1.
Prime Minister of France
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The French Prime Minister in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. During the Third and Fourth Republics, the head of government position was called President of the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister proposes a list of ministers to the President of the Republic. Decrees and decisions of the Prime Minister, like almost all decisions, are subject to the oversight of the administrative court system. Few decrees are taken after advice from the Council of State, all prime ministers defend the programs of their ministry, and make budgetary choices. The extent to which those decisions lie with the Prime Minister or President depends upon whether they are of the same party, manuel Valls was appointed to lead the government in a cabinet reshuffle in March 2014, after the ruling Socialists suffered a bruising defeat in local elections. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic, the President can choose whomever they want. On the other hand, because the National Assembly does have the power to force the resignation of the government, for example, right after the legislative election of 1986, President François Mitterrand appointed Jacques Chirac prime minister. Chirac was a member of the RPR and an opponent of Mitterrand. Despite the fact that Mitterrands own Socialist Party was the largest party in the Assembly, the RPR had an alliance with the UDF, which gave them a majority. Such a situation, where the President is forced to work with a minister who is an opponent, is called a cohabitation. So far, Édith Cresson is the woman to have ever held the position of prime minister. Aristide Briand holds the record for most nomination as Prime Minister with 11 between 1909 and 1929 with some terms as short as 26 days, other members of Government are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister can engage the responsibility of his or her Government before the National Assembly and this process consists of placing a bill before the Assembly, and either the Assembly overthrows the Government, or the bill is passed automatically. In addition to ensuring that the Government still has support in the House, the Prime Minister may also submit a bill that has not been yet signed into law to the Constitutional Council. Before he is allowed to dissolve the Assembly, the President has to consult the Prime Minister, the office of the prime minister, in its current form, dates from the formation of the French Third Republic. Under the French Constitutional Laws of 1875, he was imbued with the powers as his British counterpart. In practice, however, the minister was a fairly weak figure. Most notably, the legislature had the power to force the cabinet out of office by a vote of censure
2.
Louis XVI of France
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Louis XVI, born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France and Navarre before the French Revolution, during which he was also known as Louis Capet. In 1765, at the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France, Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793. The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform France in accordance with Enlightenment ideas and these included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. The French nobility reacted to the reforms with hostility. Louis implemented deregulation of the market, advocated by his liberal minister Turgot. In periods of bad harvests, it would lead to food scarcity which would prompt the masses to revolt, from 1776, Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime and this led to the convening of the Estates-General of 1789. In 1789, the storming of the Bastille during riots in Paris marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Louiss indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to view him as a symbol of the tyranny of the Ancien Régime. The credibility of the king was deeply undermined, and the abolition of the monarchy, Louis XVI was the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. Louis-Auguste de France, who was given the title Duc de Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles. Out of seven children, he was the son of Louis, the Dauphin of France. His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the daughter of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. A strong and healthy boy, but very shy, Louis-Auguste excelled in his studies and had a taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy. He enjoyed physical activities such as hunting with his grandfather, and rough-playing with his brothers, Louis-Stanislas, comte de Provence. From an early age, Louis-Auguste had been encouraged in another of his hobbies, locksmithing, upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband, and died on 13 March 1767, throughout his education, Louis-Auguste received a mixture of studies particular to religion, morality, and humanities. His instructors may have also had a hand in shaping Louis-Auguste into the indecisive king that he became
3.
Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil
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Louis Charles Auguste le Tonnelier, baron de Breteuil, baron de Preuilly was a French aristocrat, diplomat, statesman and politician. He was the last Prime Minister of the Bourbon Monarchy, appointed by King Louis XVI only one hundred hours before the storming of the Bastille and he received an excellent education in Paris and later joined the army, where he fought in the Seven Years War. In 1758 he left the army and joined the French Foreign Ministry and he was quickly appointed French ambassador to the elector of Cologne, where he proved to have valuable diplomatic skills. In 1769 he was sent to Stockholm, and subsequently represented his government at Vienna in 1770, in 1773 Naples, in Sweden, he became a favourite friend of the young King Gustavus III, but Catherine the Great of Russia disliked him. Others saw Breteuil as a loud and impulsive fool, Joseph II, after he returned to France, Breteuil was appointed Minister of the Kings Household. In this capacity he introduced reforms in prison administration. He was a liberal and humanitarian minister, and succeeded in moderating the censorship laws and he believed passionately that the monarchy should encourage intellectuals, and not view them as enemies. In 1784 he was named to a position in the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Breteuils time as Household Minister corresponded with the infamous Affair of the Necklace, which pitted him against his enemy, the Cardinal de Rohan. Breteuils loyalty to Queen Marie Antoinette earned him her gratitude and trust at this difficult time, unfortunately, Breteuil underestimated the strength of public sympathy for those responsible, and his direct attack on Rohan left the Queen open to public humiliation. He presently came into collision with Charles Alexandre de Calonne, who demanded his dismissal in 1787, on 24 July 1788, Breteuil resigned, exhausted by the struggle for power in the Kings Council. He then asked to be allowed to say farewell to the queen, Marie-Antoinette did not resent him for his handling of the affair, and even promised to help him in future if she could. As France became increasingly unstable, Breteuil retired to his château in Dangu, though Breteuil was disgusted with French politics at the time, he remained absolutely loyal to the Monarchy, despite his liberal views on social culture. He complained that anybody who dares to stand up for the old ways is despised and claimed that we are rushing like madmen to our destruction, Breteuil was contacted by conservative members of the queens circle in 1789. He agreed to become Prime Minister once they had ousted Jacques Necker from the post, Necker was popular, but royalists saw him as a dangerous publicity-seeker and a radical. A carefully orchestrated plan was drawn-up by Breteuil, the duchesse de Polignac, however, unable to restrain his hatred for Necker, the comte dArtois rushed ahead with the plan too early. Necker was dismissed weeks before Breteuil believed he should be, Breteuil was appointed Prime Minister on 12 July 1789. Partly as a result of Neckers dismissal, the Bastille was stormed on 14 July, in such dangerous times, many prominent Royalists were forced to flee France. The duchesse de Polignac escaped to Switzerland, and Louis XVI sent the comte dArtois abroad to save him from assassination, Breteuil went first to a spa town in Imperial territory before journeying to Switzerland with the first party of émigrés
4.
Armand Marc, comte de Montmorin
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Armand Marc, Count of Montmorin de Saint Herem was a French statesman. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Navy under Louis XVI and he belonged to a junior branch of a noble family of Auvergne. He was gentleman-in-waiting to Louis XVI when dauphin, and was appointed ambassador to Madrid. From Madrid he was summoned to the governorship of Brittany. Montmorin was an admirer of Jacques Necker, whose influence at court he helped maintain. He retired when Necker was dismissed on 12 July 1789, but on Neckers recall after the storming of the Bastille again resumed his office, with the progress of the French Revolution, however, this attitude changed. The comte de la Marck was trying to bring Mirabeau into touch with the court, the two men were soon on the closest terms. While Montmorin continued as minister in name, Mirabeau became so in fact, Montmorin did not dare to come to a decision without consulting Mirabeau, but neither Mirabeau nor La Marck were under any illusions as to the his character. Mirabeau complained bitterly that Montmorin was slack and a poltroon, La Marck thought that Montmorins feebleness was occasionally useful in restraining Mirabeaus impetuosity. He was forced to resign office, but still continued to advise Louis, in June 1792 his papers were seized at the foreign office, without anything incriminating being discovered, in July he was denounced, and after 10 August was proscribed. He took refuge in the house of a washerwoman, but was discovered, taken before the Legislative Assembly, and imprisoned in the Abbaye, where he perished in the September massacres. His relative, Louis Victor Henri, marquis de Montmorin de Saint Herem, head of the branch of the family. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
5.
Charles Alexandre de Calonne
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Charles Alexandre, vicomte de Calonne was a French statesman, best known for his involvement in the French Revolution. Realizing that the Parlement of Paris would never agree to reform, when they refused, Calonnes reputation plummeted and he was forced to leave the country. He seems to have been a man with notable business abilities and he owed the position to the Comte de Vergennes, who for over three years continued to support him. According to the Habsburg ambassador, his image was extremely poor. Calonne immediately set about remedying the fiscal crisis, and he found in Louis XVI enough support to create a vast and ambitious plan of revenue-raising, Calonne focused on maintaining public confidence through building projects and spending, which was mainly designed to maintain the Crowns capacity to borrow funds. He presented the king with his plan on 20 August 1786, at its heart was a new land value tax, which would replace the old vingtieme taxes and finally sweep away the fiscal exemptions of the privileged orders. The new tax would be administered by a system of provincial assemblies elected by the property owners at parish, district. This central proposal was accompanied by a package of rationalizing reform, including free trade in grain. It was in one, if not the most, comprehensive attempt at enlightened reform during the reign of Louis XVI. In taking office he found debts of 110 million livres, debts caused by Frances involvement in the American Revolution among other reasons, at first he attempted to obtain credit, and to support the government by means of loans so as to maintain public confidence in its solvency. In October 1785 he reissued the gold coinage, and he developed the caisse descompte, knowing the Parlement of Paris would veto a single land tax payable by all landowners, Calonne persuaded Lous XVI to call an assembly of notables to vote on his referendum. As a last resort, he proposed to the king the suppression of customs duties. Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and Jacques Necker had attempted these reforms and this suppression of privileges was badly received. Calonnes spendthrift and authoritarian reputation was well-known to the parlements, earning him their enmity, knowing this, he intentionally submitted his reform programme directly to the king and the hand-picked assembly of notables, not to the sovereign courts or parlements, first. Calonne, angered, printed his reports and so alienated the court, Louis XVI dismissed him on 8 April 1787 and exiled him to Lorraine. The joy was general in Paris, where Calonne, accused of wishing to raise taxes, was known as Monsieur Déficit, Calonne soon afterwards left for Great Britain, and during his residence there kept up a polemical correspondence with Necker. After being dismissed, Calonne stated, The King, who assured me a hundred times that he would support me with unshakable firmness, abandoned me, and I succumbed”. In 1789, when the Estates-General were about to assemble, he crossed to Flanders in the hope of offering himself for election, but he was forbidden to enter France
6.
Geneva
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Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic, the municipality has a population of 198,072, and the canton has 484,736 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France, within Swiss territory, the commuter area named Métropole lémanique contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, Geneva was ranked as the worlds ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world, the city has been referred to as the worlds most compact metropolis and the Peace Capital. In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, respectively, the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, probably from a Celtic toponym *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis, the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva /dʒᵻˈniːvə/ in English, French, Genève, German, Genf, Italian, Ginevra, and Romansh, Genevra. The city in origin shares its name, *genawa estuary, with the Italian port city of Genoa, Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, around this time the House of Savoy came to dominate the city. In the 15th century, a republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, by the 18th century, however, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France also tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, in 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, in 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09 East, at the end of Lake Geneva. It is surrounded by two chains, the Alps and the Jura
7.
Canton of Geneva
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The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French-speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland, surrounded on almost all sides by France. As is the case in several other Swiss cantons, this canton is referred to as a republic within the Swiss Confederation, the canton of Geneva is located in the southwestern corner of Switzerland, and is considered one of the most cosmopolitan areas of the country. As a center of the Calvinist Reformation, the city of Geneva has had a influence on the canton. The Republic of Geneva was proclaimed in 1541, under John Calvin, the Republic of Geneva reinforced its alliance to the Protestant cantons of the Swiss Confederacy, becoming an everlasting ally in 1584. The French Revolution reached Geneva in 1792, and in February 1794, after the death of Robespierre in July of the same year, there was a counter-revolution, which gained the upper hand by 1796. This prompted the French invasion of 1798, and the annexation of Geneva as part of the French département du Léman, Geneva finally joined the Swiss Confederation in 1815 as the 22nd canton, having been enlarged by French and Savoyard territories at the Vienna Congress. The area of the canton of Geneva is 282 square kilometers, the canton is surrounded on almost all sides by France and bordered by the Swiss canton of Vaud on northeast. The adjoining French départements are Ain and Haute-Savoie, the current boundaries of the canton were established in 1815. There are 45 municipalities in the canton, Geneva does not have any administrative districts. There are 10 cities with a population of over 10,000 as of 2007, Genève, Vernier, Lancy, Meyrin, Carouge, Onex, Thônex, Versoix, Grand-Saconnex, Chêne-Bougeries. The constitution of the canton was established in 1847, and has, the cantonal government has seven members who are elected for four years. The legislature, the Grand Council, has 100 seats, with deputies elected for four years at a time, the last elecation was held on 7 October 2013. In a similar way to what happens at the Federal level, in addition, any law can be subject to a referendum if it is demanded by 7,000 persons entitled to vote, and 10,000 persons may also propose a new law. The republique and canton of Geneva has 11 seats in the National Council, on 18 October 2015, in the federal election the most popular party was the The Liberals which received three seats with 20. 5% of the votes. In the federal election, a total of 106,852 votes were cast, and she is part of the Council of States since 2007. Councilor Robert Cramer, member of the Green Party, was re-elected in the round with a majority of 42,075 votes. He is part of the Council of States since 2007, ^a FDP before 2009, FDP. The Liberals after 2009 ^b * indicates that the party was not on the ballot in this canton. ^c Part of the FDP for this election ^d Part of the SD for this election The population of the canton is 484,736, as of 2013, the population included 194,623 foreigners from 187 different nations, or about 40. 1% of the total population
8.
Coppet
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Coppet is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. Coppet is first mentioned in 1294 as Copetum, in 1347 it was mentioned as Copet. Coppet has an area, of 1.9 square kilometers, of this area,0.63 km2 or 33. 7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.06 km2 or 3. 2% is forested. Of the rest of the land,1.17 km2 or 62. 6% is settled,0.01 km2 or 0. 5% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 45. 5%, power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 3. 7% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4. 3%. Out of the land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land,22. 5% is used for growing crops and 5. 9% is pastures, all the water in the municipality is in lakes. The municipality was part of the old Nyon District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, the municipality is located along the banks of Lake Geneva on the Lausanne-Geneva road, the Route Suisse. The blazon of the coat of arms is Azure, a Chalice Argent. Coppet has a population of 3,137, as of 2008,41. 1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 29. 9% and it has changed at a rate of 24% due to migration and at a rate of 7. 1% due to births and deaths. Most of the population speaks French, with English being second most common, There are 45 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh. The age distribution, as of 2009, in Coppet is,348 children or 12. 4% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 379 teenagers or 13. 5% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population,266 people or 9. 5% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 329 people or 11. 7% are between 30 and 39,499 people or 17. 8% are between 40 and 49, and 393 people or 14. 0% are between 50 and 59. As of 2000, there were 970 people who were single, There were 1,186 married individuals,89 widows or widowers and 115 individuals who are divorced. As of 2000, there were 884 private households in the municipality, There were 249 households that consist of only one person and 70 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 900 households that answered this question,27. 7% were households made up of just one person and there were 5 adults who lived with their parents
9.
Vaud
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The Canton of Vaud is the third largest of Swiss cantons by population and fourth by size. The capital and biggest city is Lausanne, officially designated Olympic Capital by the International Olympic Committee, the canton had 725,944 inhabitants as of 2011. Along the lakes, Vaud was inhabited in prehistoric times, later, the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii inhabited the area. The tribe was defeated by Caesars troops in 58 BC and as a consequence the Romans settled the area, the towns of Vevey and Lausanne are two of the many towns established by the Romans. In 27 BC the state of Civitas Helvetiorum was established around the capital of Avenches, there are still many Roman remains around the town today. Between the 2nd and the 4th century the area was invaded by Alemannic tribes. The Merovingian Franks later replaced the Burgundians and their occupancy did not last long either, and in 888 the area of the canton of Vaud was made part of the Carolingian Empire. In 1032 the Zähringens of Germany defeated the Burgundians, the Zähringens themselves were succeeded in 1218 by the counts of Savoy. It was only under the counts of Savoy that the area was given political unity, a part stretching from Attalens to the River Sarine, in the north, was absorbed by the canton of Fribourg. As the power of the Savoys declined at the beginning of the 15th century the land was occupied by troops from Bern, by 1536 the area was completely annexed. The Bernese occupiers were not popular amongst the population, later, inspired by the French Revolution, the Vaudois drove out the Bernese governor in 1798 and declared the Lemanic Republic. Under Napoleon I, it became the canton of Léman, in 1803, Vaud joined the re-installed Swiss confederation. In spite of Bernese attempts to reclaim Vaud, it has remained a sovereign canton ever since, separation was prevented at the cost of very few lives. The current constitution dates from 14 April 2003, replacing the one from 1885, in the Jura mountains in the west, the canton borders the French departments of Ain, Jura, and Doubs. In the east, it borders the cantons of Fribourg and Bern, the total area is 3,212 square kilometres. Along with the canton of Berne, Vaud is one of the two cantons whose territory extends from the Jura to the Alps, through the three geographic regions of Switzerland. The areas in the south east are mountainous, situated on the side of the Bernese Alps. This region is named the Vaud Alps
10.
Switzerland in the Napoleonic era
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During the French Revolutionary Wars, the revolutionary armies marched eastward, enveloping Switzerland in their battles against Austria. In 1798, Switzerland was completely overrun by the French and was renamed the Helvetic Republic, the Helvetic Republic encountered severe economic and political problems. In 1798 the country became a battlefield of the Revolutionary Wars, Gallen, Vaud and Ticino became cantons with equal rights. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise Swiss neutrality, at this time, the territory of Switzerland was increased for the last time, by the new cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva. During the last years of the Ancien Régime the growing conflicts throughout the Confederation had weakened and distracted the Diet, during the next eight years revolts sprang up across the Confederation and unlike earlier many were successful. In 1790 the Lower Valais rose against the upper districts, in 1791 Porrentruy rebelled against the Bishop of Basel and became the Rauracian republic in November 1792 and in 1793 the French department of the Mont Terrible. In 1795 St Gallen successfully revolted against the prince-abbot and these revolts were supported or encouraged by France, but the French army didnt directly attack the Confederation. In 1797 the districts of Chiavenna, Valtellina and Bormio, dependencies of the Three Leagues and they were quickly invaded and annexed to the Cisalpine Republic on 10 October 1797. In December of the year the Bishopric of Basel was occupied and annexed. On 9 December 1797 Frédéric-César de La Harpe, a member of the Helvetian Club from Vaud, seeing a chance to remove a feudal neighbor and gain Berns wealth, France agreed. By February 1798 French troops occupied Mulhouse and Biel/Bienne, meanwhile, another army entered Vaud, when the Lemanic republic was proclaimed, and the Diet broke up in dismay without taking any steps to avert the coming storm. On 5 March troops entered Bern, deserted by her allies, with Bern, the stronghold of the aristocratic party, in revolutionary hands, the old Confederation collapsed. Within a month, the Confederation was under French control and all the members of the Confederation were gone. On 12 April 1798121 cantonal deputies proclaimed the Helvetic Republic, One, the new régime abolished cantonal sovereignty and feudal rights. The occupying forces established a state based on the ideas of the French Revolution. Before the Helvetic Republic, each canton had exercised complete sovereignty over its own territory or territories. Little central authority had existed, with matters concerning the country as a whole confined mainly to the Diet, the constitution of the Helvetic Republic came mainly from the design of Peter Ochs, a magistrate from Basel. It established a central two-chamber legislature which included the Grand Council, the executive, known as the Directory, comprised 5 members
11.
Reformist
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In contrast, reformism posits that a capitalist economy can be gradually transformed into a qualitatively different socialist system through political and economic reform. There are two types of reformism, one has no intention of bringing about socialism or fundamental economic change to society and is used to oppose such structural changes. The debate on the ability for social democratic reformism to lead to a socialist transformation of society is over a century old, according to Rosa Luxemburg, under reformism, is not overthrown, but is on the contrary strengthened by the development of social reforms. The French social theorist Andre Gorz criticized reformism by advocating an alternative to reformism. One of the delegates to the SPD congress, Eduard Bernstein, expanded on the concept, Bernstein was a leading social democrat in Germany. Reformism was quickly targeted by revolutionary socialists, with Rosa Luxemburg condemning Bernsteins Evolutionary Socialism in her 1900 essay Reform or Revolution. In 1959, the Godesberg Program marked the shift of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from a Marxist program espousing an end to capitalism to a reformist one focused on social reform. After Joseph Stalin consolidated power in the Soviet Union, the Comintern launched a campaign against the Reformist movement by denouncing them as social fascists, in modern times, reformists are seen as centre-left. Some social democratic parties, such as the Canadian NDP and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, are considered to be reformist. The term was applied to elements within the British Labour Party in the 1950s and subsequently, anthony Crosland wrote The Future of Socialism as a personal manifesto arguing for a reformulation of the term. Left reformism, the state and the problem of socialist politics today
12.
Suzanne Curchod
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Suzanne Curchod was a French-Swiss salonist and writer. She hosted one of the most celebrated salons of the Ancien Régime and she also led the development of the Hospice de Charité, a model small hospital in Paris that still exists today as the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital. She was the wife of French finance minister Jacques Necker, and is referenced in historical documents as Madame Necker. Born in May 1737, Curchod was the daughter of Louis Antoine Curchod, Protestant pastor of the Swiss village of Crassier near Lausanne, the family was of modest means, but Suzanne was well educated, becoming fluent in Latin and showing aptitude for mathematics and science. Her first salon was a group called the Académie des Eaux comprising a circle of Lausanne-based students with Curchod as president. He wished to marry her, but paternal disapproval on both sides, Gibbons own wavering, and Suzannes refusal to leave Switzerland for England thwarted their plans. Gibbon broke off the engagement in 1762, an event that fell in between the deaths of Curchods parents in 1760 and 1763. With the loss of income resulting from the death of her father, Curchod and her mother were very poor. After her mother died, she became a companion to a young French widow, Madame de Vermenoux, at the time, Madame de Vermenoux was being courted by the ambitious Swiss financier Jacques Necker but was uncertain whether she wanted to remarry at all. Within a few months, however, Necker turned his attention to Curchod and they had one child, a daughter named Anne Louise Germaine, the future writer and philosopher now better known as Madame de Staël. He owed much of his success to his wifes salon, where the luminaries of Parisian society gathered to discuss art, literature, Madame Neckers salons were also a meeting place for Swiss expatriates such as Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin and Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand. It was at one of Madame Neckers dinners that a group of men of letters first proposed starting a subscription to pay for a statue of Voltaire by the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle and his statue of a nude Voltaire was finished in 1776 and is now in the Louvre. Madame Necker carried on a correspondence with Grimm, Buffon, Thomas, Marmontel. The time commitment involved in running a salon, combined with her husbands dislike of bluestocking authors and her surviving writings are few, a memoir about the establishment of hospitals and some reflections on divorce. She devoted considerable time to ensuring that their daughter Germaine received the very best education possible, the French hospital system during the 18th century was not well standardized and overall lacked good patient care. Hospital conditions were unsatisfactory, especially due to overcrowding, as exemplified by the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, after visiting this hospital, French Encyclopedist Denis Diderot described it this way, The biggest, roomiest, richest and most terrifying of all hospitals. These kinds of conditions prompted discussion of hospital reform among government officials. They called for improvements to the environment and for strategic siting of hospitals to make it easier for families to visit hospital-bound relatives
13.
French Revolution
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Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
14.
Neumark
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Called the Lubusz Land while part of medieval Poland, the territory later known as the Neumark gradually became part of the German Margraviate of Brandenburg from the mid-13th century. With the rest of the Electorate of Brandenburg, it part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. After World War I the entirely ethnic German Neumark remained within the Free State of Prussia, after World War II the Potsdam Conference assigned the majority of the Neumark to Polish administration, and since 1945 has remained part of Poland. Polish settlers largely replaced the expelled German population, most of the Polish territory became part of the Lubusz Voivodeship, while the northern towns Choszczno, Myślibórz, and Chojna belong to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The Oder marked the borders of the Neumark in the west and south, in the north it bordered Pomerania, the Warta and Noteć Rivers and their swamp regions dominated the landscape of the region. In the Iron Age the Jastorf culture operated in this region, identified sometimes with Germanic, as its inhabitants moved westward, the region became depopulated during the Migration Period. After AD500 West Slavic tribes gradually repopulated the area, which became a forest borderland between Pomerania and Greater Poland, according to the Bavarian Geographers description, the Miloxi inhabited the future Neumark region, they had 47 settlements between the Oder and Poznań. The region came under the sovereignty of the first Polish state during the 10th-century rule of Mieszko I and Bolesław I, Polish rulers incorporated the future Neumark territory as the Lubusz Land and by the beginning of the 13th century the previously depopulated region had a thinly-spread population of Poles. The lords invited members of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller to establish monasteries, to fortify the borderland Pomeranian and Polish dukes built castles in the north, around which settlements also grew. The Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, starting with Albert the Bear and they had gained a foothold east of the river by 1242 and in 1252 the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Archbishopric of Magdeburg purchased the Lubusz Land. In 1253 they founded Frankfurt an der Oder as a river-crossing, through land purchases, marriage pacts, and services to Polands Piast dynasty, the Ascanians extended their territory eastward to the Drawa River and northward to the Parsęta River. For instance, the Polish castellany of Santok, an important base, to relieve himself of the trouble of maintaining the fortress, Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland granted the castellany to Margrave Conrad as a dowry for his daughter Konstancja. To safeguard the region Margrave John I founded the town of Landsberg an der Warthe in 1257, the Templars sold Soldin to the Ascanians in 1261, and the town began to become a center for the region. Most of the colonists who settled in Brandenburgs new eastern territory came from Magdeburg or the Altmark, unlike in the rest of Brandenburg the margraves began constructing castles in their land east of the Oder to guard against Poland. The Slavic inhabitants of the region gradually became Germanized, because the new Terra trans Oderam, or land across the Oder, formed an extension of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, it became known as the Neumark after the middle of the 15th century. With the extinction of the Ascanian line in 1320, Brandenburgs interest in the Neumark decreased, neither the margraves of the Wittelsbach nor those of the Luxembourg dynasties concerned themselves with developing their eastern-most territory further. The political vacuum allowed Poland to reassert its influence in the area, Brandenburg pawned the Neumark to the Teutonic Knights in 1402, and it passed completely under their control in 1429, although the Order neglected the region as well. This allowed the Order to retain much of its territory in the First Peace of Thorn in 1411, in 1454/1455 the Knights mismanagement led to their pawning of the Neumark back to Brandenburg, by then led by Elector Frederick II of the Hohenzollern dynasty
15.
Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
16.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
17.
International law
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Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states, analogous entities, such as the Holy See, and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, the field of study combines two main branches, the law of nations and international agreements and conventions. The Italian jurist Sir Alberico Gentili was the first to write on public international law and it is usually distinguished from private international law, which concerns the resolution of conflict of laws. The concept of nationalism became increasingly important as people began to see themselves as citizens of a nation with a distinct national identity. Men who take up arms against one another in public war do not cease on this account to be moral beings, responsible to one another and it does not admit of the use of poison in any way, nor of the wanton devastation of a district. It admits of deception, but disclaims acts of perfidy, and, in general, because international law is a relatively new area of law its development and propriety in applicable areas are often subject to dispute. Under article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, in addition, judicial decisions and teachings may be applied as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law. International treaty law comprises obligations states expressly and voluntarily accept between themselves in treaties, customary international law is derived from the consistent practice of States accompanied by opinio juris, i. e. the conviction of States that the consistent practice is required by a legal obligation. Judgments of international tribunals as well as scholarly works have traditionally looked to as persuasive sources for custom in addition to direct evidence of state behavior. Attempts to codify customary international law picked up momentum after the Second World War with the formation of the International Law Commission, codified customary law is made the binding interpretation of the underlying custom by agreement through treaty. For states not party to treaties, the work of the ILC may still be accepted as custom applying to those states. General principles of law are commonly recognized by the major legal systems of the world. Certain norms of international law achieve the binding force of peremptory norms as to all states with no permissible derogations. Colombia v Perú ICJ6, recognising custom as a source of international law, belgium v Spain ICJ1, only the state where a corporation is incorporated has standing to bring an action for damages for economic loss. Where there are disputes about the meaning and application of national laws. The subjective approach, which takes into consideration i. the idea behind the treaty, ii. treaties in their context, what the writers intended when they wrote the text. A third approach, which bases itself on interpretation in the light of its object and purpose, i. e. the interpretation that best suits the goal of the treaty and these are general rules of interpretation, specific rules might exist in specific areas of international law. Greece v United Kingdom ICJ1, ICJ had no jurisdiction to hear a dispute between the UK government and a private Greek businessman under the terms of a treaty
18.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
19.
Speculation
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Speculation is the purchase of an asset with the hope that it will become more valuable at a future date. Many speculators pay little attention to the value of a security. Speculation can in principle involve any tradable good or financial instrument, Speculators are particularly common in the markets for stocks, bonds, commodity futures, currencies, fine art, collectibles, real estate, and derivatives. The number of shareholders increased, perhaps, from 4.4 million in 1900 to 26 million in 1932, the view of what distinguishes investment from speculation and speculation from excessive speculation varies widely among pundits, legislators and academics. Some sources note that speculation is simply a higher form of investment. Others define speculation more narrowly as positions not characterized as hedging, the agency emphasizes that speculators serve important market functions, but defines excessive speculation as harmful to the proper functioning of futures markets. According to Ben Graham in The Intelligent Investor, the prototypical defensive investor is. one interested chiefly in safety plus freedom from bother, Speculation is condemned on ethical-moral grounds as creating money from money and thereby promoting the vices of avarice and gambling. When a harvest is too small to satisfy consumption at its rate, speculators come in. Their purchases raise the price, thereby checking consumption so that the supply will last longer. Producers encouraged by the price further lessen the shortage by growing or importing to reduce the shortage. On the other side, when the price is higher than the speculators think the facts warrant and this reduces prices, encouraging consumption and exports and helping to reduce the surplus. If any market, such as pork bellies, had no speculators, with fewer players in the market, there would be a larger spread between the current bid and ask price of pork bellies. By contrast, a commodity speculator may profit the difference in the spread and, in competition with other speculators, some schools of thought argue that speculators increase the liquidity in a market, and therefore promote an efficient market. This efficiency is difficult to achieve without speculators, a very beneficial by-product of speculation for the economy is price discovery. On the other hand, as more speculators participate in a market, underlying real demand and supply can diminish compared to trading volume, Speculators also perform a very important risk bearing role that is beneficial to society. For example, a farmer might be considering planting corn on some unused farmland, however, he might not want to do so because he is concerned that the price might fall too far by harvest time. By selling his crop in advance at a price to a speculator, he is now able to hedge the price risk. Thus, speculators can actually increase production through their willingness to take on risk, hence, they make the prices better reflect the true quality of operation of the firms
20.
Baron Rendlesham
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Baron Rendlesham, of Rendlesham, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1806 for the businessman Peter Thellusson, who also represented Midhurst, Malmesbury, the Thellusson family were of French Protestant origin, but settled in Geneva, Switzerland, after the St. Bartholomews Day massacre of 1572. A later member of the family, Peter Thellusson, emigrated to England in 1762 where he established a successful London business, from the wealth acquired, he purchased several estates around the country, notably Brodsworth Hall in Yorkshire. After his death his estate was embroiled in the Thellusson Will Case and his eldest son was the aforementioned Peter Isaac Thellusson, 1st Baron Rendlesham, who took over the family business. Lord Rendleshams younger son, the fourth Baron, sat as a Member of Parliament for Suffolk East and his only son, the fifth Baron, also represented this constituency. As of 2013 the title is held by the latters great-grandson, the ninth Baron, the heir presumptives heir apparent is his son James Hugh Thelluson. The heir presumptives heir apparents heir apparent is his son Benjamin Peter Thelluson, new York, St Martins Press,1990, Leigh Rayments Peerage Pages
21.
Cereal
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A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain, composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grains are grown in quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop and are therefore staple crops. Edible grains from plant families, such as buckwheat, quinoa. In their natural form, cereals are a source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, oils. When refined by the removal of the bran and germ, the endosperm is mostly carbohydrate. In some developing nations, grain in the form of rice, wheat, millet, in developed nations, cereal consumption is moderate and varied but still substantial. The word cereal is derived from Ceres, the Roman goddess of harvest, agriculture allowed for the support of an increased population, leading to larger societies and eventually the development of cities. It also created the need for organization of political power, as decisions had to be made regarding labor and harvest allocation and access rights to water. Agriculture bred immobility, as populations settled down for long periods of time, early Neolithic villages show evidence of the development of processing grain. The Levant is the ancient home of the ancestors of wheat, barley and peas, there is evidence of the cultivation of figs in the Jordan Valley as long as 11,300 years ago, and cereal production in Syria approximately 9,000 years ago. During the same period, farmers in China began to farm rice and millet, using man-made floods, fiber crops were domesticated as early as food crops, with China domesticating hemp, cotton being developed independently in Africa and South America, and Western Asia domesticating flax. The first cereal grains were domesticated by early primitive humans, about 8,000 years ago, they were domesticated by ancient farming communities in the Fertile Crescent region. Emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, and barley were three of the so-called Neolithic founder crops in the development of agriculture, around the same time, millets and rices were starting to become domesticated in East Asia. Sorghum and millets were also being domesticated in sub-Saharan West Africa, while each individual species has its own peculiarities, the cultivation of all cereal crops is similar. Most are annual plants, consequently one planting yields one harvest, wheat, rye, triticale, oats, barley, and spelt are the cool-season cereals. These are hardy plants grow well in moderate weather and cease to grow in hot weather. The warm-season cereals are tender and prefer hot weather, barley and rye are the hardiest cereals, able to overwinter in the subarctic and Siberia. Many cool-season cereals are grown in the tropics, however, some are only grown in cooler highlands, where it may be possible to grow multiple crops per year
22.
Lausanne
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Lausanne is a city in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and the capital and biggest city of the canton of Vaud. The city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva and it faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura Mountains to its north-west. Lausanne is located 62 kilometres northeast of Geneva, Lausanne has a population of 146,372, making it the fourth largest city in Switzerland, with the entire agglomeration area having 420,000 inhabitants. The metropolitan area of Lausanne-Geneva was over 1.2 million inhabitants in 2000, Lausanne is a focus of international sport, hosting the International Olympic Committee, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and some 55 international sport associations. It lies in a noted wine-growing region, the city has a 28-station metro system, making it the smallest city in the world to have a rapid transit system. Lausanne will host the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, by the 2nd century AD it was known as vikanor Lousonnensium and in 280 as lacu Lausonio. By 400 it was civitas Lausanna and in 990 it was mentioned as Losanna, after the fall of the Roman Empire, insecurity forced the transfer of Lausanne to its current centre, a hilly site that is easier to defend. The city which emerged from the camp was ruled by the Dukes of Savoy, then it came under Bern from 1536 to 1798 and a number of its cultural treasures, including the hanging tapestries in the Cathedral, were permanently removed. Lausanne has made a number of requests to recover them, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Lausanne became a place of refuge for French Huguenots. In 1729 a seminary was opened by Antoine Court and Benjamin Duplan, by 1750 ninety pastors had been sent back to France to work clandestinely, this number would rise to four hundred. Official persecution ended in 1787, a faculty of Protestant theology was established at Montauban in 1808, during the Napoleonic Wars, the citys status changed. In 1803, it became the capital of a newly formed Swiss canton, in 1964 the city hosted the Swiss National Exhibition, displaying its newly found confidence to host major international events. From the 1950s to 1970s a large number of Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese immigrated, settling mostly in the district of Renens. The city has served as a refuge for European artists, while under the care of a psychiatrist at Lausanne, T. S. Eliot composed most of his 1922 poem The Wasteland. Hemingway also visited from Paris with his wife during the 1920s, in fact, many creative people - such as Edward Gibbon, an historian, and Romantic era poets Shelley and Byron - have sojourned, lived, and worked in Lausanne or nearby. The city has been quiet, but in the late 1960s. Later demonstrations took place to protest against the high cinema prices, the most important geographical feature of the area surrounding Lausanne is Lake Geneva. Lausanne boasts a dramatic panorama over the lake and the Alps, in addition to its generally southward-sloping layout, the centre of the city is the site of an ancient river, the Flon, which has been covered since the 19th century
23.
Edward Gibbon
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Edward Gibbon FRS was an English historian, writer and Member of Parliament. Edward Gibbon was born in 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove and he had six siblings, five brothers and one sister, all of whom died in infancy. As a youth, Gibbons health was under constant threat and he described himself as a puny child, neglected by my Mother, starved by my nurse. At age nine, he was sent to Dr. Woddesons school at Kingston upon Thames and he then took up residence in the Westminster School boarding house, owned by his adored Aunt Kitty, Catherine Porten. Following a stay at Bath in 1752 to improve his health, at the age of 15 Gibbon was sent by his father to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was enrolled as a gentleman-commoner. He was ill-suited, however, to the atmosphere and later rued his 14 months there as the most idle and unprofitable of his life. In that tract, Middleton denied the validity of such powers, Gibbon promptly objected and he was further corrupted by the free thinking deism of the playwright/poet couple David and Lucy Mallet, and finally Gibbons father, already in despair, had had enough. David Womersley has shown, however, that Gibbons claim to having been converted by a reading of Middleton is very unlikely, and was introduced only into the final draft of the Memoirs in 1792–93. Within weeks of his conversion, the adolescent was removed from Oxford and sent to live under the care and tutelage of Daniel Pavillard, Reformed pastor of Lausanne, Switzerland. It was here that he one of his lifes two great friendships, that of Jacques Georges Deyverdun, and that of John Baker Holroyd. Just a year and a later, after his father threatened to disinherit him, on Christmas Day,1754. The various articles of the Romish creed, he wrote, disappeared like a dream, Gibbon returned to England in August 1758 to face his father. There could be no refusal of the elders wishes, Gibbon put it this way, I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son. He proceeded to cut off all contact with Curchod, even as she vowed to wait for him and their final emotional break apparently came at Ferney, France in the spring of 1764, though they did see each other at least one more time a year later. The following year he embarked on the Grand Tour, which included a visit to Rome, Womersley notes the existence of good reasons to doubt the statements accuracy. In June 1765, Gibbon returned to his fathers house, and these years were considered by Gibbon as the worst five of his life, but he tried to remain busy by making early attempts towards writing full histories. His first historical narrative known as the History of Switzerland, which represented Gibbons love for Switzerland, was never published nor finished, even under the guidance of Deyverdun, Gibbon became too critical of himself, and completely abandoned the project, only writing 60 pages of text. However, after Gibbons death, his writings on Switzerlands history were discovered and published by Lord Sheffield in 1815, soon after abandoning his History of Switzerland, Gibbon made another attempt towards completing a full history
24.
French East India Company
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The French East India Company was a commercial enterprise, founded in 1664 to compete with the English and Dutch East India companies in the East Indies. Planned by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, it was chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere and it resulted from the fusion of three earlier companies, the 1660 Compagnie de Chine, the Compagnie dOrient and Compagnie de Madagascar. French king Henry IV authorized the first Compagnie des Indes Orientales and this precursor to Colberts later Compagnie des Indes Orientales, however, was not a joint-stock corporation, and was funded by the Crown. The initial capital of the revamped Compagnie des Indes Orientales was 15 million livres, Louis XIV funded the first 3 million livres of investment, against which losses in the first 10 years were to be charged. The initial stock offering sold out, as courtiers of Louis XIV recognized that it was in their interests to support the King’s overseas initiative. The Compagnie des Indes Orientales was granted a 50-year monopoly on French trade in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the French monarch also granted the Company a concession in perpetuity for the island of Madagascar, as well as any other territories it could conquer. The Company failed to found a colony on Madagascar, but was able to establish ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon. By 1719, it had established itself in India, but the firm was near bankruptcy, in the same year the Compagnie des Indes Orientales was combined under the direction of John Law with other French trading companies to form the Compagnie Perpétuelle des Indes. The reorganized corporation resumed its independence in 1723. With the decline of the Mughal Empire, the French decided to intervene in Indian political affairs to protect their interests, from 1741 the French under Joseph François Dupleix pursued an aggressive policy against both the Indians and the British until they ultimately were defeated by Robert Clive. Several Indian trading ports, including Pondichéry and Chandernagore, remained under French control until 1954, the Company was not able to maintain itself financially, and it was abolished in 1769, about 20 years before the French Revolution. King Louis XVI issued a 1769 edict that required the Company to transfer to the state all its properties, assets and rights, the company was reconstituted in 1785 and issued 40,000 shares of stock priced at 1,000 livres apiece. It was given monopoly on all trade with countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope for a period of seven years. The company, accustomed neither to competition nor official disfavor, fell into decline and was finally liquidated in 1794. Even as the company was headed consciously toward extinction, it became embroiled in its most infamous scandal, the Committee of Public Safety had banned all joint-stock companies on 24 August 1793, and specifically seized the assets and papers of the East India Company. When this became known the year, the resulting scandal led to the execution of key Montagnard deputies like Fabre dEglantine and Joseph Delaunay. The infighting sparked by the episode also brought down Georges Danton, Colbert, Mercantilism, and the French Quest for Asian Trade. DeKalb, IL, Northern Illinois University Press, the Shaping of the French Colonial Empire, A Bio-Bibliography of the Careers of Richelieu, Fouquet and Colbert
25.
Salon (gathering)
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These gatherings often consciously followed Horaces definition of the aims of poetry, either to please or to educate. Salons, commonly associated with French literary and philosophical movements of the 17th and 18th centuries, were carried on until as recently as the 1940s in urban settings, the salon was an Italian invention of the 16th century which flourished in France throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The salon continued to flourish in Italy throughout the 19th century, one important place for the exchange of ideas was the salon. The word salon first appeared in France in 1664, Literary gatherings before this were often referred to by using the name of the room in which they occurred, like cabinet, réduit, ruelle and alcôve. Before the end of the 17th century, these gatherings were held in the bedroom. This practice may be contrasted with the formalities of Louis XIVs petit lever. She established the rules of etiquette of the salon which resembled the earlier codes of Italian chivalry, the historiography of the salons is far from straightforward. The salons have been studied in depth by a mixture of feminist, Marxist, each of these methodologies focus on different aspects of the salons, and thus have varying analyses of the salons’ importance in terms of French history and the Enlightenment as a whole. Major historiographical debates focus on the relationship between the salons and the sphere, as well as the role of women within the salons. Breaking down the salons into historical periods is complicated due to the various historiographical debates that surround them, most studies stretch from the early 16th century up until around the end of the 18th century. Goodman is typical in ending her study at the French Revolution where, she writes, Steven Kale is relatively alone in his recent attempts to extend the period of the salon up until Revolution of 1848. This world did not disappear in 1789, as recently as the 1940s, salons hosted by Gertrude Stein gained notoriety for including Pablo Picasso and other twentieth-century luminaries like Alice B. The content and form of the salon to some extent defines the character, contemporary literature about the salons is dominated by idealistic notions of politesse, civilité and honnêteté, but whether the salons lived up to these standards is matter of debate. Older texts on the salons tend to paint a picture of the salons. Today, however, this view is considered an adequate analysis of the salon. Dena Goodman claims that rather than being leisure based or schools of civilité salons were instead at the heart of the philosophic community. In short, Goodman argues, the 17th and 18th century saw the emergence of the academic, Enlightenment salons, politeness, argues Goodman, took second-place to academic discussion. The period in which salons were dominant has been labeled the age of conversation, the topics of conversation within the salons - that is, what was and was not polite to talk about - are thus vital when trying to determine the form of the salons
26.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
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Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister and he achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing and bringing the economy back from the brink of bankruptcy. Historians note that, despite Colberts efforts, France actually became increasingly impoverished because of the Kings excessive spending on wars, Colbert worked to create a favourable balance of trade and increase Frances colonial holdings. He also founded royal tapestry works at Gobelins and supported those at Beauvais, Colbert worked to develop the domestic economy by raising tariffs and by encouraging major public works projects. Colbert also worked to ensure that the French East India Company had access to markets, so that they could always obtain coffee, cotton, dyewoods, fur, pepper. In addition, Colbert founded the French merchant marine, Colbert issued more than 150 edicts to regulate the guilds. One such law had the intention of improving the quality of cloth, the edict declared that if the authorities found a merchants cloth unsatisfactory on three separate occasions, they were to tie him to a post with the cloth attached to him. Colberts father and grandfather operated as merchants in his birthplace of Reims and he claimed to have Scottish ancestry. A general belief exists that he spent his youth at a Jesuit college, working for a Parisian banker. Before the age of 20, Colbert had a post in the war office, Colbert spent some time as an inspector of troops, eventually becoming the personal secretary of Le Tellier. In 1647, through means, Colbert acquired the confiscated goods of an uncle. In 1648, he and his wife Marie Charron, received 40,000 crowns from an unknown source, in 1657, he purchased the Barony of Seignelay. Colbert was recommended to King Louis XIV by Mazarin, while Cardinal Mazarin was in exile, Louis trust in Colbert grew. In 1652 Colbert was asked to manage the affairs of the Cardinal while he was away and this new responsibility would detach Colbert from his other responsibility as commissaire des guerres. Although Colbert was not a supporter of Mazarin in principle, he would defend the cardinals interests with unflagging devotion. Colberts earliest recorded attempt at tax reform came in the form of a mémoire to Mazarin, showing that of the taxes paid by the people, the paper also contained an attack upon the Superintendent Fouquet. The postmaster of Paris, a spy of Fouquets, read the letter, in 1661, Mazarin died and Colbert made sure of the Kings favour by revealing the location of some of Mazarins hidden wealth. In short, Colbert acquired power in every department except that of war, a great financial and fiscal reform at once claimed all his energies
27.
Free trade
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Free trade is one of the most debated topics in economics of the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. Arguments over free trade can be divided into economic, moral, the World Trade Organization was created to open up markets and promote international trade based on the Free Trade paradigm. The WTO creates and monitors agreements to reduce trade barriers, and arbitrates in disputes over foreign market access and its definition of Free Trade is trade on a level playing field, so that the unlimited exchange of goods between countries is not necessarily Free. Therefore, any import restriction makes the domestic society as a whole worse off than it would be with unlimited imports, the artificial handicap of a foreign subsidy seems much less just to local production than advantages deriving from geography, natural resources, or native skill. Electorates often prefer fairplay to Utilitarian considerations, if trade barriers are already low, the threat of a trade war of tit-for-tat tariff increases may reduce the temptation for either partner in bilateral trade to raise import barriers. It would tend to decrease the power and revenue flowing to government bureaucrats. In the history of trade, two types of arguments have been advanced in favor of allowing purchases from abroad, and free trade in the broader sense. One set of arguments for free trade could be classified as moral arguments listed below, another set of arguments is essentially economic, that free trade will make society more prosperous. These are mostly technical arguments from the discipline of economics, starting especially with Smiths The Wealth of Nations, the 18th and 19th century intellectuals who backed free trade rarely did so under the rubric of increasing material wealth. In many cases this was given as the least important reason for free trade, rather, they argued that international society would be improved by increased commerce. Some of these, and later, sociopolitical arguments are listed here, adam Smith thought that protectionism against free trade was a scam on the public on behalf of producers, carried out in the name of nationalism. Even if overall economic interests had not been harmed by tariffs, classical economic analysis shows that free trade increases the global level of output because free trade permits specialization among countries. Specialization allows nations to devote their resources to the production of the particular goods. The benefits of specialization, coupled with economies of scale, increase the production possibility frontier. An increase in the production possibility frontier indicates that the absolute quantity of goods. Not only are the quantity of goods and services higher. Free trade policies are often associated with general laissez-faire economic politics and parties, voluntary exchange, by virtue of its voluntary nature, is assumed to be beneficial to the parties involved—why else would they engage in the exchange. Thus, the restriction of voluntary exchange restricts commerce and ultimately the accumulation of wealth in the absence of real-world externalities such as infant industry protection, here is the production possibilities frontier for a fictional country, Country A
28.
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot
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Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de lAulne, commonly known as Turgot, was a French economist and statesman. Originally considered a physiocrat, he is today best remembered as an advocate for economic liberalism. He is thought to be the first economist to have recognized the law of diminishing returns in agriculture. Born in Paris, he was the youngest son of Michel-Étienne Turgot, provost of the merchants of Paris, and Madeleine Francoise Martineau de Brétignolles, and came from an old Norman family. As one of four children, he had a sister and two older brothers, one of whom, Étienne-François Turgot, was a naturalist, and served as administrator of Malta. Anne Robert Jacques was educated for the Church, and at the Sorbonne and he delivered two remarkable Latin dissertations, On the Benefits which the Christian Religion has conferred on Mankind, and On the Historical Progress of the Human Mind. In 1750 he decided not to take orders, giving as his reason that he could not bear to wear a mask all his life. The first sign we have of his interest in economics is a letter on money, written to his fellow-student the abbé de Cicé. The first complete statement of the Idea of Progress is that of Turgot, for Turgot progress covers not simply the arts and sciences but, on their base, the whole of culture – manner, mores, institutions, legal codes, economy, and society. In 1752 he became substitut, and later conseiller in the parlement of Paris, in 1754 he was a member of the chambre royale which sat during an exile of the parlement. It was during this period that he met the leaders of the school, Quesnay and Vincent de Gournay, and with them Dupont de Nemours. In 1743 and 1756 he accompanied Gournay, the intendant of commerce, in 1760, while travelling in the east of France and Switzerland, he visited Voltaire, who became one of his chief friends and supporters. All this time he was studying various branches of science, between 1755 and 1756 he composed various articles for the Encyclopédie, and between 1757 and 1760 an article on Valeurs des monnaies, probably for the Dictionnaire du commerce of the abbé Morellet. In 1759 appeared his work Eloge de Gournay, in August 1761 Turgot was appointed intendant of the genéralité of Limoges, which included some of the poorest and most over-taxed parts of France, here he remained for thirteen years. He was already imbued with the theories of Quesnay and Gournay. He published his Avis sur lassiette et la repartition de la taille, Quesnay and Mirabeau had advocated a proportional tax, but Turgot proposed a distributive tax. Turgots opinion was that a compromise had to be reached between both methods, at the same time he did much to encourage agriculture and local industries, among others establishing the manufacture of porcelain at Limoges. It may be noted that Turgot always made the curés the agents of his charities and it was in 1770 that he wrote his famous Lettres sur la liberté du commerce des grains, addressed to the controller-general, the abbé Terray
29.
Protestantism
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists
30.
Taille
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The taille was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien Régime France. The tax was imposed on each household and was based on how much land it held. Unlike modern income taxes, the amount of the taille was first set by the French king from year to year. Exempted from the tax were clergy and nobles, officers of the crown, military personnel, magistrates, university professors and students, the provinces were of three sorts, the pays délection, the pays détat and the pays dimposition. In the pays délection the assessment and collection of taxes were entrusted to elected officials, in the pays détat, the assessment of the tax was established by local councils and the tax was generally real, meaning that it was attached to non-noble lands. Finally, pays dimposition were recently conquered lands which had their own local historical institutions, in an attempt to reform the fiscal system, new administrative divisions were created in the 16th century. The Recettes générales, commonly known as généralités and overseen in the beginning by receveurs généraux or généraux conseillers, were initially only taxation districts, by the outbreak of the Revolution, there were 36 généralités, the last two were created as recently as 1784. Until the late 17th century, tax collectors were called receveurs royaux, the major tax collectors in that system were known as the fermiers généraux. Efficient tax collection was one of the causes for French administrative. The taille became a source of royal income, the most important direct tax of pre-Revolutionary France. Records show the taille increasing from 2.5 million livres in 1515 to six million after 1551, in 1589 the taille reached a record 21 million livres, the taille was only one of a number of taxes. Finally, the church benefited from a tax or tithe called the dîme. In 1749, under Louis XV, a new tax based on the dixième, the vingtième, was enacted to reduce the deficit. The financial needs of the Seven Years War led to a second, in 1754 the vingtième produced 11.7 million livres. The taille was used heavily by the French to fund their many wars like the Hundred Years War. It eventually became one of the most hated taxes of the Ancien Régime, tallage La Dîme - a land tax benefiting the church
31.
Poll tax
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A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual. Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments from ancient times until the 19th century, in the United Kingdom, poll taxes were levied by the governments of John of Gaunt in the 14th century, Charles II in the 17th and Margaret Thatcher in the 20th century. In the United States, voting poll taxes have been used to disenfranchise minority voters, the word poll is an archaic term for head or top of the head. The sense of counting heads is found in phrases like polling place, as prescribed in Exodus Jewish law imposed a poll tax of half-shekel, payable by every man above the age of twenty. 13 This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary,14 Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, the money was designated for the Tabernacle in the Exodus narrative and later for the upkeep of the Temple of Jerusalem. Priests, women, slaves and minors were exempted, although they could offer it voluntarily, payment by Samaritans or Gentiles was rejected. It was collected yearly during the month of Adar, both at the Temple and at special collection bureaux in the provinces, jizya was a poll tax imposed under Islamic law on non-Muslims permanently residing in a Muslim state as part of their dhimmi status. The tax is levied on free-born abled-bodied men of military age, the indigent were exempt, as well as slaves, women, children, the old, the sick, monks and hermits. Several rationales for the jizya have been advanced and they include the argument that jizya was a fee in exchange for the dhimma, and the argument that imposition of jizya on non-Muslims is similar to the imposition of zakat on Muslims. Although jizya is often called a tax, its assessment. Elsewhere, it is reported customary to partition into three classes, e. g.48 dirhams for the rich,24 for middle class and 12 for the poor. In 1855, the Ottoman Empire abolished the tax, as part of reforms to equalize the status of Muslims and non-Muslims. It was replaced by a tax on non-Muslims, the Bedel-i Askeri. The Chinese head tax was a fee charged to each Chinese person entering Canada. The tax was abolished by the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which stopped all Chinese immigration except for people, clergy, educators, students. All of the dynasties of Imperial China have a policy of tax, means the male. In 1713, a policy which is about the cancellation of tax of Kangxi Emperor
32.
Mount of piety
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Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries, the Mexican Nacional Monte de Piedad is still in operation. This fifteenth-century institution originated in Italy and was developed in cities as a reform against money lending, the public office was organized and operated by the Catholic Churches and offered financial loans at a moderate interest to those in need. The organizing principle, based on the benefit of the borrower, the organization of the Monte di Pietà depended on acquiring a monte, a collection of funds from voluntary donations by financially privileged people who had no intentions of regaining their money. The people in need would then be able to come to the Monte di Pietà, the term of the loan would last the course of a year and would only be worth about two-thirds of the borrower’s item value. A pre-determined interest rate would be applied to the loan and these profits were used to pay the expenses of operating the Monte di Pietà, in 1462, the first recorded Monte di Pietà was founded in Perugia. Between 1462 and 1470, an estimated forty more were developed, the Franciscan Marco di Matteo Strozzi preached about the benefits of a Monte di Pietà in combating usury. He left a set of memoirs that outlined his goal to rid the city of Jewish money lenders, in Rome, Pope Sixtus V founded in 1585 the local Monte di Pietà in via dei Coronari. Moved later near Campo de Fiori to the piazza bearing its name, the capital was eventually consumed, and the bank closed. Maltas Monte di Pietà was set up in 1598, initially under the name Monte di SantAnna and it was merged with the Monte della Redenzione degli Schiavi in 1787, becoming known as the Monte di Pietà e Redenzione. The Monte di Pietà is still in operation today as part of the Inland Revenue Department, a massaro or massaio had the duty of overseeing the daily interactions between the borrowers that came to the Monte di Pietà and the other employees. If the item was believed to be the property of the borrower two assistants called scrivani collected the pawn from the borrower. After examining and recording details about the condition of the object, generally, the loan would not exceed two thirds of the object’s value. The three receipts would be given to the owner or borrower, another would be kept in the record book. The monetary funds would then be supplied by the cashier to the borrower and this employee had the duty of keeping their own records of the money collected, loaned and the interest on each loan. This restriction was expected to increase as more funds were acquired from voluntary and involuntary donations, if a borrower wanted to regain his pawned item, he would have to return the receipt to the massaro. The cashier would then calculate the interest that was earned on the item and this interest collection provided one of the sources of revenue for the daily functions, operations, and salaries of the Monte di Pietà. The Monte di Pietà‘s employees were responsible for keeping track of the operations of the organization. Strict regulation dictated both their work and personal life, for example, fines were imposed for improper or dishonest behaviour
33.
Interest rate
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An interest rate, is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited or borrowed. The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the sum, the interest rate, the compounding frequency. It is defined as the proportion of an amount loaned which a lender charges as interest to the borrower and it is the rate a bank or other lender charges to borrow its money, or the rate a bank pays its savers for keeping money in an account. Annual interest rate is the rate over a period of one year, other interest rates apply over different periods, such as a month or a day, but they are usually annualised. A company borrows capital from a bank to buy assets for its business, in return, the bank charges the company interest. Base rate usually refers to the rate offered on overnight deposits by the central bank or other monetary authority. Annual percentage rate and effective annual rate or annual equivalent rate are used to help consumers compare products with different payment structures on a common basis, a discount rate is applied to calculate present value. Interest rate targets are a tool of monetary policy and are taken into account when dealing with variables like investment, inflation. The central banks of countries tend to reduce interest rates when they wish to increase investment. In the past two centuries, interest rates have been variously set either by national governments or central banks, during an attempt to tackle spiraling hyperinflation in 2007, the Central Bank of Zimbabwe increased interest rates for borrowing to 800%. Possibly before modern capital markets, there have been some accounts that savings deposits could achieve a return of at least 25%. Political short-term gain, Lowering interest rates can give the economy a short-run boost, under normal conditions, most economists think a cut in interest rates will only give a short term gain in economic activity that will soon be offset by inflation. The quick boost can influence elections, Most economists advocate independent central banks to limit the influence of politics on interest rates. Deferred consumption, When money is loaned the lender delays spending the money on consumption goods, since according to time preference theory people prefer goods now to goods later, in a free market there will be a positive interest rate. Inflationary expectations, Most economies generally exhibit inflation, meaning a given amount of money buys fewer goods in the future than it will now, the borrower needs to compensate the lender for this. Alternative investments, The lender has a choice between using his money in different investments, if he chooses one, he forgoes the returns from all the others. Different investments effectively compete for funds, risks of investment, There is always a risk that the borrower will go bankrupt, abscond, die, or otherwise default on the loan. This means that a lender generally charges a premium to ensure that, across his investments
34.
American Revolution
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The British responded by imposing punitive laws on Massachusetts in 1774 known as the Coercive Acts, following which Patriots in the other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts. Tensions escalated to the outbreak of fighting between Patriot militia and British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the conflict then developed into a global war, during which the Patriots fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress determined King George IIIs rule to be tyrannical and infringing the rights as Englishmen. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, Congress rejected British proposals requiring allegiance to the monarchy and abandonment of independence. The British were forced out of Boston in 1776, but then captured and they blockaded the ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but failed to defeat Washingtons forces. After a failed Patriot invasion of Canada, a British army was captured at the Battle of Saratoga in late 1777, a combined American–French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in 1781, effectively ending the war in the United States. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the conflict, confirming the new nations complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada. Among the significant results of the revolution was the creation of a new Constitution of the United States. Historians typically begin their histories of the American Revolution with the British victory in the French and Indian War in 1763, the lands west of Quebec and west of a line running along the crest of the Allegheny mountains became Indian territory, temporarily barred to settlement. For the prior history, see Thirteen Colonies, in 1764, Parliament passed the Currency Act to restrain the use of paper money which British merchants saw as a means to evade debt payments. Parliament also passed the Sugar Act, imposing customs duties on a number of articles, none did and Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March 1765 which imposed direct taxes on the colonies for the first time. All official documents, newspapers, almanacs, and pamphlets—even decks of playing cards—were required to have the stamps, the colonists did not object that the taxes were high, but because they had no representation in the Parliament. Benjamin Franklin testified in Parliament in 1766 that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire, stationing a standing army in Great Britain during peacetime was politically unacceptable. London had to deal with 1,500 politically well-connected British officers who became redundant, in 1765, the Sons of Liberty formed. They used public demonstrations, boycott, violence, and threats of violence to ensure that the British tax laws were unenforceable, in Boston, the Sons of Liberty burned the records of the vice admiralty court and looted the home of chief justice Thomas Hutchinson. Several legislatures called for united action, and nine colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress in New York City in October 1765, moderates led by John Dickinson drew up a Declaration of Rights and Grievances stating that taxes passed without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. Colonists emphasized their determination by boycotting imports of British merchandise, the Parliament at Westminster saw itself as the supreme lawmaking authority throughout all British possessions and thus entitled to levy any tax without colonial approval
35.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Necker, Jacques". Encyclopædia Britannica. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 337–338.
