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22 - Drafting the peace
from Part IV - The search for peace
- By Helmut Konrad
Edited by Jay Winter, Yale University, Connecticut
Book:

The Cambridge History of the First World War

Published online:

05 December 2013

Print publication:

09 January 2014, pp 606-637
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Summary

This chapter focuses on the state of the rural economy, with the attempts of the state to regulate the production and pricing of agrarian produce, and with the unintended side-effects of these interventions. It explains the impact of the Great War on agrarian society at the regional level. In all belligerent countries, the war had a tremendous impact on the agrarian economy. The first major effect of the war was an unprecedented presence of state policies and state officials in the countryside. The most important external factor that affected agricultural production among the Central Powers Austria-Hungary and Germany was the Allied blockade, which effectively sealed off imports of both agricultural produce and fertiliser. The war also affected the social fabric of rural society, exacerbated or transformed existing social fault lines within village communities, while at the same time bringing new forms of conflict to the fore.

1 - The Mughal Empire
from VII - State and the Economy
- By Tapan Raychaudhuri
Edited by Tapan Raychaudhuri, Irfan Habib
Book:

The Cambridge Economic History of India

Published online:

28 March 2008

Print publication:

01 April 1982, pp 172-193
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Summary

The economic activities of the Mughal empire derived from the basic urges which created and sustained it as well as the structure of polity devised for their fulfilment. Welfare of the peasantry was a basic norm of policy, though the nature of the Mughal state and its ruling class inevitably induced a persistent tendency to deviate. Rural society in Mughal India was not an undifferentiated mass of pauperized peasants. The Mughal state and the nobility invested a part of their income in the infrastructure. Perhaps the most wasteful economic activity of the Mughal ruling class was their practice of hoarding up immense treasures. In matters of taxation, beside the jiziya, the incidence of which varied according to one's wealth and income, Hindu traders paid duties at the rate of five percent while Muslims paid two and half percent. The Mughal policy towards trade and traders reveals a peculiar contradiction built into the structure of the empire.

§6 - Russia
from Chapter VII - Medieval Agrarian Society in its Prime
- By Robert E. F. Smith, University of Birmingham
Edited by M. M. Postan
Book:

The Cambridge Economic History of Europe from the Decline of the Roman Empire

Published online:

28 March 2008

Print publication:

02 January 1966, pp 507-547
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Summary

This chapter discusses the medieval agrarian history of Russia. Most rural settlements were hamlets. The archaeological evidence from rural settlements seems to indicate medium- or large-sized open settlements, or, towards the steppe frontier, more densely settled fortified settlements which acted as places of refuge. The main farming tillage implements were the ard (ralo), sokha, and the plough. Ard and sokha may be used in the slash and burn system of farming; the same implements, but especially the soled ards and sokhi with low-angle share beams capable of turning a slice, may be used in the shifting system, the fallowing system, where a bare fallow regularly entered the scheme of rotation. Regional variations, as well as the more important economic developments led to certain modifications in social relations; nevertheless, the social situation throughout the area had many common elements.