L’objet précieux, et plus particulièrement le bijou, suscitent, au fil des siècles et des espaces, des réactions qui se réitèrent et se répondent, malgré la variation des contextes, des époques et des lieux. En effet, si la réprobation pour les notions de dissipation et de luxe – souvent ostentatoires – est récurrente depuis l’Antiquité déjà (Pline l’Ancien), l’action bénéfique de l’objet précieux est également revendiquée, sur la base de plusieurs raisons : esthétiques, symboliques, religieuses et économiques. L’objet précieux est à la fois un agalma resplendissant et digne d’admiration ; une offrande pour les dieux ou pour les morts, dont la valeur doit être proportionnelle à la dignité des destinataires ; un symbole de statut, de pouvoir, d’alliance et de fidélité, dans lequel des valeurs culturelles sont condensées ; un héritage social ou familial, à la fois véhicule et gage de la transmission et de la tradition ; un inspirateur de la création artistique et du développement des techniques ; enfin l’un des éléments d’échange privilégiés dans l'économie du don, voire un moteur de l’économie, comme il est souligné par plusieurs auteurs tout au long de la réflexion occidentale sur le luxe, de Bernard de Mandeville à Jean-Baptiste Say, à Werner Sombart et bien d’autres.

We inform you that a new position has been entered in the Apella information system:

Title: Επίκουρος καθηγητής
Code: APP35875
Organization: Panteio University of Social and Political Sciences
School: Political Science and History
Department/Institute: Political Science and History
Discipline: Διεθνική Ελληνική και Ευρωπαϊκή Ιστορία του 19ου αιώνα

The 20th World Economic History Congress will convene from 28 July to 1 August 2025 in Lund, Sweden. The theme for the Congress is Equality and Sustainability Challenges, which highlights some of the central issues facing humanity today and also connects to a broad and diverse range of historical problems. To address both the challenges and to find insights from the historical record for that endeavor, a range of perspectives will be necessary.

The Department of Economic History, Lund University, is advertising a fully funded four-year position as a PhD student, starting 15 January 2024. The project conserns sustainable rural communities with a specific focus on water resources in arid parts of Colombia.

The project aims to enhance the sustainable, resilient, and fair development of rural and dispersed communities living in dry areas of Colombia, where the climate-water-biodiversity interactions have become a challenge for human well-being and nature. Climate change threatens natural processes for water systems and accelerates biodiversity loss. Similarly, biodiversity loss and water scarcity has exacerbated the negative impacts of climate change on nature. Should future consequences of climate change mirror these effects, the negative impact on human and natural life may be irreversible (IPCC, 2023).

Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini” and the European School for Training in Economic and Social Historical Research (ESTER) will organise their seventh jointly-organized Datini-ESTER Advanced Seminar for economic and social historians on 12-18 May 2024, in Prato (Italy) on the theme of ‘Social and Geographical Mobility’.

The economic history of pre-modern risk and its management is undergoing a scholarly resurgence stimulated by active interdisciplinary engagement with legal, social, and cultural histories. The three concepts of 'risk', 'insolvency', and 'bankruptcy' are central to this topic, providing ample scope for contributions across medieval and early modern Europe and multiple opportunities for comparative links that encompass the Islamic world and the European colonial experiences.

The focus of this Datini Study Week is the interface between the normative aspect of risk, insolvency, and bankruptcy, and their practical implementation as investigated through analyses of daily practices and the tools and strategies of risk management. Particular attention will be paid to the regulation of financial transactions within states, across political borders, and at the intersection of different legal systems. The conceptual framework we propose is one that acknowledges the connection of insolvency and bankruptcy to both 'financial' and 'economic' risks, taking into consideration the analytical separation that exists between the two and how practical solutions for their management overlap.

Insular and Maritime Societies in the Mediterranean, Black and Red Seas is the Third International Conference in Maritime History organised by the Center of Maritime History, in the Institute for Mediterranean Studies (IMS/FORTH), in Rethymnon.

To be be held in person at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies (IMS/FORTH) in Rethymnon, Crete, from November 3-5 2023.

The Geneva Graduate Institute offers fully-funded PhD scholarships to students who wish to write their dissertations in economic history, with particular emphasis in financial history. Depending on interest and background, students can apply through the International Economics or the International History PhDs.

The purpose of this fellowship is to facilitate library and archival research in business or economic history. Individual grants range from $1,000 to $3,000. Three categories of applicants will be eligible for grants: 1) Harvard University graduate students in history, economics, or business administration, whose research requires travel to distant archives or repositories; 2) graduate students or nontenured faculty in those fields from other universities, in the U.S. and abroad, whose research requires travel to Baker Library and other local archives; and 3) Harvard College undergraduates writing senior theses in these fields whose research requires travel away from Cambridge.

The Business History Conference is pleased to announce – and invite applications for – its inaugural Henry Kaufman Financial History Fellowship Program.  Funded through a generous donation from Henry & Elaine Kaufman Foundation, Inc., the Program is intended to support the work of outstanding emerging scholars whose work engages meaningfully with financial history in any time period or any region of the world.  The Kaufman Program offers Research Fellowships, Dissertation Fellowships, and Post-Doctoral Fellowships.

The Alfred D. Chandler Jr. International Visiting Scholar in Business History Program invites established scholars in business history based outside the United States to spend a period of time in residence at Harvard Business School. The Chandler International Visiting Scholar is expected to interact with faculty and researchers, present work at research seminars, and conduct business history research. 

This award honors the work and contributions of Thomas K. McCraw (1940-2012), who was Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at Harvard Business School. The fellowship enables established scholars from around the world whose primary interest is the business and economic history of the United States to spend time in residence at Harvard Business School. The main activities of the Thomas K. McCraw Fellow will be to conduct research in the archives of Baker Library or in other Boston-area libraries, present their work at a seminar, and interact with HBS faculty.