Originally presented as the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Warsaw, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-354) and index.

Early modern Poland-Lithuania figured significantly in the political perceptions of Europeans in the long seventeenth century – not only due to its considerable size and enormous commercial and military resources, but also, and just as importantly, due to its exceptional religious and political situation. This interest in Poland-Lithuania was shared by many Britons. However, a detailed examination of how Britons perceived Poland-Lithuania at that time and how they treated Poland-Lithuania in their political debates has never been undertaken. This thesis utilises a wide range of the previously neglected source material and considers the patterns of transmission of information to determine Britons' awareness of Poland-Lithuania and their employment of the Polish-Lithuanian example in the British political discourse during the seventeenth century. It looks at a variety of geographical and historical information, English and Latin descriptions of Poland-Lithuania's physical topography and boundaries, and its ethnic and cultural make-up presented in histories, atlases and maps, to establish what, where and who Poland-Lithuania was for Britons. Poland-Lithuania's political framework, with its composite structure and unique relationship between the crown and nobility, elicited a spectrum of reactions, and so this thesis evaluates the role that both criticism and praise of Poland-Lithuania played in British constitutional debates. Consequently, the study argues that Britons' perceptions of Poland-Lithuania were characterised by great plasticity. It claims that Britons' impressions of the country were shaped by multiple – real or imagined - borders, whether cultural, economic or political, but also that Britons were affected by the exposure to a uniform, idealised historiography of this country. Crucially, the thesis asserts that references to Poland-Lithuania constituted an ingenious ideological and polemical device that was eagerly used throughout the period by Britons of diverse political sympathies. Moreover, through the examination of the kingdom's geopolitical role, particularly its fluctuating position as a “bulwark of Christendom”, side by side its engagement against Protestants, the thesis challenges the assumption that anti-Catholicism dominated seventeenth-century British perceptions of the world.

It is the aim of this thesis to shed light on and gain a more nuanced understanding of the negotiation of the political and constitutional order at the German Imperial Diet and the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm in the crisis-ridden seventeenth century. Both assemblies had to reach collectively-binding decisions on questions of institutional and procedural development in order to keep the constitutional order intact and functional and to process the challenges and changes occurring in the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. The question of this thesis is how the scope for necessary institutional and procedural adjustments was enabled or constrained by political languages and rhetoric which key actors used in the deliberations at the two central estate assemblies. Why do we have an institutional standstill and comparative decline in Poland-Lithuania until the reform period in the eighteenth century, and a stabilization and gradual institutional adjustment until the 1720s in the Holy Roman Empire? This question is answered by analyzing the communication about the scope of politics in its concrete historical context and institutional setting. Through the analysis the thesis comes to a new interpretation of the role and impact of orality and writing in both assemblies. Establishing socially relevant meaning depended on the means of communication and on the relationship between different media in the process of political decision-making and how they formed communication, in this case oral and written communication. The central claim of the thesis is that political culture and material culture were intricately linked in both imperial systems as the available media in the political process shaped the sayable, and the sayable shaped the doable.

The Bacewicz family is truly a remarkable cultural phenomenon, symbolic for the history of the creative intelligentsia of the former Polish-Lithuanian Empire.

This study analyses the administrative and economic career of Francesco De Gratta (1613–1676) as Royal Postmaster, Royal Secretary, and trader within the postal and fiscal systems of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This investigation focuses mainly on his network and career strategies and is based on various sources from a number of European archives and libraries, mainly those situated in Italy, Poland and Germany. The study presents the family De Gratta and the familial social actions that Francesco used in order to root his children and family in the Polish-Lithuanian noble culture. Next, the analysis shows that the career of Francesco De Gratta was inextricably correlated with the establishment of the early modern royal postal system in Gdańsk (the city of Gdańsk fulfilled an important bridging role within the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth) as well as his close contacts with different Polish kings and queens. The career followed distinct stages, tying him ever closer with the Crown, the nobility as well as the merchants in Gdańsk. It all started with his position as Head Postmaster in Gdańsk, in 1654. In 1661, he became Postmaster General of Royal Prussia, Courland, Semigallia and Livonia. After these initial steps, Francesco immersed in creditor activities and close contacts with the Royal Prussian cities, royal authorities, and not the least different Polish mint masters. He also got involved in the potash trade with his later son-in-law Jan Wawrzyniec Wodzicki, first as his factor and later as a co-owner of Wodzicki’s company. The study finally traces his social and economic advancement by the analysis of Francesco De Gratta’s legacies and their importance for his heirs’ social status. The summary compares the career of Francesco De Gratta with that of other postmasters and mint masters of Italian origin in Poland-Lithuania. / Denna studie analyserar Francesco De Grattas (1613-1676) ekonomiska och administrativa karriär som kunglig postmästare, kunglig sekreterare och köpman i det polsk-litauiska samväldet. Denna undersökning är främst inriktad på nätverks- och karriärsanalys och bygger på olika arkivkällor från en rad europeiska arkiv och bibliotek, främst från Italien, Polen och Tyskland. Studien presenterar familjen De Gratta och de familjära sociala strategier som Francesco använde för att förankra sin familj i det polsk-litauiska samväldets adelskultur. Därefter visar analysen att De Grattas karriär kan förstås mot bakgrund av upprättandet av det tidigmoderna kungliga postsystemet i Gdańsk (Gdańsk hade en viktig överbryggande roll inom Polen-Litauen), liksom hans nära kontakter med olika polska kungar och drottningar. Hans karriär följde olika distinkta steg som möjliggjorde för honom att närma sig kronan, adeln och köpmännen i Gdańsk. År 1654 blev han huvudpostmästare i Gdańsk och 1661 fick han ämbetet som huvudpostmästare för Kungliga Preussen, Kurland, Semgallen och Livland. Senare utvecklade Francesco De Gratta sin kreditverksamhet parallellt med utbyggnaden av sitt kontaktnätverk med kungliga preussiska städer, kungliga myndigheter och inte minst olika polska myntmästare. Han blev också involverad i handel med pottaska (kaliumkarbonat) tillsammans med sin svärson Jan Wawrzyniec Wodzicki, först som hans agent och senare som delägare i Wodzickis företag. Slutligen spårar studien Francesco De Grattas sociala och ekonomiska framåtskridande genom en analys av hans arv och dess betydelse för hans arvingars sociala status. Sammanfattningsvis jämförs Francesco De Grattas karriär med andra postmästare och myntmästare av italienskt ursprung i Polen-Litauen. / Information Infrastructure in the Baltic Area. Nodes, News and News Agents, c. 1650 - 1700

Lobbying and its regulation in Czech and international context Abstract This Master's thesis investigates the phenomena of lobbying and its regulation both in international and subsequently national context, following a current government draft law on lobbying. The thesis is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, a suitable definition of lobbying is sought and its functions, most common typologies and three main theories are presented. After that, attention is shifted to the mutual relationship between lobbying and corruption and their interactions. In the following part, possible approaches towards the legitimacy of lobbying as a part of democratic process are presented. The end of the chapter analyses general background of lobbying activity regulation and its forms and tools. The second chapter is concerned with lobbying and concrete modes of its regulation in three selected countries - Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia. The individual subsections have the same structure: at the beginning, the overall history of the regulation is outlined, followed by the introduction of the national lobbying environment. After that, relevant legal definitions are summed up, the regulation is comprehensively presented and then, based on academic literature, evaluated. Each of the subsections is concluded with...