Speculators in Empire

Speculators in Empire
Author: William J Campbell
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2015-04-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0806147105

At the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the British secured the largest land cession in colonial North America. Crown representatives gained possession of an area claimed but not occupied by the Iroquois that encompassed parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The Iroquois, however, were far from naïve—and the outcome was not an instance of their simply being dispossessed by Europeans. In Speculators in Empire, William J. Campbell examines the diplomacy, land speculation, and empire building that led up to the treaty. His detailed study overturns common assumptions about the roles of the Iroquois and British on the eve of the American Revolution. Through the treaty, the Iroquois directed the expansion of empire in order to serve their own needs while Crown negotiators obtained more territory than they were authorized to accept. How did this questionable transfer happen, who benefited, and at what cost? Campbell unravels complex intercultural negotiations in which colonial officials, land speculators, traders, tribes, and individual Indians pursued a variety of agendas, each side possessing considerable understanding of the other’s expectations and intentions. Historians have credited British Indian superintendent Sir William Johnson with pulling off the land grab, but Campbell shows that Johnson was only one of many players. Johnson’s deputy, George Croghan, used the treaty to capitalize on a lifetime of scheming and speculation. Iroquois leaders and their peoples also benefited substantially. With keen awareness of the workings of the English legal system, they gained protection for their homelands by opening the Ohio country to settlement. Campbell’s navigation of the complexities of Native and British politics and land speculation illuminates a time when regional concerns and personal politicking would have lasting consequences for the continent. As Speculators in Empire shows, colonial and Native history are unavoidably entwined, and even interdependent.

Properties of Empire

Properties of Empire
Author: Ian Saxine
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2019-04-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 147983212X

A fascinating history of a contested frontier, where struggles over landownership brought Native Americans and English colonists together Properties of Empire shows the dynamic relationship between Native and English systems of property on the turbulent edge of Britain’s empire, and how so many colonists came to believe their prosperity depended on acknowledging Indigenous land rights. As absentee land speculators and hardscrabble colonists squabbled over conflicting visions for the frontier, Wabanaki Indians’ unity allowed them to forcefully project their own interpretations of often poorly remembered old land deeds and treaties. The result was the creation of a system of property in Maine that defied English law, and preserved Native power and territory. Eventually, ordinary colonists, dissident speculators, and grasping officials succeeded in undermining and finally destroying this arrangement, a process that took place in councils and courtrooms, in taverns and treaties, and on battlefields. Properties of Empire challenges assumptions about the relationship between Indigenous and imperial property creation in early America, as well as the fixed nature of Indian “sales” of land, revealing the existence of a prolonged struggle to re-interpret seventeenth-century land transactions and treaties well into the eighteenth century. The ongoing struggle to construct a commonly agreed-upon culture of landownership shaped diplomacy, imperial administration, and matters of colonial law in powerful ways, and its legacy remains with us today.

The Empire of Value

The Empire of Value
Author: Andre Orlean
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2023-10-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0262549581

An argument that conceiving of economic value as a social force makes it possible to develop a new and more powerful theory of market behavior. With the advent of the 2007–2008 financial crisis, the economics profession itself entered into a crisis of legitimacy from which it has yet to emerge. Despite the obviousness of their failures, however, economists continue to rely on the same methods and to proceed from the same underlying assumptions. André Orléan challenges the neoclassical paradigm in this book, with a new way of thinking about perhaps its most fundamental concept, economic value. Orléan argues that value is not bound up with labor, or utility, or any other property that preexists market exchange. Economic value, he contends, is a social force whose vast sphere of influence, amounting to a kind of empire, extends to every aspect of economic life. Markets are based on the identification of value with money, and exchange value can only be regarded as a social institution. Financial markets, for example, instead of defining an extrinsic, objective value for securities, act as a mechanism for arriving at a reference price that will be accepted by all investors. What economists must therefore study, Orléan urges, is the hold that value has over individuals and how it shapes their perceptions and behavior. Awarded the prestigious Prix Paul Ricoeur on its original publication in France in 2011, The Empire of Value has been substantially revised and enlarged for this edition, with an entirely new section discussing the financial crisis of 2007–2008.

The Speculation Economy

The Speculation Economy
Author: Lawrence E. Mitchell
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2008-11-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1458722732

The first book to reveal the deep historical roots of the modern corporate obsession with stock price - a major cause of recent scandals like those at Enron and WorldComDetails how the rise of the modern corporation created the modern stock market - and why this led to an economy dominated by stock speculationAmerican companies once focused exclusively on providing the best products and services. But today, most corporations are obsessed with maximizing their stock prices, resulting in short-term thinking and the kind of cook-the-books corruption seen in the Enron and WorldCom scandals. How did this happen?In this groundbreaking book, Lawrence E. Mitchell traces the origins of the problem to the first decade of the 20th century, when industrialists and bankers began merging existing companies into huge ''combines''- today's giant corporations - so they could profit by manufacturing and selling stock in these new entities. He describes and analyzes the legal changes that made this possible, the federal regulatory efforts that missed the significance of this transforming development, and the changes in American society and culture that led more and more Americans to enter the market, turning from relatively safe bonds to riskier common stock in the hopes of becoming rich. Financiers and the corporations they controlled encouraged this trend, but as stock ownership expanded and businesses were increasingly forced to cater to stockholders' ''get rich quick'' expectations, a subtle but revolutionary shift in the nature of the American economy occurred: finance no longer served industry; instead, industry began to serve finance.The Speculation Economy analyzes the history behind the opening of this economic Pandora's box, the root cause of so many modern acts of corporate malfeasance.

Energy and Empire

Energy and Empire
Author: Crosbie Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 906
Release: 1989-10-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780521261739

This study of Lord Kelvin, the most famous mathematical physicist of 19th-century Britain, delivers on a speculation long entertained by historians of science that Victorian physics expressed in its very content the industrial society that produced it.

Empire

Empire
Author: Niall Ferguson
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 681
Release: 2012-10-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0241958512

Niall Ferguson's acclaimed bestseller on the highs and lows of Britain's empire 'A remarkably readable précis of the whole British imperial story - triumphs, deceits, decencies, kindnesses, cruelties and all' Jan Morris Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red and Britannia ruled not just the waves, but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of Arabia. Just how did a small, rainy island in the North Atlantic achieve all this? And why did the empire on which the sun literally never set finally decline and fall? Niall Ferguson's acclaimed Empire brilliantly unfolds the imperial story in all its splendours and its miseries, showing how a gang of buccaneers and gold-diggers planted the seed of the biggest empire in all history - and set the world on the road to modernity. 'The most brilliant British historian of his generation ... Ferguson examines the roles of "pirates, planters, missionaries, mandarins, bankers and bankrupts" in the creation of history's largest empire ... he writes with splendid panache ... and a seemingly effortless, debonair wit' Andrew Roberts 'Dazzling ... wonderfully readable' New York Review of Books 'Empire is a pleasure to read and brims with insights and intelligence' Sunday Times

The Inner Life of Empires

The Inner Life of Empires
Author: Emma Rothschild
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2011-05-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400838169

The birth of the modern world as told through the remarkable story of one eighteenth-century family They were abolitionists, speculators, slave owners, government officials, and occasional politicians. They were observers of the anxieties and dramas of empire. And they were from one family. The Inner Life of Empires tells the intimate history of the Johnstones--four sisters and seven brothers who lived in Scotland and around the globe in the fast-changing eighteenth century. Piecing together their voyages, marriages, debts, and lawsuits, and examining their ideas, sentiments, and values, renowned historian Emma Rothschild illuminates a tumultuous period that created the modern economy, the British Empire, and the philosophical Enlightenment. One of the sisters joined a rebel army, was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, and escaped in disguise in 1746. Her younger brother was a close friend of Adam Smith and David Hume. Another brother was fluent in Persian and Bengali, and married to a celebrated poet. He was the owner of a slave known only as "Bell or Belinda," who journeyed from Calcutta to Virginia, was accused in Scotland of infanticide, and was the last person judged to be a slave by a court in the British isles. In Grenada, India, Jamaica, and Florida, the Johnstones embodied the connections between European, American, and Asian empires. Their family history offers insights into a time when distinctions between the public and private, home and overseas, and slavery and servitude were in constant flux. Based on multiple archives, documents, and letters, The Inner Life of Empires looks at one family's complex story to describe the origins of the modern political, economic, and intellectual world.

The Business of Empire

The Business of Empire
Author: H. V. Bowen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2005-12-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139447882

The Business of Empire assesses the domestic impact of British imperial expansion by analysing what happened in Britain following the East India Company's acquisition of a vast territorial empire in South Asia. Drawing on a mass of hitherto unused material contained in the company's administrative and financial records, the book offers a reconstruction of the inner workings of the company as it made the remarkable transition from business to empire during the late-eighteenth century. H. V. Bowen profiles the company's stockholders and directors and examines how those in London adapted their methods, working practices, and policies to changing circumstances in India. He also explores the company's multifarious interactions with the domestic economy and society, and sheds important new light on its substantial contributions to the development of Britain's imperial state, public finances, military strength, trade and industry. This book will appeal to all those interested in imperial, economic and business history.

Empire of the Stars

Empire of the Stars
Author: Arthur I. Miller
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780618341511

A history of the idea of "black holes" explores the tumultuous debate over the existence of this now well-accepted phenomenon, focusing particular attention on Indian scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

Speculator

Speculator
Author: John Hunt
Publisher: Highground Books
Total Pages:
Release: 2016-09-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9780985933258

"Halfway between Frederick Forsyth's Dogs of War and Ayn Rand's Fountainhead. The gold mine in the jungle, the mercenaries, and the child soldiers keep you turning the pages. A morality tale with modern twists." -John Mackey (Founder, Whole Foods Market and author of Conscious Capitalism) The greatest gold discovery in history draws a young Charles Knight to West Africa, where he unearths deception, violence, and romance. Xander Winn-a Dutchman on his own mission-mentors Charles on his voyage into the world of speculation and African politics. But a psychopathic rebel leader, the purveyors of a six-billion-dollar fraud, a team of mercenaries bent on early retirement, and the US government all get in his way. Everyone wants him dead. But Charles plans to strike it rich. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR SPECULATOR "Speculator uses the cover of a thrilling tale of international intrigue to provide an economic and moral defense of the much-maligned speculator and an economic and moral condemnation of those who profit via force and fraud. Doug Casey and John Hunt have provided an invaluable service to those looking for unique ways to spread the ideas of liberty." -Dr. Ron Paul "Speculator may prove to be the first in a new genre of fiction. Give this book to all your friends and enemies." -John Hart (Author of Redemption Road) "Adventure... intrigue... philosophy... politics... you'll find it all in this fast-paced novel from Doug Casey and John Hunt. Most important, you'll find thoughts - the kind of thoughts that will make you think too." -Bill Bonner (Author of Empire of Debt and Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets) "Speculator will keep you thinking long past the conclusion and for years to come."-Robert Ringer (Author of Looking Out for #1 and Winning Through Intimidation) "Speculator is a roller-coaster lesson on the arcane world of gold-mine investing. An African revolution, massive fraud with massive profits and losses-the novel is such fun you don't notice how much you are learning. But, mostly, it is a good read with a unique protagonist." -Wendy McElroy (Author of Liberty for Women) "Move over John Galt and Humphrey Bogart, Speculator has created an old-fashioned hero with contemporary style and sex appeal. Expert cicerones lead us through the dark world of African mining and international finance. It is a riveting tale, perfect for a day at the beach or a long-winter's-night read. Pure gold." -Richard Harteis (Author of Marathon and Publishing Director of Poets-Choice.com) "Passionately pointed and provocative."-David Brin (Author of Earth and The Postman) "Speculator combines the fast-paced action of a Dirk Pitt adventure story with the cerebral message of an Ayn Rand novel. The authors' knowledge of how markets, mining, and governments work is impressive, yet the book reads like a day at the beach. Crisp, intelligent, and witty, this new adventure series might even out-Rand Rand." -Jo Ann Skousen (Professor of English Literature, Chapman University)