This thesis investigates the nature of the relationship between cities and king in the late Classical and Hellenistic Macedonian kingdom. It will consider the cities from two main perspectives: the city as a community, and the city as a settlement. Section 1 re-examines the evidence most commonly used to argue for the Macedonian cities gaining substantial autonomy in this period. It will be argued that this evidence has less to tell us about the political autonomy of the Macedonian cities than their 'social relations' with other Greek communities: Macedonian cities engaged in international exchanges which did not represent any challenge to the authority of the monarch, but which could also be used to represent the relationship between king and city as cooperative. Such latitude was balanced, however, by forceful expressions of royal dominance in other arenas. Section 2 considers the position of the cities within the royal economy, and examines how, as a result of the king's monopolisation of Macedonia's resources, and the fact that the Macedonian elite was more interested in advancing their position at court than acting as civic benefactors, the cities were left economically subordinated to the king. Section 3 uses the increasingly abundant archaeological evidence to consider how royal building programmes served to project royal ideology into the localities. Royal palaces, large-scale urban development, and fortifications created an experience of urban space in Macedonia which emphasised the roles of the monarch as guardian, benefactor, and unifying figure. The picture that emerges is of a kingdom of civic communities which were engaged in meaningful exchanges with their peers outside Macedonia, but which were living in large and impressive urban settlements which stood as monuments to the extent and ubiquity of royal authority. Late-Classical and Hellenistic Macedonia was a kingdom of poleis, but that kingdom was first and foremost a royal space.

If as argued the Mediterranean consisted in Antiquity of a unity determined by similar environmental factors and crises which were mitigated through established networks of trade and exchange, the border regions of the Roman Mediterranean, particularly to the South and East, were characterised by a radically different environment. This thesis focuses on the development of three of the arid regions bordering the ancient Mediterranean, namely the Fazzan oases in the Libyan Sahara, the Eastern Desert of Egypt and the region of Palmyra in Syria. These arid regions have received considerable archaeological attention in recent years, and a review of them will highlight the factors which enabled these regions to interact with the Roman Empire through trading dynamics, but also through the development of local resources. Central questions within this thesis concern the extent to which the environment would have tailored the potential of these regions, and if the existence of trade routes and social networks both affected and were affected by settlement and exploitation patterns in the region. Trade was created by geographically much broader social requirements for foreign or exotic goods, yet was restricted by the possibility to pass through these regions. Developments were conditioned by the constant need for balance between the state as a power enforcing and representing peace and security and local entities, and what the local social organisation had to offer in term of rent and stability to the state as an institution. After an introduction (Chapter 1) delineating the aims of the thesis, Chapter 2 defines influential theories and models that will be considered for this thesis, namely environmental factors, social networks and institutional economics. The archaeological evidence is then discussed in each relevant chapter: Chapter 3: The Libyan Sahara; Chapter 4: The Eastern Desert of Egypt; Chapter 5: Palmyra. Chapter 6 discusses major factors that may work as explanations for the development of agriculture, the exploitation mineral resources, and trade in these regions. The choice of regions both inside and outside the Roman Empire also allows a discussion on the rise of economic activities linked to the imperial economy. As such, the thesis moves away from a romano-centric perspective and proposes to look instead for internal factors, such as the development of complex societies with organisational frameworks and social networks which enable them to overcome the challenges of their geo-climatic settings. This study concludes that the developments identified in each chapter were not a factor of environmental changes but human agency. The state, or private individuals or communities successfully organised the resources necessary to integrate the regions into wider networks of intense trade in the imperial period. These concerned both physical infrastructure, and the development of far-reaching social networks.

This study investigates the territories of Neapolis and Nola in order to understand what role they played in the economy of their cities and in Campania. It further explores the difficult relationship between mankind and the fragile landscape of Vesuvius, how eruptions changed settlement patterns, exploitation strategies, and how people dealt with other smaller natural disasters that frequently occurred in that area. The thesis is organised in nine chapters, each describing a separate layer of the landscape. The introduction analyses the reasons for the apparent lack of data for the northern slopes of the volcano and further discusses the theoretical issues pertaining to the economy of the countryside. The history chapter lists the major facts of the histoire événementielle and their connection with the landscape’s longterm history. The third chapter studies the features of the static landscape and the exploitation of bedrock resources. Vesuvius is the subject of the fourth chapter, in which are discussed its shape and the eruptions' effects on the static landscape. Chapter five discusses the river Sebethus and how the intermingled action humans and nature created the marshes. Agriculture and animal breeding are analysed in chapter six, settlement patterns in chapter seven, trade in chapter eight. Through archival research and field survey it has been possible to plot 820 sites from ancient southern Campania, 263 of which from the territories of Neapolis and Nola. This evidence has been matched with environmental and archaeological datasets to provide estimates on agricultural produce and population, thus defining surplus and dependance for certain products. The results reveal a high compartmentalisation and degree of dependence of each micro-regional area on the others, for which one can deduce a high specialisation of each economic agent but not necessarily a high productivity for each of its units.

Cette thèse explore les ventes aux enchères publiques parisiennes, en analysant le lancement de nouveaux marchés artistiques entre les années 1830 et 1939. Pour cela, une base de données de 2 126 catalogues a été constituée, soit 286 076 œuvres intégralement retranscrites, puis ce corpus a été associé aux procès-verbaux des ventes correspondantes, conservés aux archives de Paris. Ces documents fournissent des informations sur les prix d’adjudication des objets, les vendeurs et les adjudicataires, et permettent ainsi de retracer précisément la provenance des œuvres, tout en menant une analyse quantitative du marché et des collections. Les procès-verbaux ont été complétés par les archives des commissaires-priseurs parisiens, en particulier leurs quitus ou relevés de comptes individuels.L’ensemble de ces sources a été pris en compte pour identifier ces « nouveaux » marchés artistiques et les acteurs qui firent le pari des enchères, en s’interrogeant sur les dispositifs de mise en valeur qui permirent d’assurer – ou non – le succès de leur lancement dans l’arène des ventes publiques. Cette interrogation touche l’histoire de l’art de façon très intime puisqu’elle analyse, de façon diachronique, le regard que les prescripteurs et les collectionneurs portèrent sur certains objets, les érigeant ou non au rang d’« œuvres » d’art. De façon corollaire, il s’agira d’étudier les raisons du succès ou de l’échec de tel ou tel type d’objets, ou de certains artistes plutôt que d’autres. Pour répondre à ces questions, une méthodologie pluridisciplinaire a été développée en histoire de l’art, utilisant les outils de visualisation propres aux humanités numériques et empruntant des techniques et des concepts à l’économie et à la sociologie. / This research investigates the Parisian auction sales from the 1830 until the interwar period, with a particular focus on the launching of new artistic markets. To do so, 2,126 auction catalogues were collected and transcribed, then matched with the minutes of the sales, curated at the archives de Paris. This data gathering led to global yet accurate set of 286 076 artworks – paintings, drawings, sculptures, antiques, Asian, Oriental, pre-Columbian and “primitive” artefacts – mentioning the description of the works, their hammer prices and the identity of both sellers and purchasers. In addition of this corpus, the auctioneers’ archives were analyzed, with a particular focus on their individual quitus or account statements. Reconsidering the history of taste, these sources allow to identify the new artefacts which were sold at auction, the players who bet on these novelties, their incentives, and the market mechanisms they used in order to promote them – with success or not. A transdisciplinary methodology, based on art history, economics, sociology and digital humanities, enables to answer these issues.

Le premier livre mis sous presse à Venise est publié en 1469. Entre cette date et les années 1530, l'imprimerie s'installe dans la ville et Venise devient la première productrice de livres incunables. D'un côté, nous avons un métier nouveau, qui se développe en dehors des cadres institutionnels des arts et des corporations. Les imprimeurs et libraires créent progressivement un nouveau circuit commercial, celui du livre imprimé, qui adapte ou s'affranchit de celui préexistant du livre manuscrit. La nouveauté de cette activité crée également de fortes inégalités et des incertitudes quant au statut social qu'il faut conférer à ses acteurs, qui doivent s'adapter au contexte social local. D'autre part, les imprimeurs exerçant à Venise sont pour la plupart d'origine étrangère. Dans les premières années, la majorité d'entre eux sont d'origine germanique. D'autres minorités ou communautés ont également contribué au développement de l'industrie. Leur activité était extrêmement instable et précaire. Il s'agit donc de comprendre comment ces artisans et marchands étrangers se sont organisés et comment ils se sont ou non intégrés dans la géographie urbaine et la sociabilité vénitienne. Finalement, ce travail vise à questionner l'existence d'un monde du livre à Venise entre 1469 et 1530, la construction progressive d'un milieu professionnel nouveau autour de l'imprimerie. Notre étude vise à comprendre comment cette industrie nouvelle, apportée par des acteurs étrangers, est parvenue à s'implanter et à croître dans la ville, en s'enracinant dans des institutions, des pratiques législatives, mais également dans le tissu urbain à la fois géographique et social. / The first book to be printed in Venice was published in 1469. Between this date and the 1530s, the printing industry expanded and Venice became the first production hub in Europe for incunabula. On the one hand, printing was a new trade, which was established in Venice outside of the guild system. Printers and booksellers managed to build their commercial network gradually, by either building upon the pre-existing manuscript network, or by creating their own commercial system. Since that activity was entirely new, there were many uncertainties and inequalities as far as the status of the printers was concerned, all the more so since they had to adapt to the local social context. On the other hand, most Venice-based printers were in fact foreigners. During the first years, they were mainly of German origin, although other minorities or communities also contributed to the development of the industry. Theirs was a very precarious and unstable activity. Hence the need to understand how these craftsmen and merchants organized themselves, which also raises the related question of whether and how they integrated into Venice’s urban geography and sociability. Finally, this thesis aims at questioning the existence of a Venetian printing world between 1469 and 1530, and at examining the construction of a professional milieu based on printing and the selling of printed books. I wish to understand how this new industry, shaped by foreigners, managed to take root and grow in the city; how the actors interacted with the institutions and the legislation; and how they integrated into Venice’s social fabric.

Questa tesi si propone di offrire un contributo agli studi su un centro situato in una delle aree maggiormente sviluppate nell'Europa nel Tardo Medioevo. La ricerca si basa principalmente sull'analisi dei manufatti ceramici di uso comune (contenitori da dispensa, vasellame da cucina e per altre attività domestiche). In parte l'analisi riguarda il vasellame da mensa. Attraverso lo studio della produzione ceramica, si approfondiscono le fasi di sviluppo e di crisi di un centro urbano fino all' Età Moderna, chiarendone le dinamiche e i processi di trasformazione, nell'ambito dei manufatti di uso comune in correlazione con l'analisi delle fonti scritte e della documentazione archeologica nel suo complesso (in particolare l'archeologia degli elevati e la sintesi delle informazioni da essa derivata). Il centro di Prato costituisce quindi, grazie al un'abbondante documentazione scritta e materiale, un osservatorio privilegiato per lo studio delle dinamiche economico-sociali in Toscana e a un livello più ampio, in Europa tra XIV e XVI secolo. / This analysis aims to contribute to studies on a town situated in one of the most developed areas in Europe in the Late Middle Ages. The research is based primarily on analysis of pottery in common use (containers, cookware and other household activities). Part of the analysis concerns Maiolica Arcaica. Through the study of ceramic production, we will explore stages of development and crisis of an urban center until the 'Modern Age, clarifying the dynamics and transformation processes in the context of the artifacts commonly used in conjunction with analysis of written documentation and archaeological evidence as a whole (particularly the archeology of buildings and synthesis of information derived from it). The center of Prato is then, thanks to the extensive documentation, a privileged observatory for the study of socio-economic dynamics in Tuscany and a broader level, in Europe between the fourteenth and sixteenth century.

A pervasive critique argues that the educational and social background of senior managers, determined largely by recruitment policies and practices, was an important contributor to the relative economic decline of Britain. The current thesis argues that this critique, even in nuanced form, suffers from serious flaws. For example, long term results of recruitment are confused with information on recruitment processes. In fact, corporate performance can only be judged by understanding the challenges that faced companies, and the limits of the options available to them. The objective of the work, then, is to outline the steps sensible recruiters should have taken to secure their needs for bright young entrants, and to describe and measure what in fact happened. Key findings are that: the criteria used by companies to define high-flier entrants – intelligence, certain personal skills, and signs of character - have remained fundamentally unchanged even if emphasis has moved. Business pursued these attributes through proxies, the most important of which was that of educational qualifications. Business was rightly slow, until the 1950s, to recruit graduate entrants because most bright young people did not attend university. Although British peculiarity in terms of non-vocationalism has been exaggerated, a lesser focus on ‘relevant’ qualifications for non-technical positions was not an economic disadvantage. Proxies for personal qualities were less robust but, over time, were replaced by better direct measurement of individual qualities. The solution found in Britain to bring educated young people together with employers through regional and national recruitment institutions, including the graduate milkround, has proven highly successful. The selection of entrants has been approached at least as well as abroad, and notably unreliable tools were avoided. Business obtained an ever growing proportion of young talent, and did so by integrating educated young people from new social strata to an extent unmatched abroad.

This dissertation examines the organisational background to the modern British health education movement, largely by reference to the origins and forty years' history of the Central Council for Health Education (1927-1968), the first body attempting to impart leadership and national coherence to a diffuse and eclectic field of educational practice and health promotion which has found secure administrative foundations difficult to establish. The study begins with a review of nineteenth and early twentieth century influences contributing to the character and status of the movement in its pioneering years. The predominantly propagandist roots and voluntary sector affinities with which it emerged from half and century's precursory endeavours profoundly affected health education's opportunities to advance with other aspects of health care and education in the inter-war years. By then, health education had become a diffuse and unco-ordinated field of minor, local authority initiatives and separatist campaigning by specialist, national health charities, remaining largely outside the remit of health and education professions and neglected officially. How the challenge of countering developmental difficulties fell to a minor professional body rather than an officially promoted one, is a question critical to any interpretation of later developments, and the subject of further enquiry. Subsequent investigation focuses on the evolution of the central agency which resulted, the Central Council for Health Education, particularly its thirty years' quest for official recognition and stature, and the strategies and services devised in this cause. It is a story of persistent and widespread enterprise, significant in many of its ideas but constrained in their effective development by enduring failure to attract Government support and to progress beyond the limited subscription income and essentially propagandist aspirations of local public health services. Adjudged ineffective by the 'Cohen Enquiry' of 1960-64, Government intervation proved forty years late in seeking to redress the problems of inadequate central provision, when in 1968 an officially funded Health Education Council replaced its neglected predecessor. The investigation reveals the classical dilemma of a multi-disciplinary field failing to transcend the divisive character of its own interests, in search for developmental coherence, and failing, consequently, to command effective professional and political support.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the merchants of Julfa, a town on the trade routes linking the Mediterranean with Iran, developed an extensive international trade network reaching from the Atlantic coast of Europe to the Indian Ocean. Part 1 of the dissertation traces the history of Julfa and examines the factors contributing to the Armenians' success - among them the significant growth of Iranian raw silk exports to Europe; the stimulus to East-West trade given by the influx of American silver to Europe and the consequent imbalance in the value of bullion between Europe, the Middle East and South Asia; the forced resettlement of the Julfans in Isfahan and the formation of a close economic relationship with the Safavi court. Part 2 concentrates on social and economic organisation, examining the structure of the Armenian patriarchal household and its commercial operation as family firm, and the community and its provision of the institutions that upheld commercial law and the merchants' system of values and standards of behaviour. The discussion in Chapters 4 and 5 of partnership and agency and the credit system operated by the Julfans is based on research into surviving contracts and credit instruments. These documents also provide the material for Part 3. The Julfan mercantile documents are a unique record of the commercial world of an Asian trading community in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. They also present numerous technical difficulties, which are discussed through the presentation of examples of documents in the original, with translation, notes and a glossary. The history of the Julfa merchants affords a rare opportunity for close examination of the organisation and techniques of trade in Asia and provides a basis for comparison with other Asian merchants.

Les Capitulations accordées par la Porte en 1740 fixent un cadre favorable pour le commerce français au Levant. Cependant, le XVIIIe siècle est celui de sa régression. Smyrne, qui s'impose alors comme la première Échelle ottomane, offre un point d'observation idoine pour comprendre cette crise où se mêlent confusément la dégradation des changes et celle des draps, l'article le plus exporté. Pourtant, la maison marseillaise Roux établit une commandite à Smyrne en 1759 après avoir eu recours à des tiers. Grâce aux apports de la sociologie économique, notre étude montre que le contexte levantin, sujet aux révolutions de toute sorte, n'offre pas toutes les aménités escomptées. La structure sociale légalement induite, et dominée par les Marseillais, fonctionne selon une prudence encastrée qui assimile les régisseurs à des subalternes suspects d'opportunisme. Une telle organisation entrave la saisie des occasions offertes par le marché oriental. Alors que la Méditerranée devient un espace périphérique du commerce mondial, les Roux échouent à valoriser leur implantation levantine malgré l'étendue de leurs réseaux. La domination marseillaise de la draperie languedocienne contribue en fait à sa précarisation et à la baisse de sa qualité. Dès la fin de la guerre de Sept Ans, ces exportations entrent dans une phase dépressive que l'inertie des pratiques négociantes ne fait qu'entretenir. Celles-ci expliquent également l'absence de diversification. Ainsi, les défauts réticulaires se combinent à la complexité du marché levantin, aux troubles géopolitiques du XVIIIe siècle et à la transition hégémonique au profit des Anglais pour expliquer la crise du commerce marseillais levantin. / The capitulations granted by the Porte in 1740 set a favourable framework for French trade in Levant. However, the 18th century means decline for it. Smyrna, which emerged at that time as the first Ottoman échelle, offered a fitting place to observe and to understand this crisis stemming from the debasement of exchange rates and woolen clothes, the most exported articles. And yet, the Roux company from Marseilles established a firm in Smyrna in 1759 after turning to outsiders. Thanks to the contributions of economic sociology, this research shows that the Levantine context, prone to revolutions of all kinds, didn't offer all the expected amenities. The social structure legally enforced and dominated by the merchants of Marseilles worked in accordance to embedded cautiousness which likened the expatriated partners to potentially opportunist subordinates. Such an organization hampered their activity in the Eastern market. Whereas the Mediterranean became an outlying space for world trade, the Roux failed to develop their Levantine firm despite the diversity of their networks. The domination of Marseilles over the clothing industry in Languedoc contributed, in fact, to its jeopardizing and the quality decline of its products. At the end of the Seven Years' War, these exportations entered in a declining stage maintained by the inertia of the merchants' practices which also account for the lack of diversification. Thus, network defects combine with the complexity of the Levantine market, the geopolitical troubles of the 18th century and the transition to English hegemony to explain the crisis of the Levantine trade from Marseilles.