Author: Brandon Christensen

Afternoon Tea: “Highland Chiefs and Regional Networks in Mainland Southeast Asia: Mien Perspectives”

Brandon Christensen History, Law , , , , , ,

This article is centered on the life story of a Mien upland leader in Laos and later in the kingdom of Nan that subsequently was made a province of Thailand. The story was recorded in 1972 but primarily describes events during 1870–1930. The aim of this article is to call attention to long-standing networks of highland-lowland relations where social life was unstable but always and persistently inclusive and multiethnic. The centrality of interethnic hill-valley networks in this Mien case has numerous parallels in studies of Rmeet, Phunoy, Karen, Khmu, Ta’ang, and others in mainland Southeast Asia and adjacent southern China. The implications of the Mien case support an analytical shift from ethnography to ethnology—from the study of singular ethnic groups that are viewed as somehow separate from one another and from lowland polities, and toward a study of patterns and variations in social networks that transcend ethnic labels and are of considerable historical and analytical importance. The shift toward ethnology brings questions regarding the state/non-state binary that was largely taken for granted in studies of tribal peoples as inherently stateless.

This is from Hjorleifur Jonsson, an anthropologist at Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Here is a link.

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Making sense of Japan’s new immigration policy Emese Schwarcz, Diplomat
  2. Deportations with benefits Irfan Khawaja, Policy of Truth
  3. Democracy as an information system Henry Farrell, Crooked Timber
  4. Against debate Chris Dillow, Stumbling & Mumbling

 

 

 

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Ethnicity and Philosophy Nick Nielsen, Grand Strategy Annex
  2. Revisiting the Dyson Sphere Caleb Scharf, Life, Unbounded
  3. Reading VS Naipaul Branko Milanovic, globalinequality
  4. Deep Learning and Abstract Orders Federico Sosa Valle, NOL

Afternoon Tea: “Dividing Power in the First and Second British Empires: Revisiting Durham’s Imperial Constitution”

Brandon Christensen History, Law, Liberty , , , , , , ,

In his Report on the Affairs of British North America, Lord Durham proposed that “internal” government be placed in the hands of the colonists themselves and that a short list of subjects be reserved for Imperial control. Janet Ajzenstat maintains that Durham did not intend to formally restrict the authority of the new colonial legislature by dividing power. This paper argues otherwise: that Durham’s recommendation fell squarely within a tradition of distinguishing between the internal and external affairs of the colony. This was the imprecise but pragmatic distinction that American colonists invoked during the Stamp Act crisis as a means of curtailing imperial authority over internal taxation while maintaining their allegiance to the British Crown. It also was a division that Charles Buller relied upon in a constitution for New South Wales that he proposed prior to sailing to Canada as Durham’s principal secretary. Durham likely was drawing upon this tradition when he made his recommendation, a distinction that began to crumble away almost immediately. In the result, Canadians inherited a robust semblance of self-government, just as colonists during the Stamp Act crisis had desired, but without the need for revolution.

This is from David Schneiderman, a law professor at the University of Toronto. Here is the link.

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Who is Joe Epstein? Jonathan Leaf, Modern Age
  2. “Company-style” paintings from 19th century Burma Jonathan Saha, Colonizing Animals
  3. Nazis: A Modern Field Guide Jonathan Kay, Quillette
  4. The Dangers of Letting Someone Else Decide Jonathan Klick, Cato Unbound

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Conservatives, sex, and the aspirations of women Rachel Lu, Law & Liberty
  2. Hello Mars, farewell Mars Caleb Scharf, Life, Unbounded
  3. Terrorism justified: a response to Vicente Medina (Machiavelli) Irfan Khawaja, Policy of Truth
  4. The third gender of southern Mexico Ola Synowiec, BBC

Afternoon Tea: “Magna Carta for the World? The Merchants’ Chapter and Foreign Capital in the Early American Republic”

Brandon Christensen History, Law , , , , , ,

This Article examines the early modern revival and subtle transformation in what is here called the merchants’ chapter of Magna Carta and then analyzes how lawyers, judges, and government officeholders invoked it in the new American federal courts and in debates over congressional power. In the U.S. Supreme Court in the early 1790s, a British creditor and an American State debated the meaning and applicability of the merchants’ chapter, which guaranteed two rights to foreign merchants: free entry and exit during peacetime, without being subjected to arbitrary taxes; and, in wartime, the promise that their persons and goods would not be harmed or confiscated, unless their own king attacked and confiscated English merchants. In other words, no harm to enemy aliens, except as retaliation. Tit for tat.

The idea that reciprocity was a fundamental mechanism of international (and interpersonal) relations became something like a social science axiom in the early modern Enlightenment. Edward Coke claimed to find that mechanism in the merchants’ chapter and publicized it to lawyers throughout the emerging British Empire and beyond. Montesquieu lauded the English for protecting foreign commerce in their fundamental law, and Blackstone basked in that praise. American lawyers derived their understanding of the merchants’ chapter from these sources and then, in the early Republic, stretched the principle behind it to protect foreign capital, not just resident merchants. The vindication of old imperial debt contracts would signal to all international creditors that, in the United States, credit was safe. Federalists then invoked the chapter outside of the courts to resist Republican attempts to embargo commerce and sequester foreign credit. For Republicans, doux commerce had become the Achilles heel of the great Atlantic empires: their reliance on American trade could be used to gain diplomatic leverage without risking war. For Federalists, economic sanctions threatened not just their fiscal policy but their entire vision of an Atlantic world that increasingly insulated international capital from national politics. They all agreed, however, that the role of foreign capital in the American constitutional system was a central issue for the new and developing nation.

This is from Daniel J. Hulsebosch, a historian at NYU’s law school. Here is the link.

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. The passion for a kind of justice born of righteous rage Waller Newell, Claremont Review of Books
  2. Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Cold War: Less Than Grand Strategy Andrew Bacevich, the Nation
  3. No, Sex Wasn’t Better for Women Under Socialism Cathy Young, Reason
  4. I am Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria Samuel Reilly, 1843

Eye Candy: Kalmar Union, circa 1400

Brandon Christensen History , , , , ,

NOL map Kalmar Union 1400

The Kalmar Union lasted from 1397 to 1523. Here is a wiki on it. Imagine Denmark, Norway, and Sweden united as a single country when it came to foreign affairs, but each of them having plenty of room to govern themselves domestically. The main rivalry here was the “monarchy” of Kalmar and the aristocracies of both Sweden and Denmark. This domestic rivalry, coupled with fact that its neighborhood included the Holy Roman Empire and the Hanseatic League, means that the Kalmar Union is probably one of the more interesting polities in European history. Yet I know next to nothing about it…

Used in classrooms, abused in chatrooms

Brandon Christensen Liberty

My God, it’s the end of November. This blog was founded at the beginning of January in 2012. When I started this consortium I just wanted to band together libertarians who already blogged but who didn’t have a large following. I thought that maybe if I could band them together something would come about. I also thought that the San Francisco Bay Area had plenty of smaller voices in the libertarian movement, so I tried to invite people from that part of the world, in the hopes that NOL could be some kind of counterweight to Mises down south and Mercatus back east.

Both efforts obviously failed spectacularly, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Today, NOL is used in classrooms and abused in chatrooms.

I have been reading much more than writing lately. I have one child running around the flat and another on the way (due date is Jan 14th!). I have been making a rather rough sociocultural transition from city life to suburban/rural life. My wife is working towards her CPA license. I’m working a shitty job, writing for RealClearHistory, blogging here, and shoring up future articles for future academic publication. Some people are ready to write me off as a scholar, but that is foolish of them.

I’ve got something up my sleeve for NOL in 2019, too, but I’m keeping it close to my chest for now. It’s nothing crazy, so don’t go anywhere. Just know that NOL is committed to experimentation and evolution as much as it is to human freedom.

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Israel’s political balagan Michael Koplow, Ottomans & Zionists
  2. A summary of the rights of British America Thomas Jefferson, Avalon Project
  3. Studying Singapore before it was famous Frank Beyer, Asian Review of Books
  4. The mystic life of Hermann Hesse Philip Hensher, Spectator

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. No easy road: easements and occupation in the West Bank Irfan Khawaja, Policy of Truth
  2. Clouds over the Pacific: War, Stagnation, and the end of the Asian Century James Holmes, National Review
  3. Was philosophy founded by non-Western women? Dag Herbjørnsrud, Aeon
  4. Natural History of a Cherry Tree Nick Nielsen, Grand Strategy Annex

Afternoon Tea: “Shareholder Activism at the Dutch East India Company 1622-1625”

Brandon Christensen History, Law, Links , , , , , ,

This paper explores the reason for the absence of control rights of shareholders in the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the background of the conflict between shareholders and directors that arose in 1622/1623 when the VOC Charter of 1602 was extended.

The VOC was the result of a merger between several companies that had been trading in the East Indies between 1594 and 1602. The legal structure of most of these “pre-companies” which were incorporated for a single voyage to the East Indies, prevented shareholders from having actual influence. In most of these companies, the shareholders invested their money, not in the company itself, but via one of the individual directors. The relationship between a shareholder and most of the precompanies was therefore indirect, which impeded the exercise of control rights. Furthermore, shareholders may not really have been interested in their control rights given the high returns and the expectations of the newly opened trade route.

When these pre-companies were merged into the VOC in 1602, nothing changed with respect to the absence of shareholder control rights. The VOC, however, was established for a longer period and had to meet other more long-term challenges than those faced by the pre- companies. The failure to adapt the control structure to suit the different circumstances may have been a source of the conflicts that arose between the directors and shareholders between 1602 and 1623.

In 1622, upon extension of the 1602 Charter, a significant conflict erupted between the shareholders and directors. The so called dissenting participants complained about the numerous conflicts of interests that had been arising between the various directors and the VOC. They accused the directors of abuse of power, short-selling and self-enrichment. They argued that shareholder approval was required for the VOC to turn to the capital market to borrow funds. They also demanded that large investors be entitled to vote on the appointment of new directors. As the dissenting participants supported their arguments by referring to the English East India Company, the corporate governance of the EIC is briefly described.

Publishing their complaints in pamphlets, the shareholders mobilized public opinion and attempted to convince merchants not to invest in the Dutch West India Company, which was being incorporated at the same time. They exerted pressure on the government to ensure that more rights were granted to the shareholders when the VOC Charter was extended. To a limited extent, the activism of the “dissenting participants” was successful. The 1623 Charter granted certain rights to large investors, including the right to nominate new candidates for appointment as director. The 1623 Charter further regulated insider trading by the directors and encouraged the directors to pay a yearly dividend to the shareholders. In addition, a committee of nine shareholders was entrusted with the supervision of the VOC directors. This corporate body was known as the “Lords Nine” (Heren IX).

This is from Matthijs de Jongh, a judge in the Netherlands. Here is the link.

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. As economic freedom goes global, American conservatives turn inward John Tamny, RealClearMarkets
  2. Machiavelli was no Machiavellian Catherine Zuckert, Aeon
  3. Florentine liberty and Machiavelli’s The Prince Barry Stocker, NOL
  4. Scaling Up: a history of dragons! Tom Shippey, Literary Review

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. A reassessment of socialism Branko Milanovic, globalinequality
  2. Mexico’s Postmodern Populism Angel Jaramillo Torres, American Affairs
  3. America’s zeal for intervention, challenged Jacob Heilbrunn, New York Times
  4. The Souls of Yellow Folk—A Review Daniel Oppenheimer, Quillette