Civil servants with close access to monarchs have often been seen as influential advisers. A specific group of civil servants were the Royal Secretaries in Sweden and Spain, and the Secretaries of State in England and France. They all held offices which gave them close and continuous access to their masters. In all the above-mentioned countries these civil servants were recruited from among groups divergent from the political, social and economic elite. This discrepancy in social status was most apparent in Sweden and Spain. In Spain this led to a political conflict between secretaries and the aristocracy, which in turn led to the marginalization of the secretaries; in Sweden a similar political conflict remained unresolved throughout the century. In England and France the old establishment was able to enclose both the administration and its members. In Sweden the aristocracy failed to integrate this new office-holding nobility, thus laying the foundations for the strengthening of a homogeneous group which politically was strongly supportive of the monarchs. In France, England and Sweden the secretaries could use their offices to influence political decisions. This became a problem in Sweden since the Royal Secretaries within their own group were well-integrated by family and friendship connections. By supporting the monarchs, they themselves gained support and towards the end of the century these socially inferior civil servants had grown in importance and formed a politically important group alongside the established nobility. / digitalisering@umu

This thesis analyzes tha value added tax (VAT) in the European Union (EU). Primarily,the issue of tax harmonization and legal basis of tax harmonization in the context of European Union is studied. Furthermore, this thesis makes a comparision of VAT legislation in the EU and Turkey and identifies differences between the EU VAT system and Turkish VAT Law.Lastly, within the framework of finding similarities between Turkish and EU VAT legislation,the thesis tries to examine whether major harmonization laws are needded to be adopted in the accession process in the field of VAT.

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In this essay I look at the significance of Inigo Jones's annotated copy of Andrea Palladio's I quattro libri dell'architettura in a time of momentous change in the habits of readers and writers, printers and publishers, architects and kings. Jones lived in Stuart England, a hinge period swinging between print culture and manuscript culture, science (mechanical philosophy) and magic (Neoplatonism, hermeticism, alchemy), humoural physiology and modern medicine. I examine his book as part of a change of social setting, looking outward from his study of Palladian architectural theory to developments in publishing and authorship, perspective and theatre design, graphic representation and anatomy, medicine and the history of the human body.

The Russian people and the steppe nomads have maintained a symbiotic relationship for 2600 years that was undeniably fluid; however, for the most part mental and sometimes physical barriers have been erected in Russian society and historiography in an attempt to deny or suppress many aspects of Russia’s “Asian” features or historical past. This thesis aims to bring to light the fluidity and cross-cultural exchanges of this relationship, the substantial influences of steppe societies on Russian society and history, as well as to examine the motives and ideologies behind Russia’s anti-nomadic sentiments that ultimately shaped and censored Russian national history. The invaluable benefits of nomadic and steppe customs in Russian society and on Russian identity have previously been ignored, dismissed or downplayed in Russian historiography, and revisionist historians hope to reverse this and introduce the concept that the rise of the Russian nation would not have been possible without the influence of steppe nomadic societies.

The French Revolution continues to fascinate historians. The political culture which it is said to have spawned has recently become a particularly salient feature in its recent historiography. Many have argued that the discrepancy between the hopes that the Revolution initially generated and the destruction, war, and terror that followed was the inevitable result of this culture. Within this framework, the defeat of the constitutional proposals of the group of moderate politicians known as the Monarchiens has been portrayed as the Revolution’s missed opportunity to avoid the violence of the Terror. Their most important proposals were for a bicameral legislature and strong royal authority. My thesis questions assumptions about the ideological coherence of the five most influential proponents of this model and the inevitability of their defeat. To do this, I will analyze the pre-revolutionary political careers of these men up to the defeat of their proposals in the summer of 1789, and demonstrate that their political proposals were contingent on the political context, often changing drastically to fit the demands of circumstance.

This thesis traces the development of Anglo-American naval relations throughout the Chamberlain premiership and the various attempts that were made during this period to extend and broaden the existing level of cooperation in the hope that it might be used for politico-strategic purposes. It deals in some depth with the background to and course of Eden's various initiatives to the Roosevelt Administration in the six months following the July 7th incident of 1937 and explains why his attempts to construct some form of naval partnership with the United States evoked such opposition from within the ranks of the British Government. In this connection, Chamberlain's rather ambivalent role in Anglo-American relations and the contrast between Eden and himself in their use of different methods, style and policy is closely examined in the first half of the thesis. After Eden's resignation and until appeasement became discredited, Anglo-American naval cooperation continued to be a mainly technical rather than strategic nature. In the last few months of peace, however, the British again looked to the Americans for strategic assistance and tried unsuccessfully to encourage them to deploy their fleet in the Western Pacific in order to counter the threat of the Japanese in the Far East. The thesis goes on to explore the changing naval relationship between Britain and the United States after the outbreak of the Second World War and how it led to greater involvement between them on detailed day-to-day technical matters related to the war in Europe. Although predominantly a study in the formation of British policy, the thesis has also drawn extensively on the official American records in an attempt to establish that a close link existed between naval strategy and foreign policy in Anglo-American relations during this period.

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The fantastic stands as an important part of Chinese culture. It is in fact through its literature that it has been made possible for us to enjoy this heritage. With the study of fantastic tales and anomaly accounts, this thesis tackles the problem of rationalism in relation with supernatural. It attempts to understand the mechanisms of the intermingling of the concepts of fiction and history, through the comparison of Chinese historical and fictional texts, as well as parallels between China and Europe. It will also deal with the concepts of nature, in both the perspectives of China and Europe, and the Enlightenment.

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