Abstract Until now, there has not been a performance history of The Merchant of Venice that focuses on Portia, the main character of the play. Although she has the most lines, the most stage time, and represents the nexus of the action, Portia has often been hidden in Shylock's shadow, and this dissertation seeks to bring her into the spotlight. The Portia Project is a contribution to literary and theatrical history; its primary goal is to provide a tool for scholars and teachers. Moreover, because of Merchant's notoriously problematic nature, the play invites different perspectives. By presenting the diverse ways that actors and directors have approached the play and resolved the cruxes associated with Portia, I aim to demonstrate that there are multiple valid ways in which to interpret the text. Chapter one explores the literary criticism of The Merchant of Venice, centering on the treatment of the play's female protagonist. The early twentieth century produced wide-ranging interpretations of Portia, and the last fifty years have seen her analyzed through the lenses of feminism, cultural materialism, psychoanalytic criticism, and queer theory. Having analyzed the literary criticism, I next concentrate on the performance history of The Merchant of Venice, with particular attention to Portia. I then turn to those who have performed the role in a wide-range of theatrical venues. Chapter three features the input of Seana McKenna--star of the Canadian stage and a mainstay of the Stratford Festival in Ontario--who played Portia in a 1989 production. Michael Langham directed in an atmosphere of trepidation over the play's reception and its portrayal of Shylock's forced conversion. For chapter four I interviewed Marni Penning, a veteran of the smaller repertory companies that are sprinkled about the United States. For chapter five I talked to Edward Hall, artistic director of the all-male Propeller Theatre Company, and Kelsey Brookfield, a young black actor who played Portia for the group's 2009 production. By dressing all of the "male" characters alike, Hall de-emphasized the differences between the Christians and the Jews, while Portia, Nerissa, and Jessica were presented not as women, but as men, who have feminized themselves to survive in their harsh environment. Lily Rabe played Portia for the 2010 production of Merchant in Central Park, opposite Al Pacino's Shylock. The production was so successful that it moved to Broadway in October of that year, and Rabe's intelligent portrayal won universal accolades. The Portia Project explores the perceptions of literary critics, theatrical reviewers, actors, and directors, in order to ascertain how representations and expectations of Shakespeare's most learned heroine have changed over the years and to rescue her from Shylock's shadow. By combining the disciplines of literary criticism, theatre, and film, an evolving picture of Portia emerges, revealing Portia's complexity and her centrality to The Merchant of Venice.

This dissertation is a quantitative study of the spatial business strategies of 130 late medieval and 16th-century European commercial and banking firms, the business networks of which have been put together for a structural analysis of the European city network between ca. 1300 and ca. 1600. Concretely this investigation has been carried out through the application of an interlocking network model – specifically developed for the study of the present-day global city network produced by the office networks of business service firms – to this historical case study, in order to challenge predominantly hierarchical conceptualisations of city networks which are often influenced by central place theory. After a methodological section, in which solutions are designed for reconciling the geographical model with the particularities of historical research, a first part of the analysis focuses on agency within the network, identifying and reconstructing the multiple spatial strategies used by the different agents. In a second part the overall structure and dynamics in the network are investigated, revealing the operation of Christaller's traffic principle, as well as a cyclical variation in emphasis on continental and maritime nodes within the European city network. More generally, this study demonstrates that the functioning of dynamic transnational networks based upon complementarity and cooperation rather than competition is not limited to our contemporary globalised world, but can also be found in particular historical societies.

In its introduction and four chapters, this project demonstrates that Shakespeare responded to—and powerfully shaped—the early modern English literary marketplace. Against the longstanding critical limitation of the category “Literature” that restricts it to the printed book, this dissertation argues that the literary is not so much a quality of texts as a mode of exchange encompassing not merely printed books but many other forms of representation. Whether writing for the stage, the page, or both, Shakespeare borrowed from and influenced other writers, and it is these specifically formal transactions that make his works literary. Thus, we can understand Shakespeare’s literariness only by scrutinizing the formal features of his works and showing how they circulated in an economy of imaginative writing. Shakespeare self-consciously refashioned words, styles, metrical forms, and figures of speech even as he traded in them, quickly cornering the literary market between 1595 and 1600. Shakespeare’s practice as a writer thus preceded and made possible his reputation both in the theater and in print. / text

Till sjöss är den hierarkiska organisationsstrukturen den vanligast förekommande. Detta sträcker sig från befälhavaren till den individuella sjömannen. Överstyrman, nummer två i däcksbefälsordningen, har flera olika ansvarsområden. Några vanliga exempel är bland annat att prioritera underhåll av fartyget, övervaka och leda arbetet på däck samt att ha huvudansvar för lastning och lossning. Med detta i åtanke är det inte svårt att tänka sig att man i denna roll upplever konflikter ombord, både arbetsrelaterade och privata. Syftet med denna studie är att försöka besvara vilka konflikter som är vanligast utifrån en överstyrmans perspektiv samt utreda om överstyrmän i sin roll använder några definierade metoder för att hantera de konflikter som uppstår. Avslutningsvis besvaras också frågan hur benägna överstyrmän är att deltaga i kurser kring utveckling av sin egen konflikthantering. Genom djupintervjuer med aktiva överstyrmän så har slutsatsen dragits att de mest vanliga konflikterna är de som uppstår från små irritationer i vardagen. Dessa mindre konflikter, om de lämnas utan åtgärd, har en tendens att växa och eskalera till större tvister som kräver konflikthantering. Ur ett konflikthanteringsperspektiv så visar undersökningen på att alla överstyrmän använder sig av en fördefinierad konflikthanteringsstrategi. Alla som har deltagit i undersökningen anser att vidare utbildning inom området konflikthantering skulle gynna dem både i deras roll som överstyrman och samtidigt ha en positiv inverkan på ombordkulturen. / At sea, a strict hierarchy is the natural chain of command. This ranges from the captain to the individual sailor. The Chief Officer, second in command on deck, has many areas of responsibility. For instance, he or she is commonly in charge of prioritizing aspects of ship maintenance, supervise and manage crew work-orders and the main responsibility for loading and discharging cargo. With this in mind, it is not hard to imagine that a mustered chief officer will experience a variety of conflicts on-board, both work related and personal. The purpose of this study is to answer what conflicts are the most common from a chief officers perspective on-board a merchant vessel. Also it will gauge if there are any specific conflict management methods that are used by chief officers to advert or intervene in the conflict situations that can arise. The concluding section of this study will look at the possibility and interest for chief officers to attend a course in conflict management to further develop their tools within this area. Through in-depth interviews with active chief officer the result showed that the most common conflicts were perceived as the ones that arose from everyday problems on-board. These minor issues, if left to their own accord, tend to escalate. From a conflict management perspective, all findings indicate that chief officers tend to use a predefined strategy in regards to solving or manage conflicts on-board. However, all respondents agree that further education within the field would surely benefit them as individuals and also the on-board culture as a whole.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The increasing financial pressures exerted on ship owners in recent years due to cost inflation, overtonnage and low freight rates in many sectors, have forced ship owners to increase cost savings and contain costs. That induced certain shipowners to operate substandard ships. The cost advantages in substandard ships are through failing to maintain safety equipment and procedures, employing cheap and untrained crews, repairing only essential equipment on breakdown and register under flags that do not comply with all the international regulatory, economic and social requirements for ships. Those ships undercut the true costs of operating a ship and eventually drive the obedient shipowner out of the market at the cost of safe and clean seas. Because of the complex international environment in which shipping operates an international regulatory framework is needed to ensure safety at sea. This assignment gives a layout of that framework, which is co-ordinated by the International Maritime Organisation (!MO), as well as the ways in which it is implemented and regulated in individual countries, with reference to South Africa. The functioning of the South African Maritime Safety Agency (SAMSA), which has been established on 1 April 1998, is also discussed. The benefit of safe ports is highlighted and also the cost savings in marine insurance if ships are classified as safe. A brief description of the navigation instruments that SAMSA use to assist in achieving maritime safety is given. Finally, the diseconomies of substandard ships are debated against quality ships for cleaner seas. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die toenemende finansiële druk op skeepseienaars, as gevolg van koste inflasie, oortonnemaat en lae vragtariewe in verskeie sektore, het hulle gedwing om oor die laaste aantal jare hul kostes te beperk. Gedwonge kostebesparings gee aanleiding daartoe dat sekere skeepseienaars onveilige skepe bedryf. Kostevoordele in onveilige skepe word bereik deur veiligheidstoerusting en -prosedures nie in stand te hou nie, goedkoop en onopgeleide bemanning aan te stel, slegs die nodige herstelwerk aan toerusting te doen en deur te registreer onder vlae wat nie voldoen aan internasionale regulering, ekonomiese en sosiale vereistes vir skepe nie. Eienaars van sulke skepe, onderskruip die ware bedryfskoste van 'n skip en uiteindelik dryf dit die wetsgetroue skeepseienaars uit die mark ten koste van 'n veilige en skoon see. As gevolg van die komplekse internasionale omgewmg waann skeepvaart funksioneer, word 'n internasionale reguleringsraamwerk benodig om veiligheid ter see te verseker. Hierdie werkstuk gee 'n uitleg van daardie raamwerk, wat gekoordineer word deur die Internasionale Maritieme Organisasie (!MO), asook die manier waarop dit geïmplementeer en gereguleer word in individuele lande met verwysing tot Suid-Afrika. Die funksionering van die Suid-Afrikaanse Maritieme Veiligheids Agentskap (SAMSA), wat tot stand gebring is op 1 April 1998, word bespreek. Die voordele van veilige hawens word uitgelig, sowel as die besparings in maritieme versekeringskoste indien 'n skip as veilig geklassifiseer word. 'n Kort beskrywing van navigasie-instrumente wat SAMSA gebruik om maritieme veiligheid te bewerkstellig, word kortliks bespreek. Ten slotte, die dis-ekonomie van onveilige skepe word gedebateer teenoor die kwaliteit van skepe vir 'n skoner see.

O objetivo primordial da Dissertação é o de discutir, por intermédio da bibliografia e de fontes impressas e manuscritas, a inserção da capitania de São Paulo nas linhas de comércio e crédito do Império português, entre 1788 (início do governo de Bernardo José de Lorena) e 1808 (chegada da Corte portuguesa à colônia). Partindo-se do debate em torno de decisões e procedimentos mercantis, que a bibliografia sobre o período designou como lei do porto único, pretende-se não só problematizar o quadro econômico e social da capitania como alguns dos fundamentos da decadência e pobreza de São Paulo na segunda metade do século XVIII, evidenciando-se os modos como essas expressões serviram de argumentos para o discurso e a prática tanto de capitães generais quanto de outros sujeitos históricos. Reconhecendo-se a complexidade da época e dos temas abordados, a proposta é a de contribuir para a compreensão de momento crucial da história paulista, notadamente no tocante às relações comerciais com o Reino, com a praça do Rio de Janeiro e com outras áreas da América Portuguesa. / From previous investigations toward the so called lei do porto único, we pretend to questioned the decay and the poverty of the capitania of São Paulo in the second half of the eighteen century, mapping the actuation of the merchant groups of the region, in the attempt to understand not only the economic and social frame of the capitania, but also the politic arrangements and conflicts between these sectors and metropolitan authorities, using as main reference the pombalinas reforms and their implications in colonial relations, particularly after 1780, when these reforms became more evident. In this sense and recognizing the complexity of this theme, the main goal of this study is to discuss, using selected bibliography and sources, the insertion of the capitania of São Paulo in the credit and trade lines of the Portuguese empire, between 1788 (beginning of the government of Bernardo Jose Lorena) and 1808 (arrived of the Portuguese court in Brazil), privileging the merchant groups of São Paulo and their connections with Portugal and the rest of the capitanias of the colony, in special with the market of Rio de Janeiro, administrative center of the colony and the main market of the Portuguese in America, since the second half of the XVIII century.

Le navire possède une nationalité lui permettant d'être identifié partout où il se trouve. Il est le moyen de transport préféré des échanges commerciaux internationaux de marchandises, et/ou des personnes, d'un port à un autre, d'un pays à un autre. Avoir une flotte marchande nationale est primordial pour le pays ; mais diverses contraintes entravent son expansion et son développement. Les contraintes sont aussi bien internes qu'externes (hégémonie des grands armateurs, domination des grandes nations maritimes). Au niveau national, l'immatriculation d'un navire obéit à certaines conditions. Les procédures sont lourdes et longues ; les textes sont très anciens et nécessitent d'être modifiés afin de répondre aux besoins des armateurs désirant de créer ou de renforcer leurs flottes. Au niveau international , les contraintes datent depuis toujours. L'histoire du commerce maritime a toujours montré l'envie de domination des grandes nations sur les autres. Dans un certain temps par le colonialisme pur et simple, lequel a connu des protestations et des soulèvements des peuples colonisés dans le but de retrouver leur indépendance. Ensuite s'est instaurée la domination économique et commerciale, toujours par les mêmes nations, dites développées et industrialisées ; cette fois ci à travers les accords commerciaux bilatéraux ou multilatéraux, et des organismes internationaux (O.N.U., C.N.U.C.E.D., O.M.I., O.M.C., ...). Une grande partie de ces accords et ces conventions a été élaborée sur mesure, sous le lobbying des nations dominantes, de telle sorte que leurs intérêts soient préservés / Ship has a nationality (a flag) allowing her to be identified wherever she is. It's preferred means of transport for international trade of goods, and/or passengers, from a port to port or a country to another. To have a national merchant fleet is vital for the country (or the state), but various constraints hinder its expansion and development. The constraints are both internal and external (hegemony of the major shipping companies, domination of the major maritime nations). Nationally, the registration of a vessel is subject to certain terms. The procedures are cumbersome and complicated ; the legal texts are very old and need to be modified to meet the needs of owners to establish or strengthen their fleets. At the international level, the constraints have always existed. The history of maritime trade has always shown the desire of the great nations to dominate others. First, in a period of pure and simple colonialism, in which protests and uprisings of the colonized peoples occured, in order to regain their independence. Then, the commercial and economic domination has been established, still with the same nations, so-called developed and industrialized ; this time through bilateral or multilateral trade agreements, and international agencies (United Nations, U.N.C.T.A.D., I.M.O., W.T.O., ...). Much of these agreements and conventions were developed and personalized, under the lobbyong of the dominant nations, so that their interests are constantly safeguarded

La thèse porte sur l’institutionnalisation de la proximité dans les marchés agroalimentaires et la place qu’occupent un certain nombre d’intermédiaires non économiques (salariés d’association, chercheurs, membres du ministère de l’Agriculture, conseillers des chambres d’agriculture) dans ce processus. En variant les échelles d’enquête, du national au départemental, et en articulant les méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives, ce travail pointe le paradoxe que constitue le développement de ces agents à mesure que la proximité est définie et objectivée comme caractéristique vertueuse de la relation marchande. A partir d’une sociologie des institutions marchandes attentive à l’étude concomitante des conditions historiques et sociales de la construction des marchés et de leurs logiques concrètes de fonctionnement, il s’agit de restituer les luttes pour le monopole de la définition légitime des « circuits courts » entendus comme catégorie d’organisation marchande. Dans un contexte de reconfiguration des alliances qui encadraient et hiérarchisaient jusqu’alors les marchés agroalimentaires, l’analyse montre que le rapprochement des agriculteurs et des consommateurs dans les échanges marchands repose sur la réduction de leur distance sociale et politique. Mais la structuration des « circuits courts » n’est finalement permise qu’au prix de l’autonomisation d’agents d’intermédiations qui contribuent à les légitimer et à les définir, dans le même temps qu’ils tendent à rendre invisible leurs propres pratiques. En accédant à une position réticulaire sur ces marchés, ces intermédiaires participent ainsi à redéfinir les frontières de l’espace des producteurs. / The dissertation deals with the institutionalisation of proximity in agri-food markets and the place occupied in this process by non-economic intermediaries (employees of associations, researchers, members of staff from the ministry of Agriculture, advisers of the chambers of agriculture). By varying the scales of investigation, from the national to the departmental level, and by articulating qualitative and quantitative methods, this work points out the paradox that constitute the development of those intermediary agents, as proximity is progressively defined and objectified as a virtuous component of the merchant relationship. On the basis of a sociology of merchant institutions attentive to study concurrently historical and social conditions of market constructions and their specific operating logics, we aim to restore the struggles for the monopoly of the legitimate definition of “short supply chain”, understood as a category of merchant organization. In the context of reconfiguration of alliances which previously framed and ranked agri-food markets, the analysis shows that the linking of farmers and consumers in market exchange rests on the reduction of their social and political distance. But finally, the structuration of “short supply chain” is only allowed because of the self-empowerment of intermediary agents contributing to legitimize and define them, as in the same time they make invisible their own practices. Therefore, by gaining a reticular position on those markets, the intermediaries contribute to redefine the frontiers of the producers’ space.

L’expédition maritime peut se diviser en deux phases complémentaires, et dépendantes l’une de l’autre. Sans ordre de primauté on peut observer une période qui voit le navire en mer et une période qui voit le navire à quai. Chacune de ces phases sont tour à tour le précédent et le corollaire de l’autre. Le navire marchand ne saurait naviguer sans faire escale, et ne saurait faire escale sans avoir navigué.Pourtant face à ce qui semble une évidence, la chronologie des faits dans sa réalisation, ne permet pas aisément d’arrêter la fin de la navigation et de faire débuter la période de l’escale. Les règlementations internationales et locales qui régissent le transport maritime influencent l’approche du navire marchand vers le port d’escale, son accueil une fois accosté, et ses activités commerciales. Ces mêmes activités qui seront à leur tour encadrées par un contexte contractuel particulier, le concours d’intervenants, tant publics que privés, qui auront néanmoins le même objectif : que le navire et sa marchandise soient en sécurité une fois à quai.Mais l’escale du navire marchand se trouve être également un théâtre où des évènements parfois inattendus se produisent et viennent bouleverser les opérations prévues, retarder le navire dans ses manœuvres, ou tout simplement l’empêcher de repartir du port.Les différentes phases de l’escale, les règlements, les contrats qui s’y attachent, et ceux qui les exécutent ainsi que tous les évènements, parfois fortuits, qui peuvent se produire durant le séjour du navire marchand dans le port, amènent à nous demander s’il existe une unité dans la notion d’escale du navire marchand / Maritime forwarding can be divided into two complementary phases, and dependent one on the other. Without order of primacy we can observe one period which sees the ship at sea and a period which sees the ship at quay. Each one of these phases are in turn the precedent and the corollary of the other. The trading vessel could not sail without making call, and could not make call without have sailed. However in front of what seems obviousness, the chronology of the facts in its realization, does not easily to permit to determine the end of navigation and to make begin the period of the call. The international and local regulations which govern the maritime transport influence the approach of the trading vessel towards the port of call, its reception once she is accosted, and its commercial activities. These same activities which will be in their turn framed by a particular contractual context, the intervention of some participants, as well public as private, who will have nevertheless the same objective: that the ship and its goods are in safety once at quay. But the stopover of the trading vessel is being also a theatre where sometimes unexpected events occur and come to upset the operations envisaged, to delay the ship in its operations, or quite simply to prevent it from setting out of the port. The various phases of the stopover, the regulations, the contracts which are in relation with, and those which carry out them, as all the events, sometimes fortuitous, which can occur during the stay of the trading vessel in the port, bring to ask to us whether there exists a unit in the concept of stopover of the trading vessel

Chinese compradors, official managers, and overseas Chinese capitalists have received scholarly attention of late with special notice to studying their contributions to China’s industrial modernization. This thesis shifts this emphasis to seeing these three groups of Chinese merchants as types of Chinese capitalist middlemen, whose principal efforts were in the commercial sector during the late Qing and early Republican periods. Specifically, it focuses on their activities within Shanghai’s International Settlements, where the openings for entrepreneurial innovation could be made the most of with little interference from Chinese state officials. The market created by Chinese capitalist middlemen is distinguished from the greater Chinese economy by its concentration in Shanghai’s International Settlements and its being a commercial revolution. Particularly, this thesis links entrepreneurial business history with New Institutional Economics by placing the entrepreneur at the heart of Chinese commercial development beginning in the 1860s. It investigates how the above three types of middlemen’s commercial activities impacted the structural organization of the traditional family firm, reshaping this organization into a modern operation. As the traditional Chinese family firm emerged in a political institutional framework that both favored firms’ risk reduction and official sponsorship, Chinese capitalist middlemen played a part in structurally re-organizing the family firm into the modern firm. Chinese entrepreneurial behavior arose through a social process of bridging, which occurred through Chinese middlemen’s daily interactive commercial activities in Western firms in Shanghai. In the cases of compradors, these acculturated practices were employed in their own family firms and reflected a novel risk-taking pattern wherein they engaged in new fields of enterprise. In the cases of guandu shangban enterprises, official managers evolved these firms to absorb the pricing mechanism and lower transaction costs to benefit customers and the firm’s revenue. In the cases of returned overseas Chinese capitalists, in this thesis Australian ones are examined, they capitalized their department stores’ operations through reinvesting overseas Chinese surplus income that had traditionally been returned as remittances home to China. All of them fashioned a cosmopolitan view of themselves and fostered a moral view that combined Confucian and Christian ethics giving rise to a notion of human capital as a form of commercial welfare. / Graduate