Measures (DEMs), which do not. The distinctive intentional relationship between ETMs and the outsiders they affect means such measures require more stringent justification, in terms of global equality or other goals those outsiders themselves share; whereas DEMs can be justified under the principle of self-determination. Non-Product Related Production Processes and Methods (NPRPPMs) provide a case study to show how this framework can illuminate recurring problems in IEL. (shrink)

One Road One Belt has made a drastic change not only to the lives of people but also to their minds and future prospective. This initiative has connected not only countries but has consolidated trading patterns. It has not only impacted physical trade but has also boosted the e-commerce of China. Therefore, this study has tried to find the major patterns of trading across the globe and digital commerce considering the factors of production. China, being the cheapest country (...) for manufacturing, has excelled in the e-commerce as well. The targeted population for this study was contractors, marketers, logistic service providers, and engineers. The sample size in this study was 329. Data collection was done through a survey developed on the Likert scale. The software used for the data analysis was Smart-PLS for structural equation modeling. Findings of the study show that factors of production and international trade have an impact on e-commerce. Moreover, the foreign policy and international relations have also been found to have a significant role in e-commerce. (shrink)

Today's sports commerce not only expands the number of international mega-sports events but also increases their value in effecting social change and promoting world peace. As athletes and spectators come together in ever-larger numbers, governments must collaborate with non-governmental, private, and non-profit sectors to develop and implement the business of sports commerce benefiting host nations and local communities. This research identifies the relationship between sports commerce and peace as worthy of greater study. This article examines the (...) role of international sporting events in contributing to social change in host countries and how these competitions may be able to create greater understanding among athletes and related individuals and increase knowledge exchange on a larger scale. The research analyzes several mega-sports events, including the Olympics and the role of the Special Olympics (SO) -the largest amateur sports organization in the world -dedicated to bringing sports experiences to intellectually disabled athletes. This article highlights the transformative power of SO worldwide competitions and finds peace through commerce principles in SO innovative policies and programs. Over four decades, the SO, and particularly its World Games, have led to global initiatives for increasing self-confidence, self-esteem, social acceptance, health and general well-being among intellectually disabled persons. This research offers insights into the ways in which other mega-sporting events could adopt what is unique to SO. An Appendix outlines mega-sports events for future research on sports commerce and peace. (shrink)

I will argue in what follows that the reading of Smith which attributes to him a theory of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, and the implications which follow from it, are unfounded. There are three key aspects of the interpretation which I will challenge. First, that Smith's account of the destruction of feudal power by the progress of commerce is related to an explanation of the transition to the commercial stage; second, that the decline in baronial power incorporates (...) Smith's account of the ending of serfdom and a change in relations of production in the Marxian sense; and third, that the rise of international commerce -- the �prime-mover� in the whole process, is a force which is external to European feudalism. (shrink)

Les pratiques du commerce équitable, décrites dans cet article, montrent comment a pu se développer, tout au long de ses quarante années d'existence, un mouvement capable de relier autour des mêmes préoccupations, des citoyens du nord et du sud du monde. De ce fait, on peut affirmer que, en dépit des clivages et des divergences, le commerce équitable participe à la définition d'un espace public d'envergure internationale autour des questions de la consommation et des modes d'organisation du (...) class='Hi'>commerce international. La première partie a pour but de clarifier la démarche technique et les valeurs qui animent le mouvement. La deuxième partie pose la question de savoir dans quelle mesure les impacts générés à la fois sur le marché conventionnel et sur le développement du sud du monde ont du sens pour l'avenir.The practices of fair trade described in this article show how this movement has been able to create links between citizens with shared concerns in the southern and northern hemispheres in the 40 years it has existed. In this way, we are able to affirm that despite certain differences and divisions, fair trade has contributed towards the definition of international public discussion on question such as consumption and the organization of international trade. The first part of this article aims to clarify the technical process and the values underpinning this civic movement through a description of its practices. The second part aims to assess the extent to which the impact fair trade has had on conventional trade and on local development in the southern hemisphere indicates a direction for the future. (shrink)

For many Enlightenment thinkers, discerning the relationship between commerce and peace was the central issue of modern politics. The logic of commerce seemed to require European states and empires to learn how to behave in more peaceful, self-limiting ways. However, as the fate of nations came to depend on the flux of markets, it became difficult to see how their race for prosperity could ever be fully disentangled from their struggle for power. On the contrary, it became easy (...) to see how this entanglement could produce catastrophic results. This volume showcases the variety and the depth of approaches to economic rivalry and the rise of public finance that characterized Enlightenment discussions of international politics. It presents a fundamental reassessment of these debates about 'perpetual peace' and their legacy in the history of political thought. (shrink)

Vattel's Law of Nations (1758) claimed that a system of independent states could maintain the liberty of each without undermining the ideal of an international society. The chief institution serving this purpose was the balance of power. In Vattel's account, the balance of power could be stabilized if it operated primarily through a process of commercial preferences and restrictions. These limits on how states ought to defend themselves were grounded in Vattel's thoroughly forgotten writings on the mid-eighteenth-century luxury debates, (...) which addressed the political economy of reforming the state and pacifying the international order. An examination of Vattel's Law of Nations in this context shows that his approach to the law of nations should not be dismissed as a capitulation to the harsh reality of international politics. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 62.4 (2001) 721-743 [Access article in PDF] Virtue, Commerce, and the Enduring Florentine Republican Moment: Reintegrating Italy into the Atlantic Republican Debate Mark Jurdjevic Republicanism has dominated the historiographies of English and American political thought for the past two decades. 1 Its success derives principally from J. G. A. Pocock's The Machiavellian Moment, which presents a sweeping vision of an ancient Aristotelian (...) republican language that persisted for centuries in the mental landscape of the western world. Resurrected in Renaissance Florence, the language of republicanism continued to resonate powerfully in Stuart and Hanoverian Britain and colonial America. Pocock and those sympathetic to his work attributed the power and significance of republicanism to its internal discursive coherence over time; because of its deep roots in the European classical and Renaissance past, republicanism--not liberalism--provided the intellectual weapon with which the English and the Americans rebelled against the Stuart and Hanoverian monarchies. Pocock's provocative repudiation of the significance of John Locke and liberalism, as well as his suggestion that the revolutions of 1641, 1688, and 1776 were animated not by a utopian, forward-looking political ideology but by a backward-looking desire to restore a classical political order, generated a still-ongoing academic debate. 2 [End Page 721]This debate has not appreciated a crucial point: Pocock misunderstood Florentine political thought and mischaracterized its central tenets. 3 Unnecessary confusion has been generated by the lack of communication between specialists in Renaissance political thought and historians of English and early American political thought, as well as by the total dependence of English and American historians on Pocock for their understanding of "civic humanism." 4 Most historians of England and America skeptical of Pocock's argument have shown that republican language, where it did occur in England and America, differed in substantial and significant ways from the Florentine variety. 5 What they have actually shown, I hope to make clear, is that manifestations of republicanism in England and America differed only from Pocock's misunderstanding of the Florentine variety; Florentine republican language echoes strongly in the English and American republicanism that recent scholarship emphasizes.In this essay I seek to reintegrate Italy into the republican debate and, by doing so, to revitalize the argument that structural linguistic similarities pervaded the republicanism of Florence, England, and America. 6 I concentrate on the most important and contested point in English and American revisionism, the dialectical engine of TheMachiavellian Moment: the alleged incompatibility between virtue and commerce in "classical" republican theory. Pocock asserted that Florentine republicans mistrusted commerce and private wealth as corrupting forces in public life and he employed this perceived virtue-commerce antipathy as the link between his republican moments.The most leveling critiques of Pocock's republican tradition have rejected it on this point. Recent research on the relationship between commerce and virtue in the English and American republican contexts has reached a quite different conclusion: that republican theory was frequently elaborated in harmonious conjunction with a new ideology of commercial society. [End Page 722]Pocock, however, misunderstood civic humanism and the role of commerce in Renaissance republicanism. Florentine humanists believed that commerce and the private pursuit of wealth made possible the survival and integrity of the republic. Florentine republicanism of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was the ideology of an ascendant merchant elite; it provided a political language that integrated republican virtue with the habits, values, and mentality of the merchant. We should not therefore be surprised to see republicanism flourishing in later commercial societies. Although the virtue-commerce relationship in Renaissance republicanism was precisely the opposite of Pocock's claim, it directly anticipates the commercial element of republicanism that recent English and American scholarship emphasizes.I undertake three tasks; first, I survey and compare recent work on republicanism in America, England, and Italy; second, I show how Pocock selectively read the primary and secondary sources on Renaissance Florence; third and most importantly, I analyze the economic attitudes of Niccolò Machiavelli, Francesco Guicciardini, Girolamo Savonarola, and Florentine... (shrink)

Since the twentieth century, it has been an era of rapid development of information technology; the scale of data is almost the growth rate of the blowout type; no matter what it is, a large number of enterprises or departments are increasing a large number of cost data. However, the current cost management model still remains in the traditional management method and lacks a smarter big data analysis method. In addition, there is a lot of research on big data applications, (...) and there are few e-commerce supply chains. Therefore, the research purpose of this study is to use big data technology to explore a series of practical operation methods for supply chain Cultural Communication Enterprises and summarize the operation mode of building SCC control by using big data technology. In terms of research methods, this study combined bibliographic review and empirical analysis, explored cost-based mobile e-commerce cost control related to big data information, used smart and digital analysis methods to thoroughly analyze CCE business issues from internal and external supply chains, established an e-commerce business supply chain cost control model based on big data technology and elaborated cost control procedures and measures. Finally, it summarized the research results and drew conclusions to provide a theoretical basis for promoting enterprises products products to reduce supply chain costs. The research in this study has achieved a breakthrough in the cost management and control of EE; it provides empirical guidance and theoretical reference for EE to adopt big data technology for cost command of supply chain, could help EE to reduce cost of supply chain management to gain higher profit margins, and promote e-commerce industry as a whole to the next level eventually. This study concluded that the use of big data technology for cost command can solve a series of problems effectively, such as the lack of systematic analysis of cost, the lack of contractual partners, the serious waste of sales links, and the policy errors of logistics links, and continuously improve the enterprise management level and the decline of comprehensive cost. The application mode of supply chain CCE enterprises using big data technology constructed in this study has universal applicability. (shrink)

Pour justifier leur activité, les premiers mercantilistes anglais présentent le commerce comme une activité naturelle, qui favorise la paix entre les nations et contribue au progrès de la civilisation. Ils ont en particulier recours à la lex mercatoria, notion héritée du Moyen Âge. L’idée d’un commerce mutuel de l’humanité, mise en avant dans les écrits de marchands, mais également chez un auteur comme Grotius, contraste ainsi avec les théories de la souveraineté liée à un territoire national chez des (...) penseurs politiques comme Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes et William Petty, ou à certains égards chez un juriste comme John Selden. Paradoxalement, alors que la constitution des empires coloniaux coïncide avec l’essor du grand négoce international, la liberté du commerce (free trade) est présentée par ses défenseurs comme une alternative à l’antagonisme entre les États et à la logique de domination induite par les théories modernes de l’imperium. Cette apparente contradiction entre la logique étatique et l’humanisme marchand – ou ce qui se présente comme tel – semble subsister dans les résurgences modernes de la lex mercatoria au XXe siècle. Pourtant, l’idée d’une source du droit indépendante de l’État et s’enracinant dans l’ancienneté des coutumes, l’uniformité des pratiques marchandes ou encore le jus gentium, relève en grande partie de la fable, et d’une construction idéologique visant à dissimuler la réalité des pratiques commerciales. De ce point de vue, la fable de la lex mercatoria joue très certainement un rôle important dans la constitution du topos du doux commerce et la promotion de la liberté des échanges par ceux qui en sont, directement ou indirectement, les principaux bénéficiaires. (shrink)

This chapter reviews Europe's contributions to basic assumptions made in international law and governance. It examines the internal legal models that Europe created and that became foundational blueprints for modern liberal democracies. The chapter also focuses on international legal structures that were designed to operate in a manner consistent with the domestic European model e.g., liberalization of trade, legal protections for foreign investors, or uniform codes of commercial law for international transactions. The post‐Second World War regulation of (...) commerce and livelihood in the European statecraft model came hand‐in‐hand with the protection of personal rights. The modern liberal democratic state derived its legitimacy from management of a social and political structure that bettered the material lot of its nationals. The historical process of formation of the European nation‐states’ geographical map created blocs that had clear boundaries associated with national identity. (shrink)

In the light of Socrates’ largely neglected etymological account of the name Hermes, this article reexamines the dialogue’s perplexing conclusion that reality should not be sought through names, but through itself. By a close scrutiny of three claims made in this etymology – that language is commercial, thievish and deceptive – it argues that Socrates’ discussion about the relation between names and reality cannot only be meaningfully understood in terms of his characterization of language as deceptive and therefore tragic, but (...) that this point is also confirmed by the dialogue’s larger comedic structure and by Cratylus’ framing joke about Hermogenes’ name. As a consequence, the article also suggests that a closer examination of the etymology of Hermes can both help to assess a certain unwarranted optimism common in contemporary scholarship and the claim that the dialogue’s overarching purpose, rather than being an explanation of how human language grants access to the truth about the existing things, is a critical examination of such a project and of its hubristic assumptions. (shrink)

The promotion of conservation agriculture for smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa is subject to ongoing scholarly and public debate regarding the evidence-base and the agenda-setting power of involved stakeholders. We undertake a political analysis of CA in Zambia that combines a qualitative case study of a flagship CA initiative with a quantitative analysis of a nationally representative dataset on agricultural practices. This analysis moves from an investigation of the knowledge politics to a study of how the political agendas of the actors (...) involved are shaping agrarian practices. From its initial focus on CA as soil conservation and sustainable agriculture, the framing of the initiative has evolved to accommodate shifting trends in the policy arena. In tandem with the increased focus on climate adaptation, we see an increased emphasis on private sector-led modernisation. The initiative has shifted its target group from the poorest smallholders to prospective commercial farmers, and has forged connections between its farmer-to-farmer extension network and private input suppliers and service providers. The link between CA and input intensification is reflected in national statistics as a significantly higher usage of herbicides, pesticides and mineral fertilizer on fields under CA tillage compared to other fields. We argue that the environmental and participation agendas are used to buttress CA as an environmentally and socially sustainable agricultural development strategy, while the prevailing practice is the result of a common vision for a private sector-led agricultural development shared between the implementing organisation, the donor and international organisations promoting a new green revolution in Africa. (shrink)

SummaryThis article addresses how and why the Dutch translation of Forbonnais's Elémens de commerce came about and the reasons for its lack of success. It explores the context in which the Utrecht printers and booksellers Spruit and Haanebrink in 1771 published a Dutch version of the first edition of the Elémens. In the preceding decades the deteriorating wealth and power of the Dutch Republic had become a major theme in the transnational debates on political economy. Recent research has established (...) that Dutch authors contributed to this debate as well, initially by propagating neutrality of trade in combination with an attempt reform the staple market system, but increasingly by arguing the necessity of another type of economy. Inspired by foreign examples, a movement of reformative patriotism emerged, advocating a more balanced economy in which international commerce stimulated mature agricultural and industrial sectors. This type of political economy could be found in Forbonnais's Elémens and may have triggered its rendering into Dutch. It was the first in a series of translations instigated by Hendrik van den Heuvel, the organiser of economic patriotism in the Dutch Republic. Spruit and Haanebrink dedicated the Dutch version of the Elémens to him and mentioned Van den Heuvel's recommendation of the French original. The fact that the intended buyers, economic patriots, were able to read the Elémens in French, may have precluded a big sale of the title, but the poor quality of the translation did not help either. However, one should not conclude that the Dutch reading public was not interested in the Elémens. In 1780 Van den Heuvel still recommended another edition in a better translation. Other sources, such as Dirk Hoola van Nooten's Dutch version of Condillac's Le commerce et le gouvernement considérés relativement l'un à l'autre, suggest that Forbonnais's ideas were acknowledged. (shrink)

Unlike the Internet community had expected electronic commerce does not lead to an anarchic dissolution of law. In the context of electronic trade, problems arising between users and providers can be solved, for instance by applying traditional principles of contract law. And yet, the legal dispute of Internet related facts and circumstances gives rise to a number of interesting topoi. Even though these subjects have already been considered in the past , they only now show their specific explosive effect (...) and diversity in the face of the electronic commerce. (shrink)

The ‘international’ electrical units, initially defined by the International Electrical Congress of Chicago in 1893, represented a major step forward in international electrical standardisation. Yet they were flawed both theoretically and technically, were adopted inconsistently in different countries and were soon subject to criticism and revision. This paper addresses the extent to which the international units—notwithstanding their flaws—were in fact adequate for the needs of engineering, commerce and science at the time, and concludes that the (...) practical position was actually very satisfactory. It also addresses how the international electrical units came in to being, in the context of alternative philosophies of the nature of the standardisation process—that it can be essentially central or local. The central influence on the international units was the series of international electrical congresses of the late nineteenth century, which I conclude were a highly unsatisfactory mechanism, responsible for many of the weaknesses in the resulting standards. In contrast, I argue that it was local influences, the networks of scientists and standards laboratories that defined and maintained the standards, which gave them their strength.Keywords: International; Standardisation; Electrical units; Ohm; Congress. (shrink)

Social commerce has produced enormous economic benefits as well as challenges for organizations, individuals, and industries. However, social media usage does not necessarily generate users’ intention to purchase on social commerce websites. How social media usage influences users’ purchase intention on social commerce websites still deserves more scholarly attention and this seems particularly important when social commerce transcends borders and countries. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, the current study adopted a survey research method and identified the roles (...) of social media usage in arousing users’ purchase intention on social commerce websites in a culturally diversified environment. The data was collected from 2,058 international students coming from 135 countries and was analyzed using MPLUS based structural equation modeling. The research unveils the pathway whereby social media usage serves to generate users’ purchase intention on social commerce websites. Importantly, users’ cultural intelligence has been found to play a significant role mediating the effects of social media usage on users’ intention. Further, cultural distance was found to attenuate the effects of social media usage on cultural intelligence. Based on the research findings, the study suggests that social commerce practitioners should be fully aware of the enabling roles of social media and cultural intelligence as well as the deterring role of cultural distance when arousing customers’ purchasing intention in cross-cultural business operations. Any measures facilitated by social media usage to improve international consumers’ cultural intelligence and mitigate the negative effects of cultural distance are supposed to be effective to enhance their purchasing intention. Accordingly, the study confirms the mutually melt and integrative relationships between information technology advancement and business prosperity in cross-cultural environment, which eventually contribute to sustainable development of society. (shrink)

This study investigates how e-business capabilities and digital marketing strategies jointly influence business performance in the e-commerce industry, which has experienced unprecedented growth driven by technological advancements and changing consumer behavior. E-business capabilities encompass the use of technology and digital infrastructure, while digital marketing strategies are employed to attract and retain online customers. The study examines the effect of e-business capabilities through digital marketing strategies on the customer satisfaction and loyalty of UAE e-commerce industry. The research is descriptive (...) and explanatory, and uses a structured 5-scale Likert questionnaire to collect data from the HR managers of 135 e-commerce companies based in UAE. The statistical analysis is performed using structural equation modeling. The findings highlight the significant relationship of the study variables. Consequently, the results of this study provide valuable insights for e-commerce businesses, elucidating the need to invest in robust e-business capabilities to support effective digital marketing efforts. Additionally, the research underscores the significance of tailoring digital marketing strategies to align with specific business objectives and customer segments. The study also contributes to the literature on digital transformation, by demonstrating how e-business capabilities and digital marketing strategies can enable e-commerce firms to adapt and thrive in the dynamic and competitive digital environment. (shrink)

István Hont identified a point in the history of political thought at which republicanism and commercialism became separated. According to Hont, Emmanuel Sieyès proposed that a monarchical republic should be formed. By contrast the Jacobins, in favour of a republic led by the people, rejected not only Sieyès’s political proposal, but also the economic ideology that went with it. Sieyès was in favour of a commercial republic; the Jacobins were not. This was, according to Hont, a defining moment in the (...) history of political thought. In this article, I offer a different analysis of that particular moment in the history of the commercial republic, one that instead of focusing on Sieyès and the Jacobins, looks at the thought of Girondins philosophers Nicolas de Condorcet and Sophie de Grouchy. I argue that their arguments provide sound models for a commercial republic, reconciling late 18th century republican ideals in which virtue was central, with the need for a flourishing and internationally active market economy. (shrink)

This study is an attempt to construct a quantitative link for international regimes with global leadership. The country's willingness to lead in solving global issues as the first mover in the formation of an international regime is measured and characterized by analyzing their ratification behavior in multilateral conventions deposited to the United Nations which shape of the global community. For this purpose, a set of quantitative indicators, the Index of Global Leadership Willingness and the Global Support Index, was (...) defined and calculated for each country based on its actual ratification year data for 120 multilateral conventions covering global issues such as peace and security, environment, commerce, communication, intellectual property protection, human rights, and labor. By proposing a framework of global leadership analysis, the study seeks to provide an empirical testing of the transformation of global governance towards cooperation without hegemony paradigm. The paper analyses changes in the leadership willingness indices of selected country groups, such as the G3, G7/8, and G20, over the century and finds that the will to drive the international agenda of these groups of leaders is in decline. Moreover, our study provides evidence to argue that our current world is actually without consistent global leadership across domains of the world affairs. Although several countries still show visible leadership in specific policy domains, such as environment and intellectual property, neither the G7/8 nor the G20 was playing a comparable role to those performed by the G3 a hundred years ago. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Leibniz and China: A Commerce of LightRobin R. WangLeibniz and China: A Commerce of Light. By Franklin Perkins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xvi + 224.In December 1697, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) wrote to a Jesuit friend in China, praising the Jesuit mission there as "the greatest affair of our time" (p. 42). The purpose of that mission, in Leibniz's view, was not simply to (...) glorify God and to spread Christianity; it was also being undertaken for the good of humanity and the growth of human knowledge. He went on:For this is a commerce of light, which could give to us at once their work of thousands of years and render ours to them, and to double so to speak our true wealth for one and the other. This is something greater than one thinks.(p. 42)Why was Leibniz, unlike his contemporaries Locke and Spinoza, so enthusiastic about other cultures, especially Chinese culture? Why, in contrast to the scholars of today who claim that philosophy is the privilege of the Western mind and who dismiss philosophical exchange as useless, was Leibniz able to understand the importance of cultural exchange? And why is it that his "commerce of light" can still illuminate our path toward wisdom in this age of globalization? In a well-researched and carefully crafted monograph, Leibniz and China: A Commerce of Light, Franklin Perkins answers these questions with compelling evidence and persuasive argument.To emphasize the significance, magnitude, and relevance of cultural exchange Perkins organizes his book thematically in five chapters. The first chapter provides the historical context of the world in which Leibniz lived. Perkins cites well-documented events to illustrate how Europeans first encountered other cultures and the "three lenses" through which they viewed them (p. 12). This exploration sets the stage for understanding Leibniz's knowledge of China and his basic orientation toward learning from diversity.In chapter 2 Perkins challenges current scholarship and makes the critical claim that Leibniz's interest in China and cultural exchange was "not accidental" (p. 45), but rather flowed from his own distinctive philosophical system. This argument distinguishes Perkins's innovative approach from the mainstream traditional scholarship on Leibniz. He claims that Leibniz was "a more pragmatic, empirical and fallibilistic investigator of the world," that he was "motivated by practical and theological concerns," and that he was "a pluralistic thinker" (p. 45). To support his argument, Perkins discusses Leibniz's "monads" in the context of order, diversity, and perfection. Each monad is a different manifestation of the same universe, yet one unitary universe is multiplied by its expression in diverse monads. God chose to create a world exemplifying the utmost perfection, with "the greatest possible combination of order and diversity" (p. 44). Diversity is essential to the perfection of the world since the most perfect possible world maximizes the greatest order. This intrinsic relation between order, diversity, and perfection creates an unqualified need for cultural exchange because order requires diversity for perfection, and an ordered diversity only amplifies the magnificence of its Creator. On a metaphysical level, cultural exchange for Leibniz [End Page 111] was "driven by the value of diversity in the best possible world and the derivation of diversity from variations in monadic perspectives. On an epistemological level, exchange was driven by the necessary limits of our own perspective and the fact that monads in distant places have different and complementary perspectives" (p. 108).After laying out the philosophical foundation for cultural exchange in Leibniz's system, Perkins turns his discussion to Leibniz's specific connection with China. In chapter 3 he offers a historical narrative that traces the development and growth of Leibniz's interest in and knowledge of China. Leibniz's first mention of China was in his De Arte Combinationis in 1666, when he was only twenty years old (p. 109). Through his massive correspondence with Jesuits in China and his active social participation in controversies around the Jesuit mission, Leibniz's knowledge of China grew in depth and sophistication as the decades passed. His initial approach to China reflected "his interest in international politics and economics" (p. 113). But this practical focus was... (shrink)

Corruption is a serious economic, social, political, and moral blight, especially in many emerging countries. It is a problem that affects companies in particular, especially in international commerce, finance, and technology transfer. And it is becoming an international phenomenon in scope, substance, and consequences. That is why, in recent years, there has been a proliferation of international efforts to tackle the problem of corruption. One such international cooperative initiative is the United Nations Convention against Corruption, (...) signed in 2003, which came into force in December 2005. This is the first truly global instrument to prevent and combat corruption, built on a broad international consensus. The purpose of this article is to explain the origin and content of the Convention, what it adds to existing international instruments for combating corruption, and its strengths and weaknesses, mainly from the point of view of companies. (shrink)

Four international codes of conduct (those of the International Chamber of Commerce, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Labor Organization, and the United Nations Commission on Transnational Corporations) are analyzed to determine the ethical bases of the behaviors they prescribe for multinational enterprises (MNEs). Although the four codes emphasize different aspects of business behavior, there is substantial agreement regarding many of the moral duties of MNEs. It is suggested that MNEs are morally bound (...) to recognize the codes and to take them into account when engaging in international business. (shrink)

(1996). Tokuzo Fukuda and Lujo Brentano: The impact of the German historical school on the making of the commerce university in Japan. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 791-795.

This paper draws a correlation between the experience of consumerism portrayed in the critique of Alexander and Baudrillard and in the theory of plenitude derived from Renaissance literature. It draws parallels between features of the modern and antique sensibilities. It suggests that the e-commerce practitioner manipulates a modern economy informed by a cosmology which depicts imagery capable of interpretation in terms of conceptions derived from archaic themes. These are drawn from the High Renaissance and relate to Neoplatonism which is (...) in turn linked to Renaissance occult philosophy. Ecommerce metaphors display these aspects; and thereby both hook into, and valorise — rendering liminal — the experiential dimension of the consumer, and its incipient tensions between desire anticipated and that achieved. The article suggests how the populist magic of consumerism is not only facilitated by e-commerce but how that magic arose at a pre-modern, intellectualist level. From a philosophical perspective, readers will note the inter-relationship of earlier bodies of thought to contemporary management theories of e-commerce. Academics or practitioners interested in e-commerce or e-business are offered a fresh and radical interpretative perspective on these areas, which expresses a novel role for metaphor in terms of linking features of pre-modern and modern conceptions of reality, aslant the subjective absorption of figurative images of a textual derivation. (shrink)

L’article montre que la thématique du doux commerce a accompagné depuis les origines la construction européenne, et qu’elle a par là même contribué à masquer la dimension politique du processus d’unification et de convergence, au profit de la prédominance d’une vision pacifiée et irénique de l’économie marchande et du commerce international. Dans le contexte actuel de crise de la zone euro, la dimension conflictuelle des processus concurrentiels, leur lien avec les dynamiques de tensions internationales entre États, sont (...) fortement réévalués. (shrink)

In this chapter, Benjamin Bourcier argues that Bentham’s politics of global commerce evolved from enlightenment cosmopolitanism aspirations to gradually integrate several features of an economic imperialist model. Bentham’s series of writings on colonial and commercial projects share a relative similarity with the British imperial ideology of his time. Observing that Bentham’s politics of global commerce is not perfectly coherent, Bourcier interrogates how these changes reveal a close historical and conceptual relation between enlightenment cosmopolitan ideas on commerce and (...) the burgeoning development of British imperial ideology. (shrink)

At present, there are more and more frauds in the financial field. The detection and prevention of financial frauds are of great significance for regulating and maintaining a reasonable financial order. Deep learning algorithms are widely used because of their high recognition rate, good robustness, and strong implementation. Therefore, in the context of e-commerce big data, this paper proposes a quantitative detection algorithm for financial fraud based on deep learning. First, the encoders are used to extract the features of (...) the behaviour. At the same time, in order to reduce the computational complexity, the feature extraction is restricted to the space-time volume of the dense trajectory. Second, the neural network model is used to transform features into behavioural visual word representations, and feature fusion is performed using weighted correlation methods to improve feature classification capabilities. Finally, sparse reconstruction errors are used to judge and detect financial fraud. This method builds a deep neural network model with multiple hidden layers, learns the characteristic expression of the data, and fully depicts the rich internal information of the data, thereby improving the accuracy of financial fraud detection. Experimental results show that this method can effectively learn the essential characteristics of the data, and significantly improve the detection rate of fraud detection algorithms. (shrink)

L’analyse des traités de marchands publiés en Angleterre pendant la première moitié du XVIIe siècle permet de faire apparaître les enjeux théoriques et pratiques du discours sur le commerce à un moment clé de l’histoire économique. Alors que l’essor du commerce international renforce leur pouvoir, les marchands élaborent un discours de légitimation visant à inscrire les pratiques commerciales dans un champ social et politique, en ayant principalement recours à des arguments philosophiques et moraux. Cependant, ces traités font (...) apparaître les intérêts divergents de leurs auteurs, plutôt qu’ils ne reflètent les intérêts d’une classe homogène. (shrink)

On October 6, 2015, in Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner, the European Court of Justice, the European Union's highest court, held that the fifteen-year-old Safe Harbor Framework Agreement with the United States was invalid. Under the agreement, about forty-five hundred American companies each year self-certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that they were in compliance with the essential privacy protections of the European Union, and therefore it was permissible for entities in the European Union to send personal data (...) to these American companies. According to the court, because some American companies were making the personal data of E.U. citizens available to U.S. government agencies, such as the National Security Agency, the fundamental privacy interests of E.U. citizens were not being protected. As a result of this court decision there has been considerable speculation about what, if any, effect the case has on international collaboration in health research, in particular, the sharing of personal data by E.U. researchers with their U.S. colleagues. (shrink)

A friend, correspondent and intellectual successor to David Ricardo, John Ramsay McCulloch forged his reputation in the emerging field of political economy by publishing deeply researched articles in Scottish periodicals and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. From 1828 he spent nearly a decade as professor of political economy at the newly founded University of London, thereafter becoming comptroller of the Stationery Office. Perhaps the first professional economist, McCulloch had become internationally renowned by the middle of the century, recognised for sharing his ideas (...) through lucid lecturing and writing. The present reference work, first published in 1832 and later revised, expanded and updated multiple times, made McCulloch considerable sums of money. His critical and analytical treatment of the data he had largely compiled himself made this much more than a mere book of facts. Several other works written or edited by McCulloch are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. (shrink)

Over the past decade, we have witnessed some early signs of progress in the battle against international bribery and corruption, a problem that throughout the history of commerce had previously been ignored. We present a model that we then use to assess progress in reducing bribery. The model components include both hard law and soft law legislation components and enforcement and compliance components. We begin by summarizing the literature that convincingly argues that bribery is an immoral and unethical (...) practice and that the economic harm it causes falls most heavily on those least able to absorb it. The next section summarizes the main provisions of anti-bribery legislation including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Organization for Eco nomic Development's Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and the laws of selected countries. We conclude this section with a discussion of the "moral imperialism" argument for not imposing Western laws and values on other cultures. The next section focuses on the roles played by NGOs including Transparency International (TI), the World Economic Forum (WEF), and the International Chamber of Commerce. We review trends in enforcement and prosecution, including a review of the United States' enforcement processes, mechanisms for cross-border legal assistance, a discussion of the distinctive nature of FCPA cases, and an assessment of what the future holds for enforcement. The final section focuses on compliance processes for corporations aimed at reducing the risk of FCPA and related violations. This section also addresses the ethics of gift giving and "grease" payments. The article concludes with a summary and suggestions for further research. Throughout the article, we reference important bribery cases and include comments from several authorities who are on the front lines of the battle against international bribery. (shrink)

L’émergence des marchés en Europe de l’Est, en Asie et celle du cyber-espace ne se fait pas avec la rapidité que beaucoup d’observateurs voudraient. La lenteur de ce développement provient de l’environnement institutionnel : les systèmes législatifs ne soutiennent pas les droits de propriété privée et ne font pas plus respecter les contrats. Ainsi, beaucoup soutiennent que les Etats doivent intensifier leurs efforts pour établir un droit commercial. En réalité, il faut réclamer un désengagement de l’Etat dans le droit commercial. (...) Tout au long de l’histoire, le recours efficace de l’activité commerciale est toujours provenu d’un système polycentrique de droit coutumier avec des querelles résolues par le biais de cours de commerce ou d’arbitrage eux-mêmes appuyés par des sanctions d’ostracisme imposées de façon privée, et il en est de même pour le droit commercial international aujourd’hui. Nous proposons une description des institutions et des processus du droit commercial international, suivie de discutions sur la nécessité d’un droit polycentrique et des caractéristiques du droit coutumier. Finalement, nous expliquons pourquoi nous devrions compter sur un système de droit coutumier polycentrique sans Etat pour l’émergence récente des marchés.The emergence of markets in Eastern Europe, Asia, and cyberspace is no occurring as rapidly as many observers would like. Slow development is a function of the institutional environment: legal systems do not support private property rights or enforce contracts. Thus, many contend that states must step up their efforts to establish commercial law. In reality, less state involvement in commercial law is called for. Throughout history effective recourse for commercial activity has been produced through a polycentric system of customary law with disputes resolved through merchant courts or arbitration backed by privately imposed ostracism sanctions, and the same is true for international commercial law today. A description of the institutions and processes of international commercial law is provided, followed by discussions of the desirability of polycentric law and the characteristics of customary law. Finally, an explanation is provided for why a stateless system of polycentric customary law should be relied upon in modern emerging markets. (shrink)

This essay analyses discussions of national versus international or transnational science, with an emphasis on the journal Osiris from 1986 to 2009, including the concepts of national science, national styles and characters in science, scientific internationalism, transfer of science and scientists from one nation to another, and comparison of different national examples. The author argues that perceiving science as a ‘national’ activity has not only been persistent, it is also perhaps inevitable. This special issue on transnational histories of science (...) raises the question of what is gained and lost by such an approach. First of all, what is the distinction between ‘transnational’ and ‘international’? The dictionary defines the latter as something existing, occurring, or carried on between two nations, while the former extends or operates across national boundaries. Thus ‘international’ implies some sort of commerce. In contrast, transnational is a loosely defined term. (shrink)

At the same time as the modern idea of the state was taking shape, Hugo Grotius , Thomas Hobbes and Samuel Pufendorf formulated three distinctive foundational approaches to international order and law beyond the state. They differed in their views of obligation in the state of nature , in the extent to which they regarded these sovereign states as analogous to individuals in the state of nature, and in the effects they attributed to commerce as a driver of (...) sociability and of norm-structured interactions not dependent on an overarching state. Each built on shared Roman and sixteenth-century foundations . Section II argues: 1) that Grotius's natural law was not simply an anti-skeptical construction based on self-preservation , but continued a Roman legal tradition; 2) that Hobbes's account of natural law beyond the state was essentially prudential, not moral ; and 3) that commerce as a driver of social and moral order had a substantial and under-appreciated impact on international legal order. Each contributed to the thought of later writers such as Emer de Vattel , David Hume , and Adam Smith , and eventually to the empirical legal methodologies of Jeremy Bentham and Georg Friedrich von Martens. (shrink)

The debate over international trade has long pitted “free trade” advocates against those who argue that particular reasons support trade restraints. The newest argument is that open trade leads to a “race to the bottom” in the regulation of health, safety, welfare, and especially labor and environmental concerns, harming the nation’s citizens and undermining national sovereignty. One predicate for this argument – that trade increases competitive pressure on domestic industry – is accurate. That, in turn, will raise the cost (...) of some national policies that otherwise would win political approval. But the remainder of the race to the bottom argument rests on assumptions about regulation, the political process, and trade that do not stand up to examination. While responses to increased international competition will vary, the effects of such competition will generally be consistent with any meaningful notion of sovereignty and also will improve national welfare judged by common economic norms.Le débat sur le commerce international a longtemps opposé les défenseurs du libre échange à ceux qui soutiennent qu’il existe des raisons particulières en faveur de barrières à l’échange. L’argument le plus récent est que le libre échange conduit à une course au “nivellement par le bas” au niveau de la réglementation de la santé, de la sécurité, du bienêtre, et plus particulièrement dans les domaines du travail et de l’environnement. Selon ses tenants, elle aurait pour conséquence de léser les citoyens de la nation et d’affaiblir la souveraineté nationale.Un présupposé de cet argument – selon lequel le commerce accroît la pression concurrentielle subie par l’industrie nationale – est fondé. A son tour cela entraînera une augmentation du coût de certaines politiques nationales qui auraient par ailleurs obtenu un assentiment politique.Mais le reste de l’argumentation du nivellement par le bas repose sur des hypothèses à propos de la réglementation, du processus politique, et du commerce qui ne résistent pas à un examen critique.Bien que les réactions à une concurrence internationale accrue varient, les effets d’une telle concurrence seront généralement cohérents avec toute notion pertinente de souveraineté et amélioreront le bien-être national tel que jugé par les normes économiques standard. (shrink)