POST YOUR SCHOOLWORK. DISCUSS. LEARN SOMETHING!

[Goodtime Slim]

Economics is far to boring a course for me to post here lol

[Caro]

No it isn't. Do you have any essays on economics? Post them. One of the reasons for this thread is to publish your work - you never know who might find it interesting.

[Goodtime Slim]

Economic History then

In this essay I will be answering the question as to what the fundamental problem of exchange is and how in medieval Europe this problem was solved. I will also discuss how important long distance trade was to the prosperity of the Venetian Republic and Portugal.

To initiate trade, both parties must believe they can trust each other since the other party could keep the goods they were trading for without giving anything in return. Trade will therefore not be initiated unless both traders believe the other trader will not renege as they would be left with nothing. Since it is so much more beneficial for one of the traders if they renege, trade will often not happen if there is nothing to enforce traders to stick to their word, so neither parties are any better off. This is the fundamental problem of exchange. Trading increases economic efficiency because of gains natural comparative advantage and the division of labour. It allows specialization and technological innovations. During the Dark Ages, the fundamental problem of exchange prevented trade, which in turn lead to economic stagnation.

Institutions developed in medieval Europe that were able to stop opportunistic behaviour during trade - traders are more likely to stick to their contracts when past behaviour is linked to the returns of the future. This reduces the possibility of reneging (Greif 2000 p7). Institutions can take the form of a legal system to punish the reneging individual but private institutions based on the loss of economic reputation and future business can also be very effective. These institutions allowed a revival in long distance trade, and Greif believes that the way institutions developed during medieval Europe was vital to later European progress (2000 p13).

Trading relationships were generally expected to repeat, but if traders in a foreign area were mistreated by the rulers, they could use a ‘bilateral reputation mechanism’ - it would be expected that a merchant who is wronged by the ruler stops trading with them - or an ‘uncoordinated multilateral reputation mechanism’ - a larger group than just the wronged merchant would be expected to stop trading’ (Greif 2000 p13-14). If the merchants are formally linked with each other, the threat by all of them stopping trade would be more effective since the two methods above could easily fail as one trader stopping wouldn’t affect the ruler much and the imperfect information of the time may make other traders not know about the abuse or receive a different interpretation of it. Even with coordinated merchants the threat of ceasing trade can still fail as some merchants would take advantage of the fact that no-one was trading with the area so they could do well for themselves by trading with it - in 1358, some German towns placed an embargo on Bruges. In response Bruges offered merchants from Cologne large trading privileges so that the embargo would fail (Dollinger 1970 p65-66). Coordinated merchant groups were the first ‘merchant guilds’, and they took a number of forms such as the German Hansa (an alliance of trading cities that had a trade monopoly over Northern Europe and the Baltic), and in the Italian city-states, they were part of the city’s administration. Merchant’s guilds used the threat of trade exclusion to get security, trade privileges and low prices and gave future trade if they had had sufficient protection in the past. They would cease trade with traders that had wronged them and any member of the guild who broke this agreement would be ostracised by the other merchants, who sometimes would themselves be fined if they dealt with the expelled merchant.

In overseas trade, merchants used agents in order to reduce costs since they saved the time of travelling abroad. However since the overseas agents had control over a merchant's capital abroad, they would be able to take that capital themselves. The risk of losing capital meant that merchants would not hire agents despite the efficiency gains since they had no legal control over the agents. In 12th century Italy overseas dealings with agents were usually between established partners in the form of commenda’s – these were usually between two groups where one provided the capital and one did the travelling and selling. The profits (or losses) were divided between the two at a ratio decided on when the commenda was arranged. The patron system came about as an institution that would govern agency relations. It was based on bilateral reputation and state enforcement - an agent would have to be honest as if he was not, his relations with a particular merchant would be ceased and the contract registration facilities that started up in many trade centres specified a minimum rate of return and would hold an agent's property and family hostage until he returned.

Long distance trade helped to revive Europe after the dark ages. It gave Europe access to new or rare commodities, so European nations sought new ways to get monopolies in these goods.

Venice’s revival after the dark ages started in the 11th century and at its peak it controlled all of the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean. As Venice rose in power it was able to reopen the Mediterranean to western European commerce and it developed trade links with northern Europe, by land at first and after the straits of Gibraltar had been opened, by sea. Its various institutions (including legal guarantees of property rights, government bond markets and democratic governance) acted as a firm basis for merchant capitalism.

The Venetians diplomatic skills allowed them to foster good relations with various Middle East regimes. Though Venice traded for many goods, the technology it brought from Asia and Egypt allowed it to have its own industries. Venice’s glassblowing technology was revolutionary and its decorative artisans were highly sought after. Venice used its colonies of Crete and Cyprus for sugar plantations using slave labour and its other major industries were silk production and book manufacturing. These were all useful trade goods.

In 1171 Venice had a population of 66 000, but by 1557 Venice had a population of 158 000, and combined with its territories it had a total population of 2 141 000 (Maddison 2001 p53). Its high population growth could lead to an increased level of the division of labour and specialised production, which would add to its prosperity

The Venetians were able to bring various Asian goods to Europe when trade took off in the Black Sea area after the reopening of the silk route in the 13th century. The Venetians also brought spices to Europe via Alexandria. However in 1479 the Ottoman Turks closed the Venetians access to the Black Sea and in 1517 the Venetians lost most of their access to spices when the Ottomans took over Egypt. The Venetians also traded with northern Europe (mainly Flanders), which allowed them to get woollen goods and metals. Monopoly on long distance trade, such as the Venetians control of east west trade, provides opportunities for economies of scale and specialization beyond the limits imposed by the size of the city (Prak 2001 p98).

Due to a number of factors, including Portuguese sugar production and changes in shipbuilding techniques, Venice’s trading decreased. Trade definitely was vital for Venice’s prosperity, but there were other factors - Pounds accredits Venice’s prosperity to its internal stability, its orderly system of government and the persistence of its policies (1994 p365), possibly as a result of this, Venice remained as one of the most prosperous European nations until the 17th century.


Portugal gained full independence from the Muslims in 1249, but the main landowning elite were the military and church, so it lacked many of the institutions Venice had with its semi-democratic governing system.

Portugal produced lots of sugar on its plantations which were mostly on Madeira (where timber, wheat and wine were also produced) and later at Sao Tome, Principe and Brazil using slave labour. This sugar was cheaper than Venetian sugar, so this was very useful for trade.

To gain access to the spice markets of the east, Portugal researched navigation, cartography and trading conditions in order to circumnavigate Africa. They were eventually successful in 1497 and on later voyages were able to bring back pepper and spices. Portugal had a monopoly on passage around the Cape of Good Hope until the very end of the 16th century. The monopoly allowed it to gain large revenues from trade, but this did not lead to wider development like it had done in Venice and as a result was no where near as prosperous due to its inefficient and backwards industrial and agricultural sectors –Musgrave said Portugal’s finances relied heavily on the proceeds of Asiatic trade (1999 p188).


From this essay it can be seen that trade was indeed very important to the prosperity of Venice and Portugal. However there were other factors that contributed to their prosperity - Venice’s large population and its institutions helped make it prosperous. In the case of Portugal trade was really all that made it as prosperous as it was, but this was no where near as high as Venice or even much of the other European countries. However, Portugal’s work in exploration allowed other countries to become more prosperous, such as the Netherlands when they were able to sail to the East.

Its a good thing I don't do English I think

[extremesister]

Ok im taking a evening class in Health and Social care, here is part of a case study on a Health centre.

Hall green health centre-
The Barriers

At the health centre are serveral barriers to overcome, these are as follows.
Physical Barriers
The only physical barrier that people mainly come across is the lifts. Sometimes the lift breaks down which means only the stairs are available. This is difficult especially for the people with wheelchairs or pushchairs. It causes a lot of problems at the surgery due to complaints.

Psychological barriers
There are psychological barriers at the surgery where some people have fears of things like needles therefore sometimes they avoid the centre in case they have to have an injection. Some people hate the thought of depending on someone else, they don’t want others to look after them and so will try and help them selves. Some of the patients that come to the surgery have disabilities or mental health problems and don’t always understand what they’re doing there or what’s wrong with them.

Financial barriers
The financial barriers is actually the transport getting there. As the health centre is a number of different surgery’s brought together, the people who came from the surgery’s that were further away need the money to get the bus or a taxi there unless they have a car. Some patients won’t go to the surgery because they’re worried about the pay they are loosing from missing work. Another barrier is that if the patients are over 16, have a full time job and are not on benefits they will have to pay for any prescriptions.

Geographical barriers
The geographical barriers are getting there. Like I said about people coming from the surgery’s that were further away, they need to get some sort of transport to get there, which is pretty annoying and inconvenient especially if you don’t have a car.

Language barrier
A lot of the receptionists who work at the surgery can only speak English as for a few of the other staff. This is a problem because sometimes a patient goes to the surgery and can’t speak much English, this is annoying for them as well as the staff. Although sometimes a translator is available in the surgery. This is a large language barrier.

Resource barrier
As a resource barrier when the health centre first opened staff were desperately in need especially receptionists. As they couldn’t find the best, they had to take on the best they could meaning the staff are not fully qualified or experienced enough for the job.


[/u]

[Caro]

Goodtime Slim - excellent! As a student of medieval literature, I am sure to find your essay concerning medieval trade economics interesting - it looks good, though I haven't had time to read it yet. Thanks for sharing, and keep em coming!

Extremesister... I'd be happy to edit any of your work for errors before you turn it in like that.... Thanks for sharing!

[extremesister]

Thanks Caro, luckly my tutor will go through it first as i suffer from a form of Dyslexia, its not quite upto the standard alot of people are posting on here, if anyone can give me anytips it would be great!!!

[_BlaZe_]

i have just finished secondary education and im not sure whether i'm enjoying it or not, sure i may be getting mashed every night and not seeing the morning coz i get up at 12 but thats shit, i wanna be back at school, with the hot babes n to take the piss out of teachers, to have a p.e lesson

[_BlaZe_]

i have just finished secondary education and im not sure whether i'm enjoying it or not, sure i may be getting mashed every night and not seeing the morning coz i get up at 12 but thats shit, i wanna be back at school, with the hot babes n to take the piss out of teachers, to have a p.e lesson

[Weedguru_Fire_Inside]

nice double post there tom, i suppose you have a point, school was quite fun purely for the reason that the worlds biggest bell-end was in our presence. man, smethurst was a fuckin' cock.

we kicked ass in p.e.

[Luke]

caro had a good idea about pulling up old topics instead of making stupid new ones. thought id add to this... its not schoolwork, per se, but it's a short story that i did write and hand in for a fiction class last week. it was inspired by this huge tree we smoke weed in. the characters in this story travel thru time, thru their memories.

THE TREE OF LIFE
Luke

Mary’s eyes hadn’t changed, hadn’t grown or yellowed or begun to sag. When I look into them we cease to exist in the spatial plane, entering a world comprised of time and of all the apartments we’ve rented and places we’ve frequented and people we’ve met, and at the core, with the two of us as its inhabitants. I can see the neighbor, the soccer ball Daniel must have left in the yard, and behind our house, the half-finished shed I’m in the process of building. My Beamer is still in the driveway–thank God–but further, like those Russian Matryoshka dolls, in the BMW is the Dihatsu Charade that I must admit to driving for most of the 1980s. At the bottom of the driveway a small crowd has congregated, as if picketing. I recognize Mary’s supervisor, the one who’s been on her case lately, along with our accountant, Mr. Lutz, and Daniel’s teacher, Mrs. What’s-her-name. I grab my wife’s hand and set off towards the street, shoving past them.

It’s been a while since we’ve taken a walk through our neighborhood, rather than simply driving. Maybe it’s even been a while since we’ve gone out at this hour. But looking at it all up close like this... “This neighborhood’s beautiful, Mary.” Perhaps the houses all have the same generic upscale appearance, but it’s clean and crime-free. It’s everything I could want for our family. Our house, I decide proudly, is a mansion. It’s what I’d been working so hard towards for so long.

One of the neighbors has set out an empty blue water jug on the porch, awaiting the truck that would come in the morning to replace it with high quality spring water. Mary knows it probably came from the company where I begun my career.

“I work all day in the basement and never even make a dent. The mail just keeps coming as fast as I can sort it, and the pile never gets any smaller. It’s all junk anyway.”

“I guess now you know why they call it ‘going postal.’ But just remember why you’re really there.”

“Water,” I spit. “I’m dedicating my life to selling water for inflated prices.”

That was before Caroline and Daniel were born. Thankfully, my life has much more meaning these days, and now I am a senior manager at a company that sells air tanks for scuba diving.

Past the hospital where Mary gave birth to our children, the landscape is drastically different. We briefly pass through a hip neighborhood with a rich nightlife and posh apartments. We stop for overpriced but scrumptious ice cream; chatting in carefree tones, we hardly notice the long line. Beyond that is a shabby part of town with a sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment that looks familiar. I put my arm around my wife protectively and we began to walk more briskly.

I hadn’t realized how far we’d gone: we were in a park near our college campus now. In the forest Mary and I discover the ancient, noble growth we declare the Tree of Life, and we climb it, smoking a couple joints high up on its wide branches and expounding philosophically on a professor’s recent lecture on nature versus nurture.

“I wanted to be a good mother, I swear,” Mary bursts out. “But the truth is Daniel is practically a latchkey kid, at least compared to the way we treated Caroline at that age. It’s no wonder he turned out... it’s no wonder those things happened.”

“Mary, he ditched a field trip with his friends and skateboarded at the shopping center across the street, where the other boys smoked cigarettes.”

“–If you believe that he didn’t participate in that too,” she interjected.

“And a lot of seventh grade boys look at pornographic magazines, regardless of the circumstances. It’s not your fault.”

“I’m his mother; it’s my job to be there for him. I’ve been trying to have my hours cut at the office so I can be there when he gets home from school.”

“Darling, I had our accountant run the numbers twice... the harsh reality is, you can’t go back to part-time right now. Not with Caroline at Dartmouth.” At that mention, my wife beams for the most imperceptible instant. She has been crying for an hour, but those bloodshot eyes never lose their intensity..

Mary passes me the joint. Those reddened eyes are so luminescent with youthful curiosity and benevolence that I can see them in the dark of night: wide open, looking, learning, until we kiss–slow now, darling. Tentatively, tenderly and exploratively, with ever-increasing passion.
We’re either invincible or invisible, I’m not sure. Several people amble by on the paved path below without seeing us above in the tree; they look around, to the left and right, but never up or down. Changing positions on the branch, Mary’s purse falls to the ground. With a clumsy, intoxicated movement she reaches to catch it and, if I didn’t brace her, probably would have fallen after it. The movement catches the attention of a dog and its owner, approaching on the path. The woman shouts disdainfully at the college students high in a tree in the middle of the night. “Hippies! Your childish ideals are so unreal.” Mary rolls those eyes of hers and I make a point of letting the old bitch see me slide a hand up her smooth thigh. Her world, tired and tiresome, is so far below us.

Looking down from the branch now, I discover, we can see everything, and there’s so much down there! Tiny on the horizon is the New York skyline, the city where in high school Mary ventured for three days to hear the Velvet Underground play, using her mother’s car but forgetting to inform her. We can see our first house, a smaller one on the outskirts of town. There, in its postage-stamp yard, we find our children, together. From the Tree of Life we can see so clearly; we watch as if getting to know them for the first time.

It’s 3 o’clock and Mary is inside that house at the kitchen table, waiting for Caroline to get home from elementary school. At her breast is Daniel, who cries when the sound of the front door startles him. Rocking him and kissing him on the forehead, Mary doesn’t look up.

Mary cries anew. Different this time.

In our new house, I realize, our kids are rarely in the same room, or when they are, their attention is directed elsewhere; Caroline’s on the phone or Daniel’s engrossed in those video games of his. Both of them, especially Caroline, consider us too boring to relate to.

Mary takes a final puff of the last joint. “I guess we’ve gotta get down sometime.”

“Let’s go get drunk,” I second. But before moving, she picks one of the tree’s hard, green fruits and slips it in her pocket.

“Look at all that we’ve built,” my wife says cathartically. “We’ve come a long way.”

“But in what direction, I wonder.”

[4*20]

Niiice work there really, gj man!
reading this type of thing stoned makes it even more enjoyable...

[super21girl]

Any stoners out there good at resume writing? I have some questions and need some tips. PM me if you think you can help, thanks.

[13laze]

holy fuck you guys sound smart

[bongo]

There once was a kingdom in the hills of Walnut which was as vast and mighty as those in England and in this
Kingdom there was a castle which sat upon an empty moat which also had huge flying buttresses of the most splendid
colors running across it. The gardens of the castle were all of exotic plants none of them being green of course.
The castle was right close to the ocean and there was 2 rows of houses with a line splitting them into four different
sections two rows faced the castle and two faced the ocean. Now the ocean in this kingdom was peculiar as there were
no boats or surfing or piers of any sort as far as the eye could see. In fact this ocean seemed as if it were just
being built at the time. There was a huge jetty running along the shore and this jetty would morph and move with the
tides and currents of the ocean. So now that we are all familiar with our surroundings it would be very strange to not
begin the story at this time. Yet still I must introduce you to the characters in my story or else you wont have the
slightest clue of what is going on. The ruler of our Kingdom by the morphing sea is King Luis, a very benevolent man
with a kind heart who if angered will remind you of six or seven lions in a circus where the circus maestro is an alcoholic
prone to violence. The duke, Duke Errington, is an evil man always trying to usurp this King or that yet he is allowed to visit all of their
royal asses because of his generous gifts to each kingdom. The prince of our kingdom, Prince Herald, is the first in
line to the throne, his best friend Northston, is a peasant know-it-all punk who rivals even the kings own Director of
The Opera, Helga, on knowledge of music. All these characters have their little faults and whatnot but each of them in their
liver of livers is just dying to eat a ham sandwich, the king outlawed ham in 1978 because he choked at thanksgiving. Don't
you hate king's like that I bet he kills a messenger bearing some bad news about a storm in Europe. Well then on with
our story i suppose. In our little kingdom the duke Errington was visiting the king under the guise of examining his
investment, because as we all know all he wants is the kingdom by the sea in walnut. Walking around under the buttresses and
the huge blackberry canopy which spread from the sealings of every building and house in the kingdom, the King and the Duke
discussed the minor problems of the kingdom such as being next to an ocean with a jetty that did nothing but make more waves
surfing was an impossibility as was any hope of a navy. It would be like trying to surf in a hurricane. So the two
continued their walk and eventually the matter of ham sandwiches was brought up and the duke became very flusterred at the
king that their were no ham sandwiches in this kingdom. The king said "shutup, ill give you your darn slam handwich, and
he hit him in the head." The Duke Errington raised his hand to the king in response to that wretched slam handwich,
if it wasn't rotten i don't think he would have cared so much. The king called security and the Duke was escorted out of
the court and taken to his room. Silently walking about his Kingdom the King ebgan to ponder as to whether or not he would
kick the duke out of the kingdom. He decided against it because the duke did give great donations, a crate of wine and
a barrel of cocaine! "Oh, what fun" thought the king and he went upstairs and had a line and went to his bed and
bickered with himself about whether or not he should make it illegal to j-walk on sundays just so he could laugh at the nuns
when they had to walk an extra mile to get to church! The convent was over a mile away from the church because of the
problem with airplanes. At that he fell asleep.

The next day was the day to be the Duke. That night the duke had decided in response to the king's call to
security he was going to usurp the kingdom, this was his plan all along this just made him feel less guilty about taking
it into action. So he decided that when the prince took his walk across the grounds, as was his custom, he would stab him in
the heart with an onyx sword. Why Onyx I don't know he just thought it was prettier than silver. After which the Prince
would promptly die and he would be next in line to the throne. After that just to be an asshole he would kill Northston.
What a plan it was he thought! Then he thought about whether or not to kill the king tommorow or the day after tommorow. "I
wonder should i kill the king tomorrow or the day after" the Duke Errington grossooled. He eventually decided to kill the
king the same day as the prince Herald and Northston. To avoid any lawsuits see. So the Duke Errington had some of his
favorite coke and thought about whether or not the roundness of a ball that was black was better than a red square what
a stupid question don't you think. Everyone knows squares are not as round as balls but tooting his coke just made him think.
Then he fell asleep before he even knew the answer.

So the next day arrived and the duke Errington was lying in wait in a grove of some sort of neon bluish flower stolen
from Mu. The Prince happened to be just around the corner from there and was on his daily walk. Everything was going just
as the Duke Errington had planned until he realized that the Prince Herald also had a sword. So the moment of death arrived
and the Duke Errington emerged with his sword drawn and ready and he charged the prince. Now the other problem with the
Duke Erringtons plan was he never thought about whether or not the Prince had armors or not. So continuing, The duke
Errington charged the prince Herald and landed his blow right onto the heart but the prince had made himself a little
heart protector out of a granite heart he had gotten for valentines day from his girlfriend. Since granite is harder than
onyx, I don't really know but it probably is, the granite heart deflected the sword and the sword shot down straight into
Prince Heralds royal gut. Oh the agony which Herald felt then was unbelievable like someone had stabbed an onyx sword
through his gut which had happened it's just that herald was in such a state of shock he hadn't yet realized this. Anyways,
Herald wanted revenge ever so badly now so he happened to find a gnarly old wooden crackerbox on the floor and he approached
the Duke Errington and swung his crackerbox with such force that it broke Duke Erringtons sword in two. So Duke Errington
stood very high and mighty like and dropped his broken sword and then very coward like sucker punched the poor Prince in the
face. At this Northston ran out from behind a giant book, Northston has a little problem see he enjoys fucking a certain
page in very book he reads if you're wondering its page 125. Well the DUke Errington punched this page fucker right in the
listo and he dropped like a druggy drops free acid. So having thought he killed two of his hitlist members only one man was
left, THE KING. Well the Duke Errington took of running to the castle, little did he know the Prince had rose up from his
unconcious state and was in hot pursuit. The prince herald screamed "stop you dirty old whore" Hearing her nickname the
director of the opera turned and called "WHat" The prince replied kindly "not you the other dirty old whore" This time
the duke errington turned and he struck down the Prince just as promptly as before. Just before he went down though the
Prince saw the King lugging a huge sword and he went down knowing justice might be served. The King Luis reached the
battle and he lifted his sword, as he did that the Duke pulled a small dagger and turned quickly and stabbed the King in the
heart. The Kings sword dropped just as quickly as the dagger had stabbed and beheaded the Duke. The prince rose up from
the rubble as King. A huge ceremony took place and the King Herald gave a plate of cocaine to each of his wedding guests
and then the King gave his first royal decree that satisfied the burning desire in all of us. The reinstation of ham in the
kingdom. Finally the illegal ham transportation system was shutdown and the kingdom relished in its cocaine and ham.

[Caro]

I think if it was edited for spelling and grammatical errors, it would be publishable! Very cute. Thanks for posting!